Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Thomas Wentworth Higginson (December 22, 1823 – May 9, 1911), who went by the name Wentworth,[1]: 52 was an American Unitarian minister, author, abolitionist, politician, and soldier. He was active in abolitionism in the United States during the 1840s and 1850s, identifying himself with disunion and militant abolitionism. He was a member of the Secret Six who supported John Brown. During the Civil War, he served as colonel of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, the first federally authorized black regiment, from 1862 to 1864.[2] Following the war, he wrote about his experiences with African-American soldiers and devoted much of the rest of his life to fighting for the rights of freed people, women, and other disfranchised peoples. He is also remembered as a mentor to poet Emily Dickinson.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Edwin B. Hale
December 22, 1823
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
May 9, 1911 (aged 87)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Free Soil (1850–51)
Republican
Democratic (1888)
Minister, author, soldier
Career[edit]
Ministry[edit]
Having graduated from divinity school, Higginson was called as pastor at the First Religious Society of Newburyport, Massachusetts, a Unitarian church known for its liberal Christianity.[12][13] He supported the Essex County Antislavery Society and criticized the poor treatment of workers at Newburyport cotton factories. Additionally, the young minister invited Theodore Parker and fugitive slave William Wells Brown to speak at the church, and in sermons he condemned northern apathy towards slavery. In his role as board member of the Newburyport Lyceum and against the wishes of the majority of the board, Higginson brought Ralph Waldo Emerson to speak.[14] Higginson proved too radical for the congregation and resigned in 1849.[15][16] After that, he lectured on the Lyceum circuit, initially receiving about $15 for each talk (Theodore Parker and Ralph Waldo Emerson could command $25).[17]
