HALE, Edward Everett, 1822-1909, Boston, Massachusetts, clergyman, Unitarian minister, writer, abolitionist leader.  Co-founder of the Freedman’s Aid Society in 1862, which aided African Americans. 

(Adams, 1977; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 325-326; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 32-33, Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 99; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 816)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HALE, Edward Everett, clergyman, b. in Boston, Mass., 3 April, 1822, after studying at the Boston Latin-school, was graduated at Harvard in 1839. He then spent two years as an usher in the Latin-school, and read theology and church history with the Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop and the Rev. John G. Palfrey. In 1842 he was licensed to preach by the Boston association of Congregational ministers, after which he spent several years in ministering to various congregations, passing the winter of 1844-'5 in Washington. His first regular settlement was in 1846 as pastor of the Church of the Unity in Worcester, Mass., where he remained until 1856. In that year he was called to the South Congregational (Unitarian) church in Boston, where he still (1887) remains. Mr. Hale's influence has been extensively felt in all philanthropic movements. His book “Ten Times One is Ten” (Boston, 1870) led to the establishment of clubs devoted to charity, which are now scattered throughout the United States, with chapters in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the islands of the Pacific. These associations have a membership that is supposed to exceed 50,000 in number, and are called “Harry Wadsworth clubs.” They have for their motto: “Look up and not down; look forward and not back; look out and not in; lend a hand.” The “Look-up Legion,” a similar organization among the Sunday-schools, is due to his inspiration, and includes upward of 5,000 members. He also has taken great interest in the Chautauqua literary and scientific circle, of which he is one of the counsellors, and is a frequent contributor to the “Chautauquan.” Mr. Hale has served his college as a member of the board of overseers for successive terms, and has been very active in advancing the interests of Harvard. He has also held the office of president of the ? B K society, and in 1879 received the degree of S. T. D. from Harvard. As a boy he learned to set type in his father's printing-office, and he has served on the “Daily Advertiser” in every capacity from reporter up to editor-in-chief. Before he attained his majority he wrote his full share in the monthly issues of the “Monthly Chronicle” and the “Boston Miscellany.” In later years he edited the “Christian Examiner,” and also the “Sunday-School Gazette.” In 1869 he founded, with the American Unitarian association, “Old and New,” for the purpose of giving wider currency to liberal Christian ideas through the medium of a literary magazine. Six years afterward this journal was merged into “Scribner's Monthly.” In 1886 he again returned to journalism and began the publication of “Lend a Hand; a Record of Progress and Journal of Organized Charity.” As a writer of short stories Mr. Hale has achieved signal distinction. His “My Double, and How he undid Me,” published in the “Atlantic Monthly” in 1859, at once caught the popular fancy. “The Man Without a Country,” published anonymously in the “Atlantic” during 1863, produced a deep impression on the public mind, and has a permanent place among the classic short stories of American writers. His “Skeleton in the Closet” also well known, was contributed to the “Galaxy” in 1866. He has been associated in several literary combinations, among which is “Six of One by Half a Dozen of the Other” (Boston, 1872), a social romance jointly constructed by Harriet B. Stowe, Adeline D. T. Whitney, Lucretia P. Hale, Frederick W. Loring, Frederic B. Perkins, and Mr. Hale himself, its projector. His historical studies began when he was connected with the “Advertiser,” and for six years he was its South American editor, having been led to the study of Spanish and Spanish-American history at a time when he expected to be the reader and amanuensis of William H. Prescott, the historian. Beginning in this way, his studies have increased until he is regarded as an authority on Spanish-American affairs. He has contributed important articles to Justin Winsor's “History of Boston” to his “History of America” to Bryant and Gay's “Popular History of the United States,” and frequent papers to the proceedings of the American antiquarian society. Of the latter, perhaps the most important is his discovery of how California came to be so named. He has edited “Original Documents from the State Paper Office, London, and the British Museum, illustrating the History of Sir W. Raleigh's First American Colony and the Colony at Jamestown, with a Memoir of Sir Ralph Lane” (Boston, 1860), and John Lingard's “History of England” (13 vols., Boston, 1853). Besides the foregoing he has published “The Rosary” (Boston, 1848); “Margaret Percival in America” (1850); “Sketches of Christian History” (1850); “Letters on Irish Emigration” (1852); “Kansas and Nebraska” (1854); “Ninety Days’ Worth of Europe” (1861); with the Rev. John Williams. “The President's Words” (1865); “If, Yes, and Perhaps” (1868); “Puritan Politics in England and New England” (1869); “The Ingham Papers” (1869); “How To Do It” (1870); “His Level Best, and Other Stories” (1870); “Daily Bread, and Other Stories” (1870); “Ups and Downs, an Every-Day Novel” (1871); “Sybaris, and Other Homes” (1871); “Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day” (1874); “In His Name” (1874); “A Summer's Vacation, Four Sermons” (1874); “Workingmen's Homes, Essays and Stories” (1874); “The Good Time Coming, or Our New Crusade” (1875); “One Hundred Years” (1875); “Philip Nolan's Friends” (New York, 1876); “Back to Back” (1877); “Gone to Texas, or the Wonderful Adventures of a Pullman” (Boston, 1877); “What Career?” (1878); “Mrs. Merriam's Scholars” (1878); “The Life in Common” (1879); “The Bible and its Revision” (1879); “The Kingdom of God” (1880); “Crusoe in New York” (1880); “Stories of War” (1880); “June to May” (1881); “Stories of the Sea” (1881); “Stories of Adventure” (1881); “Stories of Discovery” (1883); “Seven Spanish Cities” (1883); “Fortunes of Rachel” (New York, 1884); “Christmas in a Palace” (1884); “Christmas in Narragansett” (1884); “Stories of Invention” (Boston, 1885); “Easter” (1886); “Franklin in France” (1887); “The Life of Washington” (New York, 1887); and “The History of the United States.”—Another brother, Charles, journalist, b. in Boston, Mass., 7 June, 1831; d. there, 1 March, 1882, was graduated at Harvard in 1850, and entered his father's employ as a reporter. In 1852 he began the publication of “To-day, a Boston Literary Journal,” a weekly of which only two volumes were published, and later became junior editor of the “Daily Advertiser.” Meanwhile he also contributed to the “North American Review” and to the “Nautical Almanac.” In 1855 he was chosen to the legislature from one of the Boston districts, and continued be re-elected until 1860, being speaker during his last term, and the youngest man ever chosen that office. From 1864 till 1870 he was U. S. consul-general to Egypt, and it was largely his efforts that John H. Surratt was arrested and sent back to the United States. In 1871 he returned to Boston, and was elected in that to the state senate. He was appointed chairman of the committee on railroads, in which capacity he drew up the general railroad act now in force, and was active in securing its enactment. In 1872-'3 he was assistant secretary of state under Hamilton Fish. He then returned to Boston, began the study of law, and in 1874 was admitted to the bar. In the same year he was again elected to the legislature, and continued to serve in that body for four years. During the latter part of his life he lived in retirement, occupied in literary work, and was much of the time an invalid. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 32-33.

HALE, John Parker, 1806-1873, New Hampshire, statesman, diplomat, lawyer, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator.  Member of the anti-slavery Liberty Party.  President of the Free Soil Party, 1852.  Elected to Congress in 1842, he opposed the 21^st Rule suppressing anti-slavery petition to Congress.  Refused to support the annexation of Texas in 1845.  Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1846, he was the first distinctively anti-slavery Senator.  Adamantly opposed slavery for his 16 years in office.  U.S. Senator, 1847-1853, 1855-1865.  In 1851, served as Counsel in the trial of rescued slave Shadrach.  In 1852, he was nominated for President of the United States, representing the Free Soil Party.  As U.S. Senator, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. 

