Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1823-1911, graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1847, by which time he was already active in the abolition movement. He actively opposed the Fugitive Slave Law, worked as an agent for the National Kansas Aid Committee, and helped form the Massachusetts State Kansas Aid Committee. In 1854, when a group of abolitionists made a failed attempt to rescue fugitive slave Anthony Burns, Thomas Wentworth Higginson was among the leaders. Five years later, when John Brown was in a Charles Town jail, Higginson attempted to organize a rescue.
During the Civil War, he served as captain of a Massachusetts regiment and later as colonel of a black regiment. In later years, he devoted his energies to literary endeavors.
Further Reading:
Wells, Anna Mary. Dear Preceptor: The Life and Times of Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1963.