(Blue, 2005, pp. 8, 35, 51-54, 74, 100-102, 121, 126, 152, 164, 170, 205, 220; Filler, 1960, pp. 187, 189, 213, 247; Goodell, 1852, p. 478; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 20, 28, 29, 33-37, 43-46, 51, 60, 63-65, 68, 72, 254n; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 50, 54, 298; Sorin, 1971, pp. 130, 132; Wilson, 1872, pp. 624-628; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 33-34; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 105; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 862; Congressional Globe)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HALE, John Parker, senator, b. in Rochester, N. H., 31 March, 1806; d. in Dover, N. H., 19 Nov., 1873. He studied at Phillips Exeter academy, and was graduated at Bowdoin in 1827. He began his law studies in Rochester with Jeremiah H. Woodman, and continued them with Daniel M. Christie in Dover, where he was admitted to the bar, 20 Aug., 1830. In March, 1832, he was elected to state house of representatives as a Democrat. On 22 March, 1834, he was appointed U. S. district attorney by President Jackson, was reappointed by President Van Buren, 5 April, 1838, and was removed, 17 June, 1841, by President Tyler on party grounds. On 8 March, 1842, he was elected to congress, and took his seat, 4 Dec., 1843. He opposed the 21st rule suppressing anti-slavery petitions, but supported Polk and Dallas in the presidential canvass of 1844, and was nominated for re-election on a general ticket with three associates. The New Hampshire legislature, 28 Dec., 1844, passed resolutions instructing their representatives to vote for the annexation of Texas, and President Polk, in his message of that year, advocated annexation. On 7 Jan., 1845, Mr. Hale wrote his noted Texas letter, refusing to support annexation. The State convention of his party was re assembled at Concord, 12 Feb., 1845, and under the lead of Franklin Pierce struck Mr. Hale's name from the ticket, and substituted that of John Woodbury. Mr. Hale was supported as an independent candidate. On 11 March, 1845, three Democratic members were elected, but there was no choice of a fourth. Subsequent trials, with the same result, took place 23 Sept. and 29 Nov., 1845, and 10 March, 1846. During the repeated contests, Mr. Hale thoroughly canvassed the state. At his North Church meeting in Concord, 5 June, 1845, Mr. Pierce was called out to reply, and the debate is memorable in the political history of New Hampshire. At the election of 10 March, 1846, the Whigs and Independent Democrats also defeated a choice for governor, and elected a majority of the state legislature. On 3 June, 1846, Mr. Hale was elected speaker; on 5 June, the Whig candidate, Anthony Colby, was elected governor; and on 9 June, Mr. Hale was elected U. S. senator for the term to begin 4 March, 1847. In a letter from John G. Whittier, dated Andover, Mass., 3d mo., 18th, 1846, he says of Mr. Hale: “He has succeeded, and his success has broken the spell which has hitherto held reluctant Democracy in the embraces of slavery. The tide of anti-slavery feeling, long held back by the dams and dykes of party, has at last broken over all barriers, and is washing down from your northern mountains upon the slave-cursed south, as if Niagara stretched its foam and thunder along the whole length of Mason and Dixon's line. Let the first wave of that northern flood, as it dashes against the walls of the capitol, bear thither for the first time an anti- slavery senator.” On 20 Oct., 1847, he was nominated for president by a National liberty convention at Buffalo, with Leicester King, of Ohio, for vice-president, but declined, and supported Mr. Van Buren, who was nominated at the Buffalo convention of 9 Aug., 1848. On 6 Dec., 1847, he took his seat in the senate with thirty-two Democrats and twenty-one Whigs, and remained the only distinctively anti-slavery senator until joined by Salmon P. Chase, 3 Dec., 1849, and by Charles Sumner, 1 Dec., 1851. Mr. Hale began the agitation of the slavery question almost immediately upon his entrance into the senate, and continued it in frequent speeches during his sixteen years of service in that body. He was an orator of handsome person, clear voice, and winning manners, and his speeches were replete with humor and pathos. His success was due to his powers of natural oratory, which, being exerted against American chattel - slavery, seldom failed to arouse sympathetic sentiments in his audiences. Mr. Hale opposed flogging and the spirit-ration in the navy, and secured the abolition of the former by law of 28 Sept., 1850, and of the latter by law of 14 July, 1862. He served as counsel in 1851 in the important trials that arose out of the forcible rescue of the fugitive slave Shadrach from the custody of the U. S. marshal in Boston. In 1852 he was nominated at Pittsburg, Pa., by the Free-soil party for president, with George W. Julian as vice-president, and they received 157,685 votes. His first senatorial term ended, and he was succeeded by Charles G. Atherton, a Democrat, on 4 March, 1853, on which day Franklin Pierce was inaugurated president. The following winter Mr. Hale began practising law in New York city. But the repeal of the Missouri compromise measures again overthrew the Democrats of New Hampshire; they failed duly to elect U. S. senators in the legislature of June, 1854, and in March, 1855, they completely lost the state. On 13 June, 1855, James Bell, a Whig, was elected U. S. senator for six years from 3 March, 1855, and Mr. Hale was chosen for the four years of the unexpired term of Mr. Atherton, deceased. On 9 June, 1858, he was re-elected for a full term of six years, which ended on 4 March, 1865. On 10 March, 1865, he was commissioned minister to Spain, and went immediately to Madrid. Mr. Hale was recalled in due course, 5 April, 1869, took leave, 29 July, 1869, and returned home in the summer of 1870. Mr. Hale without sufficient cause, attributed his recall to a quarrel between himself and Horatio J. Perry, his secretary of legation, in the course of which a charge had been made that Mr. Hale's privilege, as minister, of importing free of duty merchandize for his official or personal use, had been exceeded and some goods put upon the market and sold. Mr. Hale's answer was, that he had been misled by a commission-merchant, instigated by Mr. Perry. The latter was removed 28 June, 1869. Mr. Hale had been one of the victims of the “National hotel disease,” and his physical and mental faculties were much impaired for several years before his death. Immediately upon his arrival home he was prostrated by paralysis, and shortly afterward received a fracture of one of the small bones of the leg when thrown down by a runaway horse. In the summer of 1873 his condition was further aggravated by a fall that dislocated his hip. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 33-34.

Chapter: “Vermont and Massachusetts. --John P. Hale. -- Cassius M. Clay,” by Henry Wilson, in History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 1872.

While the struggle for the annexation of Texas by Joint Resolution was in progress, the friends of that measure left no means untried which political chicanery or menace could suggest. The President elect made no concealment of his purpose; and it was distinctly understood that those Democrats who opposed the measure had little to expect from his administration. Even those in New York who had signed the secret circular which alone made Mr. Polk's election possible were soon made to feel the force of that displeasure which the Slave Power usually inflicted on those who resisted its authority. 

But its immediate and most marked demonstration was in New Hampshire, and John P. Hale was its first victim. Though at first successful, its ultimate results were disastrous to the cause and party which prompted it. For it placed Mr. Hale in a far more commanding position than he had ever occupied before, and gave his ready tongue a voice and an audience it could never otherwise have obtained, besides affording an example of successful resistance to partisan tyranny and slaveholding dictation greatly damaging to their pretentious and hitherto unquestioned supremacy.

Mr. Hale, then a member of the House of Representatives, had been nominated by the Democratic Party for re-election. But he had not, like the great body of that party, forgotten its strong anti-Texas testimonies; nor would he, at the bidding of the convention which overslaughed Mr. Van Buren and nominated Mr. Polk; or in the hope of the prospective patronage of the incoming administration, disown that record, and applaud what a few short weeks before had been so vociferously condemned.

Compelled to define his position, he did not hesitate to reaffirm his opposition to the scheme, and to vote against it, though he regarded that declaration and vote as his political death-warrant; a martyrdom from which he evidently expected no resurrection. Indeed, he at once made his arrangements to retire from public life, and to resume his profession in the city of New York; a purpose from which he was with some difficulty dissuaded.

What he apprehended soon transpired. Such honesty of purpose, such fealty to right, such contumacy to party discipline could not be tolerated in the ranks of the exacting Democracy of that State. Early in January Mr. Hale addressed to his constituents a letter on the annexation of Texas. It was an earnest and unequivocal condemnation of the scheme. The reasons given by its advocates in support of the measure he declared to be "eminently calculated to provoke the scorn of earth and the judgment of Heaven "; and he avowed that he could never consent, by any agency of his, to place the country in the attitude of annexing a foreign nation for the avowed purpose of sustaining and perpetuating slavery.

At once the leading Democratic presses of New Hampshire and of the country opened upon him a war of denunciation, calling upon his constituents to rebuke and silence him. The Democratic State Committee immediately issued a call for a convention at Concord on the 12th of February. Franklin Pierce, who had been distinguished in Congress for his fidelity to the Slave Power, addressed the meeting, sharply and bitterly criticising this independent action of Mr. Hale, and defending the policy of annexation. He admitted that he would rather have Texas annexed as free territory, but he exclaimed, "Give it to us with slavery, rather than not have it, and have it now." And such an avowal was consistently applauded by the same convention which had just voted down, by "an emphatic No," the proposition that the meeting should be opened with prayer.

Stephen S. Foster, being present, inquired if he might be permitted “to set the speaker right in a few of his misstatements." A violent clamor at once arose against permission. The chairman decided that none but delegates could speak; and Mr. Foster took his seat, with the declaration: " I consider myself, in common with every man in the house, insulted by the remarks of the gentleman who has just taken his seat." And that convention of the same party which had a few months before pronounced against the annexation scheme, and whose chief organ had declared it to be “black as ink and bitter as hell," at once changed front on this very issue, and by a unanimous vote struck Mr. Hale's name from the ticket on which it had so recently inscribed it, and placed in its stead that of an obscure politician.

But many of Mr. Hale's constituents were more hopeful than their leader; at least, they were less resigned and less disposed to submit to defeat and death. Under the lead of Amos Tuck, who had already taken an active part in giving expression and direction to the popular disfavor against such high-handed tyranny, they at once prepared for action. In consequence of 'their earnest and vigorous proceedings, even without much aid from Mr. Hale, who deemed all resistance to the decrees of the party hopeless, the Democratic candidate lacked a thousand votes of a majority. While this result surprised and exasperated the Democratic leaders, it greatly encouraged Mr. Hale and his friends. Stimulated by their success, and continuing the struggle with increased determination and vigor, they established at the State capital the “Independent Democrat," under the editorial control of George G. Fogg. It was conducted with signal ability and tact, rendered essential service, and contributed largely to the triumph of this first successful revolt against the iron despotism of the Slave Power.

In the next election Mr. Hale participated. He canvassed the State, delivering speeches, in which he brought into full play the capacities and characteristics of his peculiar, versatile, and popular eloquence. Great excitement pervaded the State, and crowds thronged to hear him. But the Democratic leaders were indignant at his continued contumacy, and deeply chagrined at his manifest success with the people. These feelings found voice at a meeting held at the capital the first week of June. During that week the legislature commenced its session, and the religious and benevolent associations of the State held their anniversaries. Mr. Hale was expected to address a meeting at the Old North Church. Unwilling that his speech should be heard, as it probably would be, by the political and religious representatives of the State then assembled, the Democratic leaders determined that it should be replied to on the spot. Franklin Pierce was selected for that purpose. Aware that he was addressing many men of large intelligence and influence, and that his words would be sharply criticised by him under whose lead his name had been stricken from the ticket, Mr. Hale spoke with calmness, dignity, and effect. Those who listened to him could not but feel, whether they agreed with him or not, that he had been actuated by conscientious convictions and a high sense of public duty.

Mr. Pierce had noted, with the quick instincts of an adroit politician, the marked effects produced by Mr. Hale's manly and temperate vindication of his principles and position. Evidently in a towering passion, he spoke under the deepest excitement. He was domineering and insulting in manner, and bitter and sarcastic in the tone and tenor of his remarks. Mr. Hale replied briefly, but pertinently and effectively. He closed his triumphant vindication of his motives, opinions, and purposes against the aspersions of his bitter enemy with these words: “I expected to be called ambitious, to have my name cast out as evil, to be traduced and misrepresented. I have not been disappointed. But if things have come to this condition, that conscience and a sacred regard for truth and duty are to be publicly held up to ridicule, and scouted at 'Without rebuke, as has just been done here, it matters little whether we are annexed to Texas or Texas is annexed to us. I may be permitted to say that the measure of my ambition will be full if my earthly career shall be finished and my bones are laid beneath the soil of New Hampshire, and, when my wife and children shall repair to my grave to drop the tear of affection to my memory, they may read on my tombstone: 'He who lies beneath surrendered office and place and power, rather than bow down and worship slavery.' "

At the second election the Democratic candidate lacked some fifteen hundred votes necessary to an election. Several other attempts were made, in which the “Independent Democrats," though they failed of electing their own, succeeded in defeating the Democratic candidate, and in holding the balance of power. In the election of 1846, Mr. Hale was chosen a member of the legislature, was made Speaker, and subsequently elected to the Senate of the United States. The State was then subdivided into congressional districts, and Mr. Tuck was nominated to fill the seat Mr. Hale had occupied in the national House of Representatives. As a majority of votes was necessary for an election, no choice was effected during the whole of the XXIXth Congress. But in July, 1847, by a coalition between the Whigs and " Independent Democrats “in the first and third districts, Mr. Tuck was chosen in the former and General James Wilson in the latter. Mr. Tuck served six years in Congress, and made an honorable record. His chief distinction, and perhaps his chief service, however, grew out of his bold and wise leadership in that first and successful assault upon the party which had for years controlled the State with iron sway; beating down the very Gibraltar of the Northern Democracy, and making it one of the leading and most reliable States in opposition to the Slave Power.

And if merit is due to any actors in the great struggle now under review, surely no inconsiderable share belongs to those who, in that dark night, dared to beard the lion in his Northern lair, and strike for freedom with the odds so fearfully against them. Nor is the nation's debt of gratitude to Mr. Hale small for his long, brave fight in the Senate, against the scorn and contumely of the slaveholding majority. For if he did not then proclaim the full and perfect evangel of liberty, his was certainly the voice of one crying in the wilderness, preparing the way of complete deliverance. As his successful resistance to party and slaveholding tyranny broke the spell of its assumed invincibility, and encouraged others to go and I do likewise, so his ready eloquence and wit, his brilliant repartee and unfailing good-humor, did much to familiarize the country with the subject, and to call attention to its facts and principles, which perhaps a sterner advocate would have failed to effect.

Source:  Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 1.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, 624-628.

HALL, Robert Bernard, 1812-1868, Episcopal clergyman, member of the Massachusetts State Senate, U.S. Congressman, 1855-1859, one of twelve founders of the New England Anti-Slavery Society in Boston in 1832 and the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia in 1832 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 43; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 315)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HALL, Robert Bernard, clergyman, b. in Boston, Mass., 28 Jan., 1812; d. in Plymouth, Mass., 15 April, 1868. He entered the Boston public Latin-school in 1822, and studied theology at New Haven in 1833-'4. He was ordained to the ministry of the orthodox Congregational church, but afterward became an Episcopalian. In 1855 he was a member of the Massachusetts senate and was elected to congress in 1855 on the Know-Nothing ticket, and again in 1857 on the Republican ticket. He was a delegate to the Union convention in Philadelphia in 1866. Mr. Hall was one of the twelve founders of the New England anti-slavery society in Boston in January, 1832, and was one of the founders of the American antislavery society in Philadelphia in December, 1833. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Iowa central college in 1858.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 43.

HALLOWELL, Richard Price, 1835-1904, merchant, reformer, ardent abolitionist, women’s rights advocate.  Follower of Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison. 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 52; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 160)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HALLOWELL, Richard Price, merchant, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 16 Dec., 1835. He studied for two years at Haverford college, in 1859 removed to West Medford, Mass., and during the same year began business in Boston as a wool-merchant. He was identified with the abolition movement led by Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison, and during the civil war was made a special agent by Gov. John A. Andrew, of Massachusetts, to recruit for the negro regiments. Mr. Hallowell is treasurer of the Free religious association, and vice-president of the New England woman suffrage association. He has contributed many articles to the “Index,” and has published “The Quaker Invasion of Massachusetts” (Boston, 1883) and “The Pioneer Quakers” (1887). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 160-161.

HAMILTON, Alexander, 1757-1804, founding father, statesman, first Secretary of the Treasury, anti-slavery activist, second President of the New York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, founded in 1785.

(Zilversmit, 1967, p. 166; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 56-60; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 171; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 905; Encylopaedia Americana, 1830, Vol. VI, pp. 152-153)

HAMLIN, Hannibal, 1809-1891. Vice President of the United States, 1861-1865, under President Abraham Lincoln.  Congressman from Maine, 1843-1847.  U.S. Senator from Maine, 1848-1857, 1857-1861, and 1869-1881.  Governor of Maine, January-February 1857.  In February 1857, he resigned as Governor of Maine to return to the U.S. Senate.  In 1861, he was elected U.S. Vice President.  Was an adamant opponent of the extension of slavery into the new territories.  Supported the Wilmot Proviso and spoke against the compromise laws of 1850.  Strongly opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Act.  Early founding member of the Republican Party.  Supported Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and creation of Black regiments for the Union Army.

(Harry Draper Hunt (1969). Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, Lincoln's first Vice-President. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-2142-3. OCLC 24587.   Charles Eugene Hamlin (1899). The Life and Times of Hannibal Hamlin. Syracuse University Press. OCLC 1559174; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 65-66; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 196)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HAMLIN, Hannibal, statesman, b. in Paris, Oxford co., Me., 27 Aug., 1809; d. in Bangor, Me., 4 July, 1891. He prepared for college, but was compelled by the death of his father to take charge of the farm until he was of age. He learned printing, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1833, and practised in Hampden, Penobscot co., until 1848. He was a member of the legislature from 1836 till 1840, and again in 1847, and was speaker of the lower branch in 1837-'9 and 1840. In 1840 he received the Democratic nomination for member of congress, and, during the exciting Harrison campaign, held joint discussions with his competitor, being the first to introduce that practice into Maine. In 1842 he was elected as a Democrat to congress, and re-elected in 1844. He was chosen to the U. S. senate for four years in 1848, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of John Fairfield, and was re-elected in 1851, but resigned in 1857 to be inaugurated governor, having been elected to that office as a Republican. Less than a month afterward, on 20 Feb., he resigned the governorship, as he had again been chosen U. S. senator for the full term of six years. He served until January, 1861, when he resigned, having been elected vice-president on the ticket with Abraham Lincoln. He presided over the senate from 4 March, 1861, till 3 March, 1865. In the latter year he was appointed collector of the port of Boston, but resigned in 1866. From 1861 till 1865 he had also acted as regent of the Smithsonian institution, and was reappointed in 1870, continuing to act for the following twelve years, during which time he became dean of the board. He was again elected and re-elected to the U. S. senate, serving from 4 March, 1869, till 3 March, 1881. In June of that year he was named minister to Spain, but gave up the office the year following and returned to this country. He received the degree of LL. D. from Colby university, then Waterville college, of which institution he was trustee for over twenty years. Senator Hamlin, although a Democrat, was an original anti-slavery man, and so strong were his convictions that they finally led to his separation from that party. Among the significant incidents of his long career of nearly fifty years may be mentioned the fact that, in the temporary and involuntary absence of David Wilmot from the house of representatives, during the session of the 29th congress, at the critical moment when the measure, since known as “the Wilmot proviso,” had to be presented or the opportunity irrevocably lost, Mr. Hamlin, while his anti-slavery friends were in the greatest confusion and perplexity, seeing that only a second's delay would be fatal, offered the bill and secured its passage by a vote of 115 to 106. In common, however, with Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Hamlin strove simply to prevent the extension of slavery into new territory, and did not seek to secure its abolition. In a speech in the U. S. senate, 12 June, 1856, in which he gave his reasons for changing his party allegiance, he thus referred to the Democratic convention then recently held at Cincinnati: “The convention has actually incorporated into the platform of the Democratic party that doctrine which, only a few years ago, met with nothing but ridicule and contempt here and elsewhere, namely, that the flag of the Federal Union, under the constitution of the United States, carries slavery wherever it floats. If this baleful principle be true, then that national ode, which inspires us always as on a battle-field, should be re-written by Drake, and should read: 

‘Forever float that standard sheet!  

    Where breathes the foe but falls before us, 

With slavery's soil beneath our feet,   

    And slavery's banner streaming o'er us.’” 

When he had been elected vice-president on the ticket with Mr. Lincoln, he accepted an invitation to meet the latter at Chicago, and, calling on the president-elect, found him in a room alone. Mr. Lincoln arose, and, coming toward his guest, said abruptly: “Have we ever been introduced to each other, Mr. Hamlin?” “No, sir, I think not,” was the reply. “That also is my impression,” continued Mr. Lincoln; "but I remember distinctly while I was in congress to have heard you make a speech in the senate. I was very much struck with that speech, senator— particularly struck with it—and for the reason that it was filled, chock up, with the very best kind of anti-slavery doctrine.” “Well, now,” replied Hamlin, laughing, “that is very singular, for my one and first recollection of yourself is of having heard you make a speech in the house—a speech that was so full of good humor and sharp points that I, together with others of your auditors, was convulsed with laughter.” The acquaintance, thus cordially begun, ripened into a close friendship, and it is affirmed that during all the years of trial, war, and bloodshed that followed, Abraham Lincoln continued to repose the utmost confidence in his friend and official associate. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.

HANWAY, Castner

See also CHRISTIANA INCIDENT/RIOT

HARRISON, Thomas, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, abolitionist leader, co-founder and leader of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, founded 1775, Electing Committee, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1787

(Basker, 2005, pp. 80, 92; Locke, 1901, pp. 133, 133n; Nash, 1991, pp. 80, 115, 117, 123-124, 130-131, 163)

HASTINGS, Samuel D, 1816-1903, Massachusetts, abolitionist, reformer, businessman.  As a Wisconsin state assemblyman in 1849, Hastings introduced bills to oppose slavery, particularly the admission of new slave states.  (Dictionary of Wisconsin History, Wisconsin Historical Society)

HAWKS, John Milton, 1826-1910, Manchester, New Hampshire, physician, abolitionist.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1859-1864.  Aided freedmen during and after the Civil War.  Advocate of enlisting African Americans for the Union Army.

HAWLEY, Joseph Roswell, 1826-1905, statesman, clergyman, lawyer, editor, opponent of slavery, Union officer.  Member of the Free Soil Party.  Co-founder of the Republican Party.  Chairman of Connecticut Free Soil State Committee.  He opposed pro-slavery Know-Nothing Party and aided in anti-slavery organizing.  Helped organize and found the Republican Party in 1856.  In 1857, became editor of the Republican newspaper, Evening Press in Hartford.  Enlisted in the Union Army, rising to the rank of Brigadier General, commanding both a division and a brigade. 

(Appletons, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 123-124; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 421; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 351)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HAWLEY, Joseph Roswell, statesman, b. in Stewartsville, N. C., 31 Oct., 1826. He is of English-Scotch ancestry. His father, Rev. Francis Hawley (descended from Samuel, who settled in Stratford, Conn., in 1639), was b. in Farmington, Conn. He went south early and engaged in business, but afterward entered the Baptist ministry. He married Mary McLeod, a native of North Carolina, of Scotch parentage, and the family went to Connecticut in 1837, where the father was an active anti-slavery man. The son prepared for college at the Hartford grammar-school and the seminary in Cazenovia. N. Y., whither the family removed about 1842. He was graduated at Hamilton in 1847, with a high reputation as a speaker and debater. He taught in the winters, studied law at Cazenovia and Hartford, and began practice in 1850. He immediately became chairman of the Free-soil state committee, wrote for the Free-soil press, and spoke in every canvass. He stoutly opposed the Know-Nothings, and devoted his energies to the union of all opponents of slavery. The first meeting for the organization of the Republican party in Connecticut was held in his office, at his call, 4 Feb., 1856. Among those present were Gideon Welles and John M. Niles. Mr. Hawley gave three months to speaking in the Frémont canvass of 1856. In February, 1857, he abandoned law practice, and became editor of the Hartford “Evening Press,” the new distinctively Republican paper. His partner was William Faxon, afterward assistant secretary of the navy. He responded to the first call for troops in 1861 by drawing up a form of enlistment, and, assisted by Drake, afterward colonel of the 10th regiment, raising rifle company A, 1st Connecticut volunteers, which was organized and accepted in twenty-four hours, Hawley having personally engaged rifles at Sharp's factory. He became the captain, and is said to have been the first volunteer in the state. He received special praise for good conduct at Bull Run from Gen. Erastus D. Keyes, brigade commander. He directly united with Col. Alfred H. Terry in raising the 7th Connecticut volunteers, a three years' regiment, of which he was lieutenant-colonel. It went south in the Port Royal expedition, and on the capture of the forts was the first sent ashore as a garrison. It was engaged four months in the siege of Fort Pulaski, and upon the surrender was selected as the garrison. Hawley succeeded Terry, and commanded the regiment in the battles of James Island and Pocotaligo, and in Brannan's expedition to Florida. He went with his regiment to Florida, in January, 1863, and commanded the post of Fernandina, whence in April he undertook an unsuccessful expedition against Charleston. He also commanded a brigade on Morris Island in the siege of Charleston and the capture of Fort Wagner. In February, 1864, he had a brigade under Gen. Truman Seymour in the battle of Olustee, Fla., where the whole National force lost 38 per cent. His regiment was one of the few that were armed with the Spencer breech-loading rifle. This weapon, which he procured in the autumn of 1863, proved very effective in the hands of his men. He went to Virginia in April, 1864, having a brigade in Terry's division, 10th corps, Army of the James, and was in the battles of Drewry's Bluff, Deep Run, Derbytown Road, and various affairs near Bermuda Hundred and Deep Bottom. He commanded a division in the fight on the Newmarket road, and engaged in the siege of Petersburg. In September, 1864, he was made a brigadier-general, having been repeatedly recommended by his immediate superiors. In November, 1864, he commanded a picked brigade sent to New York city to keep the peace during the week of the presidential election. He succeeded to Terry's division when Terry was sent to Fort Fisher in January, 1865, afterward rejoining him as chief of staff, 10th corps, and on the capture of Wilmington was detached by Gen. Schofield to establish a base of supplies there for Sherman's army, and command southeastern North Carolina. In June he rejoined Terry as chief of staff for the Department of Virginia. In October he went home, was brevetted major-general, and was mustered out, 15 Jan., 1866. In April, 1866, he was elected governor of Connecticut, but he was defeated in 1867, and then, having united the “Press” and the “Courant,” he resumed editorial life, and more vigorously than ever entered the political contests following the war. He was always in demand as a speaker throughout the country. He was president of the National Republican convention in 1868, secretary of the committee on resolutions in 1872, and chairman of that committee in 1876. He earnestly opposed paper money theories. In November, 1872, he was elected to fill a vacancy in congress caused by the death of Julius L. Strong. He was re-elected to the 43d congress, defeated for the 44th and 45th, and re-elected to the 46th (1879-'81). He was elected senator in January, 1881, by the unanimous vote of his party, and re-elected in like manner in 1887 and 1893 for the term ending 4 March, 1899. In the house he served on the committees on claims, banking and currency, military affairs, and appropriations; in the senate, on the committees on coast defences, railroads, printing, and military affairs. He is chairman of the committee on civil service, and vigorously promoted the enactment of civil-service-reform legislation. He was also chairman of a select committee on ordnance and war-ships, and submitted a long and valuable report, the result of careful investigation into steel production and heavy gun-making in England and the United States. In the National convention of 1884 the Connecticut delegation unanimously voted for him for president in every ballot. He was president of the U. S. centennial commission from its organization in 1872 until the close of its labors in 1877, gave two years exclusively to the work, was ex-officio member of its committees, and appointed all save the executive. He received the degree of LL. D. from Hamilton in 1875, and from Yale in 1886. Of the former institution he is a trustee. Ecclesiastically he is a Congregationalist. Gen. Hawley is an ardent Republican, one of the most acceptable extemporary orators in the republic, a believer in universal suffrage, the American people and the “American way,” is a “hard-money” man, would adjust the tariff so as to benefit native industries, urges the reconstruction of our naval and coast defences, demands a free ballot and a fair count everywhere, opposes the tendency to federal centralization, and is a strict constructionist of the constitution in favor of the rights and dignity of the individual states. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 123-124.

HAYES, Rutherford Birchard, 1822-1893, Delaware, Ohio,, 19^th President of the United States, 1877-1881.  Governor of Ohio, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1865-1867, abolitionist, lawyer, soldier.  Defended fugitive slaves in pre-Civil War court cases.  His wife, Lucy, Webb, was also an abolitionist.  Early member of the Republican Party.  Served with distinction as an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War. 

(Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 134-143)   

HAYNE-WEBSTER DEBATE (1830)

HAZARD, Rowland Gibson, 1801-1888, author.  State Senator, Rhode Island.  Freed captured African Americans in New Orleans. 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 149; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 471)

HAZARD, Thomas (“College Tom”), 1720-1798, Rhode Island, Society of Friends, Quaker, early abolitionist leader

(Drake, 1950, pp. 50, 89, 97, 191; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 149; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 472; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 419-420)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HAZARD, Thomas Robinson, author, b. in South Kingston, R. I., in 1784; d. in New York in March, 1876. He was educated at the Friends' school in Westtown, Chester co., Pa., and subsequently engaged in farming, and assisted his father in the woollen business. He then established a woollen mill at Peacedale, R. I., and acquired a fortune. In 1836 he purchased an estate at Vaucluse, R. I., and in 1840 retired from his manufacturing business. He caused many reforms to be introduced in the management of insane asylums and poor-houses in Rhode Island. He was, for years preceding his death, an enthusiastic spiritualist, and wrote much in support of their views. He is the author of “Facts for the Laboring Man” (1840); “Capital Punishment” (1850); “Report on the Poor and Insane” (1850); “Handbook of the National American Party” (1856); “Appeal to the People of Rhode Island” (1857); and “Ordeal of Life” (Boston, 1870). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 149.

HELPER, Hinton Rowan, 1829-1909, North Carolina, abolitionist leader, diplomat, writer.  Wrote anti-slavery book, The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It, 1857.  It argued that slavery was bad for the South and its economy.  The book was banned from distribution in the South.

(Dumond, 1961, p. 353; Mabee, 1970, pp. 196, 197, 219, 240, 327; Pease, 1965, pp. 163-172; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 60, 63, 114, 225-226, 333-334, 426, 682-684; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 161-162; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 517; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 420-422; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 542)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HELPER, Hinton Rowan, author, b. near Mocskville, Davie co., N. C., 27 Dec., 1829. He was graduated at Mocksville academy in 1848. In 1851 he went to California by way of Cape Horn, and spent nearly three years on the Pacific coast. He was appointed U. S. consul at Buenos Ayres, Argentine Republic, in 1861, and held this office until 1867. In 1867 he returned to Asheville, N. C., where he resided until he settled in New York. He has travelled extensively through North, South, and Central America, in Europe, and also in Africa. He is the projector of the “Three Americas Railway,” which he proposes shall eventually form one connected line from Bering strait to the Strait of Magellan. He was the originator and efficient promotor of the commercial commission from the United States to Central and South America. Mr. Helper was brought into notice just before the civil war by his “Impending Crisis of the South” (New York, 1857). In this book he earnestly opposed slavery on economical grounds, although he was not friendly to the colored race. The work was used by the Republican party as a campaign document in 1860, and 140,000 copies were sold between 1857 and 1861. His other works are “The Land of Gold” (Baltimore, 1855); “Nojoque, a Question for a Continent” (New York and London, 1867); “The Negroes in Negroland, the Negroes in America, and the Negroes Generally” (New York, 1868); and “The Three Americas Railway” (St. Louis, 1881). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 161-162.

HENRY, Patrick, 1736-1799, Virginia, statesman, founding father, opponent of slavery.  Henry wrote in 1773: “I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them [slaves].  I will not, I can not justify it.  However culpable my conduct, I will so far pay my devoir to virtue, as to own the excellence and rectitude of her precepts, and to lament my own want of conformity to them.” 

(Bruns, 1977, pp. 221, 310, 348-350, 382-383, 389, 508; Drake, 1950, pp. 71, 83, 85; Mason, 2006, pp. 21, 250n140, 250n147, 293-294n157; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 95, 152; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 173-175; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 544; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 615)

HEPBURN, John, Society of Friends, Quaker, early anti-slavery activist, promoted colonization project as early as 1715.  Wrote that slavery was “anti-Christian and vile.”  Wrote The American Defense of the Golden Rule, or An Essay to Prove the Unlawfulness of Making Slaves of Men, 1715. 

(Bruns, 1977, pp. 16-31; Drake, 1950, pp. 34-36, 38, 121; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 12, 94; Zilversmit, 1967, p. 66)

HERMOSA CASE (1840)

HEYWOOD, Ezra Hervey, 1829-1893, abolitionist, temperance activist, women’s rights advocate.  Member of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.  Follower of William Lloyd Garrison.

(American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 727; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 428-429; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 609)

HICKS, Elias, 1748-1830, clergyman, abolitionist leader, author.  Long Island farmer.  Society of Friends, Quaker minister. Founder of Hicksite sect of Quakerism, which believed in a radical form of abolitionism.

(Drake, 1950, pp. 116-118, 120, 155, 160; Hicks, 1861; Pease, 1965, pp. 143-148; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 195-196; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 6; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 430-431; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 744)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HICKS, Elias, minister of the Society of Friends, b. in Hempstead, N. Y., 19 March, 1748; d. in Jericho, N. Y., 27 Feb., 1830. His youth was passed in carelessness and indifference to religious subjects, but not without frequent checks of conscience for his neglect of duty. At the age of about twenty years the subject of religion deeply affected his mind, and wrought a thorough change in his conduct. He became interested in the principles and testimonies of the society of which he was a member, and when about twenty-seven years of age he began his ministry, soon became an acknowledged minister of the society, and for more than fifty years labored with unwearied diligence. He travelled through almost every state in the Union, and also through Canada several times, and, notwithstanding the fact that his circumstances were not affluent, he never received the least compensation for his services. When not engaged in religious service, he was diligently occupied with his own hands upon his farm. He was in early life deeply impressed with the injustice and cruelty of keeping slaves, and was among the first that brought the subject frequently and forcibly before his religious society. Not only in his public discourses, but also by his pen, his views on this subject widely diffused themselves throughout the community, and through his exertions, conjoined with those of other philanthropists, the state of New York was induced to pass the act that on 4 July, 1827, gave freedom to every slave within its limits. As a preacher he was lucid and powerful, and wielded an influence that has been scarcely attained by any other member of his society. The prominent theme of his ministry was “obedience to the light within,” which he considered as the foundation of true Quakerism. In the latter years of his life he gave ground for uneasiness to some of the society by his views concerning the dogmatic opinions of theologians concerning the pre-existence, deity, incarnation, and vicarious atonement of Christ. He considered that the personality of the meek, wise, majestic prophet of Galilee was overlaid with theological verbiage and technicality, which greatly impaired its practical value and authority as an example to mankind. Hicks's ministry was marked by much dignity and power. Notwithstanding his pure, blameless, and upright walk among men, his doctrinal views became the cause of dissatisfaction, which led to a separation in all, or nearly all, the yearly meetings on the continent, his friends and supporters in most of the yearly meetings being largely in the majority. The contest was conducted with much acrimony, which, to the credit of all concerned, is rapidly passing away. Those members of the society that adhere to the teachings of Elias Hicks are commonly known as “Hicksites,” a name that was originally given in derision, but they recognize no other name than that of “Friends.” Mr. Hicks published “Observations on Slavery” (New York, 1811); “Sermons” (1828); “Elias Hicks's Journal of his Life and Labors” (Philadelphia, 1828); and “The Letters of Elias Hicks” (1834). See also Samuel M. Janney's “History of the Religious Society of the Friends” (1859). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 195-196.

HIGGINSON, Thomas Wentworth Storrow, 1823-1911, author, editor, Unitarian clergyman, radical abolitionist, women’s rights advocate, secretly supported radical abolitionist John Brown, and his raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, (West) Virginia, on October 16, 1859.  Served as a Colonel in the 1^st South Carolina Volunteers, the first African American regiment formed under the Federal Government. 

(Edelstein, 1968; Mabee, 1970, pp. 309, 312, 318, 319, 321, 336, 345, 377; Renehan, 1995; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 138, 207, 327, 337-338, 478-479; Rossbach, 1982; Sernett, 2002, pp. 205, 208, 211, 213, 325-326n3; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 199; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 16; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 431-434; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 757; Wells, Anna Mary. Dear Preceptor… 1963.  Higginson, Thomas, Army Life in a Black Regiment, 1870)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HIGGINSON, Thomas Wentworth, author, b. in Cambridge, Mass., 22 Dec., 1823, was graduated at Harvard in 1841 and at the divinity-school in 1847, and in the same year was ordained pastor of the 1st Congregational church in Newburyport, Mass. He left this church on account of anti-slavery preaching in 1850, and in the same year was an unsuccessful Free-soil candidate for congress. He was then pastor of a free church in Worcester, Mass., from 1852 till 1858, when he left the ministry, and devoted himself to literature. He had been active in the anti- slavery agitation of this period, and for his part in the attempted rescue of a fugitive slave (see BURNS, ANTHONY) was indicted for murder with Theodore Parker, Wendell Phillips, and others, but was discharged through a flaw in the indictment. He also aided in the organization of parties of free-state emigrants to Kansas in 1856, was personally acquainted with John Brown, and served as brigadier-general on James H. Lane's staff in the free-state forces. He became captain in the 51st Massachusetts regiment, 25 Sept., 1862, and on 10 Nov. was made colonel of the 1st South Carolina volunteers (afterward called the 33d U.S. colored troops), the first regiment of freed slaves mustered into the national service. He took and held Jacksonville, Fla., but was wounded at Wiltown Bluff, S. C., in August, 1863, and in October, 1864, resigned on account of disability. He then engaged in literature at Newport, R. I., till 1878, and afterward at Cambridge, Mass., where he has since resided. He is an earnest advocate of woman suffrage, and of the higher education for both sexes. He was a member of the Massachusetts legislature in 1880 and 1881, serving as chief of staff to the governor during the same time, and in 1881-'3 was a member of the state board of education. He is the author of “Out-door Papers” (Boston, 1863); “Malbone, an Old port Romance” (1869); “Army Life in a Black Regiment” (1870; French translation by Madame de Gasparin, 1884); “Atlantic Essays” (1871); “The Sympathy of Religions” (1871); “Old port Days” (1873); “Young Folks' History of the United States” (1875; French translation, 1875; German translation, Stuttgart, 1876); “History of Education in Rhode Island” (1876); “Young Folks' Book of American Explorers” (1877); “Short Studies of American Authors” (1879); “Common-Sense about Women” (1881); “Life of Margaret Fuller Ossoli” (“American Men of Letters” series, 1884); “Larger History of the United States” (New York, 1885); “The Monarch of Dreams” (1886); “Hints on Writing and Speech-making” (1887); “Women and Men” (1888); “The Afternoon Landscape” (poems, 1889); “Travellers and Outlaws” (1889); “Life of Francis Higginson” (1891); “The New World and the New Book” (1892); “Concerning all of us” (1892); “Such as they are” (poems, with Mary Thacher Higginson, 1893); “Massachusetts in the Army and Navy” (1895-'6); “Book and Heart” (1897); “The Procession of the Flowers” (1897); “Cheerful Yesterdays” (autobiography, 1898); “Tales of the Enchanted Islands” (1898). He has also translated the “Complete Works of Epictetus” (Boston, 1865), and edited “Harvard Memorial Biographies” (2 vols., 1866). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 199.

HILDRETH, RICHARD

HINDE, Thomas Spottswood, 1785-1846, Illinois, opponent of slavery, newspaper editor, clergyman, author, historian, businessman.  Early and outspoken opponent of slavery.

HOFFMAN, Peter, Baltimore, Maryland.  Leader and original co-founder of the Maryland State Colonization Society. 

(Campbell, 1971, pp. 20, 192)

HOLLEY, Myron, 1779-1841, Rochester, New York, abolitionist leader, political leader, reformer. Founder of the Liberty Party. Published the anti-slavery newspaper, Rochester Freeman.

(Blue, 2005, pp. 20, 23, 25, 26; Chadwick, 1899; Dumond, 1961, pp. 295-296, 404n16; Goodell, 1852, pp. 470, 474, 556; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 16-17, 21; Sernett, 2002, pp. 107-109, 112, 180, 305-306n17; Sorin, 1971; Wright, 1882; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 236; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 150; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 62)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HOLLEY, Myron, reformer, b. in Salisbury, Conn., 29 April, 1779; d. in Rochester, N. Y., 4 March, 1841. He was graduated at Williams in 1799, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1802. He began practice in Salisbury, but in 1803 settled in Canandaigua, N. Y. Finding the law uncongenial, he purchased the stock of a local bookseller and became the literary purveyor of the town. In 1810-'14 he was county-clerk, and in 1816 was sent to Albany as an assemblyman. The project of the Erie canal was at that time the great subject of interest, and through the efforts of Mr. Holley a board of commissioners was appointed, of whom he was one. His work thenceforth, until its completion, was on the Erie canal. For eight years his practical wisdom, energy, and self-sacrifice made him the executive power, without which this great enterprise would probably have been a failure. On the expiration of his term of office, in 1824, as canal-commissioner and treasurer of the board, he retired to Lyons, where with his family he had previously removed. The anti-Masonic excitement of western New York, arising from the abduction of William Morgan, soon drove Mr. Holley into prominence again. This movement culminated in a national convention being held in Philadelphia in 1830, where Henry D. Ward, Francis Granger, William H. Seward, and Myron Holley were the representatives from New York. An “Address to the People of the United States,” written by Holley, was adopted and signed by 112 delegates. The anti-Masonic adherents presented a candidate in the next gubernatorial canvass of New York, and continued to do so for several years, until the Whigs, appreciating the advantages of their support, nominated candidates that were not Masons. This action resulted, in 1838, in the election of William H. Seward. Meanwhile, in 1831, Mr. Holley became editor of the Lyons “Countryman,” a journal devoted to the opposition and suppression of Masonry; but after three years, this enterprise not having been successful, he went to Hartford, and there conducted the “Free Elector” for one year. He then returned to Lyons, but soon disposed of his property and settled near Rochester, where for a time he lived in quiet, devoting his attention to horticulture. When the anti-slavery feeling began to manifest itself Mr. Holley became one of its adherents. At this time he was offered a nomination to congress by the Whig party, provided he would not agitate this question; but this proposition he declined. He participated in the meeting of the anti-slavery convention held in Cleveland in 1839, and was prominent in the call for a national convention to meet in Albany, to take into consideration the formation of a Liberty party. At this gathering the nomination of James G. Birney was made, and during the subsequent canvass Mr. Holley was active in support of the candidate, both by continual speaking and by his incessant labors as editor of the Rochester “Freeman.” Mr. Holley's remains rest in Mount Hope cemetery, at Rochester, and the grave is marked by an obelisk, with a fine medallion portrait in white marble, the whole having been paid for in one-cent contributions by members of the Liberty party, at the suggestion of Gerrit Smith. See “Myron Holley; and What he did for Liberty and True Religion,” by Elizur Wright (Boston, 1882). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 236.

HOPKINS, Johns, 1795-1873, abolitionist, entrepreneur, philanthropist.  His family were Quakers and freed their slaves in 1807.  Worked with prominent abolitionists Myrtilla Miner and Henry Ward Beecher.  Strong supporter of Lincoln and the Union during the Civil War.  Supported African American institutions.  After the war, founder of Johns Hopkins Institutes in Baltimore, Maryland. 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 256; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 213)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HOPKINS, Johns, philanthropist, b. in Anne Arundel county, Md., 19 May, 1795; d. in Baltimore. 24 Dec., 1873. His parents were Quakers, and their son was trained to a farming life, but received a fair education. At seventeen years of age he went to Baltimore, became a clerk in his uncle's wholesale grocery-store, and in a few years accumulated sufficient capital to establish himself in the grocery trade with a partner. Three years later, in 1822, he founded, with his two brothers, the house of Hopkins and Brothers. He rapidly added to his fortune until he had amassed large wealth. Retiring from business as a grocer in 1847, he engaged in banking and railroad enterprises, became a director in the Baltimore and Ohio railroad company, and, in 1855, chairman of its finance committee. Two years afterward, when the company was seriously embarrassed, he volunteered to endorse its notes, and risked his private fortune in its extrication. He was one of the projectors of a line of iron steamships between Baltimore and Bremen, and built many warehouses in the city. In March, 1873, be gave property valued at $4,500,000 to found a hospital which, by its charter, is free to all, regardless of race or color, presented the city of Baltimore with a public park, and gave $3,500,000 to found the Johns Hopkins university, which was first proposed by him in 1867, and was opened in 1876. It embraces schools of law, medicine, science, and agriculture, and publishes the results of researches of professors and students. At his death he left a fortune of $10,000,000, including the sums set apart for the endowment of the university and hospital, which were devised to the trustees in his will. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

HOPKINS, Reverend Dr. Samuel, 1721-1803, Newport, Rhode Island, theologian, author, opponent of slavery. Pastor of the First Congregational Church of New port, Rhode Island.  Wrote A Dialogue Concerning the Slavery of Africans, 1776. 

(Basker, 2005, p. 136; Bruns, 1977, pp. 290, 293, 340, 397, 457, 492; Drake, 1950, pp. 85, 88, 97-99, 123; Dumond, 1961, pp. 22-23; Goodell, 1852, pp. 28, 41, 76, 92, 109, 114, 120-122, 127; Locke, 1901, pp. 40, 55, 58, 60, 64, 65, 86, 90, 103n, 187, 192; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 20, 22-23, 331; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 107, 118-119, 121, 153, 154, 156-157; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 257-258; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 217; Dark, “Memoir of Samuel Hopkins,” in Hopkins’ Works, Vol. I, pp. 116, 140, 160; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 186)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HOPKINS, Samuel, theologian, b. in Waterbury, Conn., 17 Sept., 1721; d. in Newport, R. I., 20 Dec., 1803. He was brought up on a farm, graduated at Yale in 1741, and trained in theology by Jonathan Edwards. In 1743 he was ordained pastor of the church at Housatonnuc (afterward Great Barrington), Mass., but in January, 1769, he was dismissed because his church was reduced in numbers. On 11 April, 1770, he was settled over a church in Newport, R I. In December, 1776, when the British took possession of Newport, he retired to Great Barrington. During the summer of 1777 he preached to a large congregation at Newburyport, Mass., and subsequently at Canterbury and Stamford, Conn. In the spring of 1780, after the evacuation of Newport by the British, he returned, but found his congregation diminished and impoverished. For the remainder of his life he was obliged to depend on the weekly contributions of his hearers and the assistance of friends. In January, 1799, paralysis deprived him of the use of his limbs. He was an early advocate of the emancipation of negro slaves, freed his own, and originated the idea of sending the liberated slaves to Africa to act as agents of civilization. The agitation that was begun by him led to organized political action in Rhode Island and the passing of a law, in 1774, forbidding the importation of negroes into the colony, followed after the Revolution by an act of the legislature declaring all children of slaves that should be born subsequent to 1 March, 1785, to be free. He was the author of the modifications of the Calvinistic theology that came to be known as Hopkinsianism. He believed that the inability of the unregenerate is owing to moral and not to natural causes, and that sinners are free agents and deserving of punishment, though all acts, sinful as well as righteous, are the result of the decrees of providence. The essence of sin, he thought, consisted in the disposition and intention of the mind. Dr. Hopkins was an exceedingly modest and devout man, and exemplified the disposition of unselfishness and benevolence which he regarded as the basis of a Christian life. He was the original of one of the principal characters in Harriet Beecher Stowe's “Minister's Wooing.” His theological theories, which created an epoch in the development of religious thought in New England, were first presented from the pulpit, and were developed, with some modifications, after his death, by his friends, Stephen West, Nathaniel Emmons, and Samuel Spring. Among his published sermons are “Sin, through Divine Interposition, an Advantage to the Universe; and yet this is no Excuse for Sin or Encouragement to it” (1759); “An Inquiry whether the Promises of the Gospel are made to the Exercises and Doings of Persons in the Unregenerate State” (1765); “The True State and Character of the Unregenerate” (1769); and “An Inquiry into the Nature of True Holiness” (1773). His “Dialogue Showing it to be the Duty and Interest of the American States to Emancipate all their African Slaves” appeared in 1776. His theological views were expounded in “A System of Doctrines Contained in Divine Revelation” (1793). He published a “Life of President Edwards” and lives of Susannah Anthony (1796), and Mrs. Osborn (1798). A dialogue on the nature and extent of true Christian submission, an address to professing Christians, and sketches of his own life were included in a collection of his works published by Dr. Stephen West (Stockbridge, 1805). A subsequent edition of his collected writings contains a memoir by Dr. Edwards A. Park (Boston, 1852). A “Treatise on the Millennium,” originally published with the “System of Divinity,” was reissued in 1854. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.

HOPKINS, Stephen, 1707-1785, Rhode Island, founding father, political leader, signer of the Declaration of Independence.  Hopkins was a slaveholder.  He manumitted several of his slaves, but not all, during his lifetime.  In 1774, as a Rhode Island Assemblyman, he introduced a bill prohibiting importing slaves into the colony, which was passed.  This was one of the earliest anti-slavery laws enacted in the United States.  Hopkins was a practicing Quaker. 

(Arnold, 1894; Austin, 1887; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 259; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 219)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HOPKINS, Stephen, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. in Providence, R. I., 7 March, 1707; d. there, 13 July, 1785. He was brought up as a farmer, and inherited an estate in Scituate. He was a member of the assembly in 1732-'3 and 1735-'8, and in 1736 was appointed a justice of the peace and one of the justices of the court of common pleas. He was the first town-clerk of Scituate. During his whole life he was largely employed as a land-surveyor. In 1741 he was again chosen to represent the town of Scituate in the assembly, and was elected speaker. In 1742 he sold his farm and removed to Providence, where he made a survey of the streets and lots, and afterward began business as a merchant and ship-builder. The same year he was sent to the assembly from Providence, and was again chosen speaker. In 1751 he was elected for the fourteenth time to the general assembly, and later in the year appointed chief justice of the superior court. He was a delegate from Rhode Island to the convention that met at Albany in 1754 for the purposes of concerting a plan of military and political union of the colonies and arranging an alliance with the Indians, in view of the impending war with France. He was one of the committee that drafted a plan of colonial union, which was accepted by the convention, but objected to in the various colonies and in Great Britain. In 1755 Mr. Hopkins was elected governor of the colony, and held that office, with the exception of two years, when he was defeated by his political rival, Samuel Ward, until 1764. After Ward had occupied the governor's chair for two years, Hopkins was again elected in 1767; but in October of that year he renounced further candidature for the sake of uniting the contending factious and putting an end to a party strife that distracted the colony. While he was governor, Hopkins had a controversy with William Pitt, prime minister of England, in relation to the contraband trade with the French colonies. He was one of the earliest and most strenuous champions of colonial rights against the encroachments of the English parliament. In 1765 he wrote a pamphlet entitled “The Grievances of the American Colonies Candidly Examined,” which was printed by order of the general assembly, and reissued in London the next year. In 1765 he was elected chairman of a committee appointed at a special town-meeting held in Providence to draft instructions to the general assembly on the stamp-act. The resolutions reported and adopted were nearly identical with those that Patrick Henry introduced into the house of burgesses of Virginia. In 1770 he was again elected to the general assembly. He was appointed a member of the committee on correspondence the following year, and was successively re-elected to the assembly till 1775. While holding a seat in the assembly, and afterward in the Continental congress, he filled the office of chief justice of Rhode Island as well, being appointed for the second time to that station in 1770. In 1773 he emancipated his slaves, and in 1774 brought forward a bill in the assembly which prohibited the importation of negroes into the colony. He was elected, with Samuel Ward, to represent Rhode Island in the general congress in August, 1774, and was appointed on the first two committees. In the beginning of the Revolution he was one of the committee of safety of the town of Providence, and in May, 1775, was elected to the 2d congress. In the 3d congress he had William Ellery as his colleague. The signature of Hopkins to the Declaration of Independence is written with a trembling hand for the reason that he had suffered for several years from a paralytic affection which prevented him from writing except by guiding the right hand with the left, though in early life he had been famed for the elegance of his penmanship. He was a delegate from Rhode Island to the commission that was appointed by the New England states to consult on the defence of their borders and the promotion of the common cause, and presided over the meetings in Providence in 1776 and in Springfield, Mass., in 1777. He was not a member of the congress in 1777, but in the following year was a delegate for the last time. Mr. Hopkins was a powerful and lucid speaker, and used his influence in congress in favor of decisive measures. He worshipped with the Friends, but professed religious views so latitudinarian that he was called by his enemies an infidel. His knowledge of the business of shipping made him particularly useful in congress as a member of the naval committee in devising plans for fitting out armed vessels and furnishing the colonies with a naval armament, and in framing regulations for the navy. He was also a member of the committee that drafted the articles of confederation for the government of the states. In 1777 he was an active member of the general assembly of Rhode Island. He was a founder of the town library of Providence in 1750, which was burned in 1758, but re-established through his instrumentality. Besides the work already mentioned, he was the author of a “History of the Planting and Growth of Providence,” which appeared in the Providence “Gazette” in 1765. See “Stephen Hopkins, a Rhode Island Statesman,” by William E. Foster (Providence, 1884).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

HOPPER, Isaac Tatem, 1771-1852, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker, prison reformer, philanthropist, radical abolitionist leader, member Free Produce Society of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Abolition Society, Treasurer of the Anti-Slavery Society, operator of the Underground Railroad, helped 3,000 Black fugitive slaves to Canada. 

(Drake, 1950, pp. 118, 148, 160, 162, 187; Mabee, 1970, pp. 27, 29, 30, 100, 105, 111, 225, 273, 276, 277, 374; Nash, 1991, p. 131; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 261; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 224; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 445-446; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 202)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HOPPER, Isaac Tatem, philanthropist, b. in Deptford township, Gloucester co., N. J., 3 Dec., 1771; d. in New York city, 7 May, 1852. He learned the tailor's trade of an uncle in Philadelphia. He early joined the Quakers, and afterward became a believer in the doctrines taught by Elias Hicks, whose followers were subsequently known as Hicksites. When he was young, Philadelphia was infested by slave kidnappers, who committed many outrages. Under these circumstances the Pennsylvania abolition society, of which Mr. Hopper became an active and leading member, was frequently called upon to protect the rights of colored people, and in time he became known to every one in Philadelphia as the friend and adviser of the oppressed race in all emergencies. He was one of the founders and the secretary of a society for the employment of the poor; overseer of the Benezet school for colored children; teacher, without recompense, in a free school for colored adults; inspector of the prison, without a salary; member of a fire company, and guardian of abused apprentices. When pestilence was raging, he was devoted to the sick, and the poor were continually calling upon him to plead with importunate landlords and creditors. He was not unfrequently employed to settle estates involved in difficulties, which others were disinclined to undertake, and he had occasional applications to exert his influence over the insane, for which he had a peculiar tact. Although he was a poor man with a large family, his house was for many years a home for impoverished Quakers, and he transacted much business for the Society of Friends. In 1829 he removed to New York to take charge of a book-store established by the Hicksite Quakers. In the autumn of 1830, being called to Ireland on business connected with his wife's estate, he availed himself of the opportunity to visit England. In both countries he was at first treated somewhat cavalierly by the orthodox Quakers, and pointed out as the one “who has given Friends so much trouble in America.” His candor and amiability, however, soon removed these unfavorable impressions, and he had no occasion ultimately to complain of his reception. On his return to New York, he threw himself heart and soul into the work of the Prison association, whose aims and plans of action were entirely in accordance with his views. To render such practical aid as would enable the repentant to return to society, by engaging in some honest calling, he devoted the greater part of his time and attention. No disposition was too perverse for his efforts at reform; no heart so hard that he did not try to soften; no relapses could exhaust his patience, which, without weak waste of means, continued “hoping all things” while even a dying spark of good feeling remained. In the spring of 1841, the demand for Hicksite books having greatly diminished, Friend Hopper became treasurer and book-agent for the Anti-slavery society. Although he had reached the age of seventy, he was as vigorous as a man of fifty. In 1845 he relinquished these offices, and devoted the rest of his life entirely to the work of the Prison association. In his labors he was greatly assisted by a married daughter, Abby H. Gibbons, who was as vigilant and active in behalf of women discharged from prison as was her father in behalf of men. Through her exertions, an asylum was founded for these unfortunates, which was called the “Isaac T. Hopper Home. The aged philanthropist frequently had occasion to visit Albany, N. Y., to represent the association and to address the legislature. Judge Edmonds thus refers to one of these occasions: “His eloquence was simple and direct, but most effective. If he was humorous, his audience were full of laughter; if solemn, a death-like stillness reigned; if pathetic, tears flowed all around him.” He had often to plead for the pardon of prisoners, and Gov. John Young, of New York, once said to him: “Friend Hopper, I will pardon any convict whom you say you conscientiously believe I ought to pardon.” The career of this untiring benefactor is best summed up in the words of one of his own sect: “The Bible requires us to love our neighbors as well as ourselves; and Friend Hopper has loved them better!” His life was written by Lydia Maria Child (Boston, 1853).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 261.

HOPPER, Sarah, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist, member of the Association of Friends for Advocating the Cause of the Slave

(Drake, 1950; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III)

HORTON, George Firman, 1806-1886, physician, temperance activist, abolitionist.  Active member of the American Anti-Slavery Society. 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 266)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HORTON, George Firman, physician. b. in Terrytown, Bradford co., Pa., 2 Jan., 1806; d. there, 20 Dec., 1886. He was educated at Rensselaer polytechnic institute, Troy, N. Y., and in the medical department of Rutgers college, and began practice in his; native town in 1829. He became an advocate of the temperance cause in 1830, and was a member of the American anti-slavery society almost from the time of its foundation till the extinction of slavery. He was for twelve years treasurer and town-clerk of his township, from 1830 till 1856 postmaster at Terrytown, and in 1872 was elected a delegate to the Constitutional convention of Pennsylvania for revising the state constitution. He was a skilful botanist and entomologist. He published reports of his cases in the “Transactions of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society”; “Reports on the Geology of Bradford County” (1858); and “The Horton Genealogy” (1876). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 266.

HOVEY, Charles Fox, Boston, Massachusetts, 1807-1859, businessman, philanthropist, abolitionist, reformer.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1848-59, Vice President 1848-1855, Counsellor, 1855-1860.  Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.  Hovey was an active supporter of the Women’s Rights Movement.  He helped support the abolitionist movement with significant funding. 

(Abbot; Richard, 1991)

HOWARD, Oliver Otis, 1830-1919, abolitionist, Union Major General, commander of the 11^th Corps of the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the Tennessee, the Right Wing of General Sherman’s March to the Sea, and the Carolinas Campaign, November 1864-April 1865.  Recipient of the Medal of Honor.  Founder and director of the Freeman’s Bureau, 1865-1874.  Founder of Howard University, Washington, DC. 

See also FREEDMEN’S BUREAU

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 278; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 279; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11; Cullum, 1891; U.S. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. 128 vols. Washington, DC: GPO, 1881-1901. Series 1; Warner, 1964.)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HOWARD, Oliver Otis, soldier, b. in Leeds, Me., 8 Nov., 1830. He was graduated at Bowdoin in 1850, and at the U. S. military academy In 1854, became 1st lieutenant and instructor in mathematics in 1854, and resigned in 1861 to take command of the 3d Maine regiment. He commanded a brigade at the first battle of Bull Run, and for gallantry in that engagement was made brigadier-general of volunteers, 3 Sept., 1861. He was twice wounded at the battle of Fair Oaks, losing his right arm on 1 June, 1862, was on sick-leave for six months, and engaged in recruiting service till September of this year, when he participated in the battle of Antietam, and afterward took Gen. John Sedgwick's division in the 2d corps. In November, 1862, he became major-general of volunteers. He commanded the 11th corps during Gen. Joseph Hooker's operations in the vicinity of Fredericksburg, 2 May, 1863, served at Gettysburg, Lookout Valley, and Missionary Ridge, and was on the expedition for the relief of Knoxville in December, 1863. He was in occupation of Chattanooga from this time till July, 1864, when he was assigned to the Army of the Tennessee in the invasion of Georgia, was engaged at Dalton, Resaca, Adairsville, and Pickett's Mill, where he was again wounded, was at the surrender of Atlanta, and joined in pursuit of the Confederates in Alabama, under Gen. John B. Hood, from 4 Oct. till 13 Dec., 1864. In the march to the sea and the invasion of the Carolinas he commanded the right wing of Gen. William T. Sherman's army. He became brigadier-general in the U. S. army, 21 Dec., 1864. He was in command of the Army of the Tennessee, and engaged in all the important battles from 4 Jan. till 26 April, 1865, occupying Goldsborough, N. C., 24 March, 1865, and participating in numerous skirmishes, terminating with the surrender of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston at Durham, N. C., 26 April, 1865. In March of this year he was brevetted major-general for gallantry at the battle of Ezra Church and the campaigns against Atlanta, Ga. He was commissioner of the Freedmen's bureau at Washington from March, 1865, till July, 1874, and in that year was assigned to the command of the Department of the Columbia. In 1877 he led the expedition against the Nez Perces Indians, and in 1878 led the campaign against the Bannocks and Piutes. In 1881-'2 he was superintendent of the U. S. military academy. In 1886 Gen. Howard was commissioned major-general, and given command of the division of the Pacific, Bowdoin college gave him the degree of A. M. in 1853, Waterville college that of LL. D. in 1865, Shurtleff college the same in 1865, and Gettysburg theological seminary in 1866. He was also made a chevalier of the Legion of honor by the French government in 1884. Gen. Howard was retired in 1894, and in 1898 was active in the movement for National volunteer reserves. He has contributed various articles to magazines, and has published “Donald's School Days” (1879); “Chief Joseph, or the Nez Perces in Peace and War” (1881); and “General Taylor” (in the “Great Commanders” series, New York, 1893). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 278.

HOWE, Julia Ward, 1819-1910, abolitionist, women’s suffrage advocate, social activist, poet, essayist. Author of “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Wife of abolitionist Samuel Gridley Howe, whom she aided in the publishing and editing of the Boston Anti-slavery newspaper, the Commonwealth before the Civil War.

(Clifford, 1979; Grant, 1994; Richards, 1916; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 341-342; Williams, 1999; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 291; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 451-453; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 331)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HOWE, Julia Ward, b. in New York city, 27 May, 1819, is the daughter of Samuel Ward, a New York banker. Her mother, Julia Rush Ward, was the author of various occasional poems. Julia was carefully educated, partly at home and partly in private schools in New York. Her tutor in German and Latin was Dr. Joseph G. Cogswell. At an early age Miss Ward wrote plays and poems. After her father's death she visited Boston, and met there Dr. Howe, whom she married in 1843. She afterward continued her studies, learned to speak fluently in Italian, French, and Greek, and became a student of Kant, Hegel, Spinoza, Comte, and Fichte. She also wrote philosophical essays, which she read at her house before her literary friends. For some time before the civil war she conducted with her husband the Boston “Commonwealth,” an anti-slavery paper. In 1861, while on a visit to the camps near Washington, with Gov. John A. Andrew and other friends, Mrs. Howe wrote the “Battle-Hymn of the Republic,” which soon became popular. She espoused the woman-suffrage movement in 1869, and was one of the founders of the New England women's club, of which she has been president since 1872. She has also presided over several similar associations, including the American woman-suffrage association. In 1872 she was a delegate to the World's prison reform congress in London, and in the same year aided in founding the Woman's peace association there. In 1884-'5 she presided over the Woman's branch of the New Orleans exposition. She has delivered numerous lectures, and has often addressed the Massachusetts legislature in aid of reforms. She has preached in Rome, Italy, Santo Domingo, and from Unitarian pulpits in this country. She has also read lectures at the Concord school of philosophy. Mrs. Howe has published two volumes of poems, entitled “Passion Flowers” (Boston, 1854), and “Words for the Hour” (1857); “The World's Own,” a drama, which was acted at Wallack's theatre, New York, in 1855 (1857); “A trip to Cuba” (1860); “Later Lyrics” (1866); “From the Oak to the Olive” (1868); “Modern Society,” two lectures (1881); and “Life of Margaret Fuller” (1883). She has also edited “Sex and Education,” a reply to Dr. Edward H. Clarke's “Sex and Education” (1874); and wrote for Edwin Booth, in 1858, “Hippolytus,” a tragedy, which has been neither acted nor published.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.

HOWE, Dr. Samuel Gridley, 1801-1876, abolitionist leader, philanthropist, physician, reformer.  Actively participated in the anti-slavery movement.  Free Soil candidate for Congress from Boston in 1846.  From 1851-1853 he edited the anti-slavery newspaper, the Commonwealth.  Active with the Sanitary Commission during the Civil War.  Member of the American Freedman’s Inquiry Commission, 1863. Supported radical abolitionist John Brown. Husband of Julia Ward Howe. 

(Filler, 1960, pp. 43, 56, 117, 181, 204, 214, 238, 241, 268; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 32, 117, 119-120, 213; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 165, 207, 327, 388, 341; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 283; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 296; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 453-456; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 342)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HOWE, Samuel Gridley, philanthropist, b. in Boston, Mass., 10 Nov., 1801; d. there, 9 Jan., 1876. He was graduated at Brown in 1821, and at the Harvard medical school in 1824. After completing his studies he went to Greece, where he served as surgeon in the war for the independence in 1824-'7, and then as the head of the regular surgical service, which he established in that country. In 1827 he returned to the United States in order to obtain help for the Greeks when they were threatened with a famine, and later founded a colony on the isthmus of Corinth, but in consequence of prostration by swamp-fever he was obliged in 1830 to leave the country. In 1831, his attention having been called to the need of schools for the blind, for whose education no provision had been made in this country, he again visited Europe in order to study the methods of instruction then in use for the purpose of acquiring information concerning the education of the blind. While in Paris he was made president of the Polish committee. In his efforts to convey and distribute funds for the relief of a detachment of the Polish army that had crossed into Prussia, he was arrested by the Prussian authorities, but, after six weeks' imprisonment, was taken to the French frontier by night and liberated. On his return to Boston in 1832 he gathered several blind pupils at his father's house, and thus gave origin to the school which was afterward known as the Perkins institution, and of which he was the first superintendent, continuing in this office until his death. His greatest achievement in this direction was the education of Laura Bridgman (q. v.). Dr. Howe also took an active part in founding the experimental school for the training of idiots, which resulted in the organization of the Massachusetts school for idiotic and feeble-minded youth in 1851. He was actively engaged in the anti-slavery movement, and was a Free-soil candidate for congress from Boston in 1846. During 1851-'3 he edited the “Commonwealth.” Dr. Howe took an active part in the sanitary movement in behalf of the soldiers during the civil war. In 1867 he again went to Greece as bearer of supplies for the Cretans in their struggle with the Turks, and subsequently edited in Boston “The Cretan.” He was appointed, in 1871, one of the commissioners to visit Santo Domingo and report upon the question of the annexation of that island to the United States, of which he became an earnest advocate. In 1868 he received the degree of LL. D. from Brown. His publications include letters on topics of the time; various reports, especially those of the Massachusetts commissioners of idiots (Boston, 1847-'8); “Historical Sketch of the Greek Revolution” (New York, 1828); and a “Reader for the Blind,” printed in raised characters (1839). See “Memoir of Dr. Samuel G. Howe,” by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe (Boston, 1876). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 283.

HOWE, Timothy Otis, 1816-1883, lawyer, jurist.  Republican U.S. Senator from Wisconsin.  Elected 1861, served until 1879.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

(Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 284; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 297; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 343; Congressional Globe)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HOWE, Timothy Otis, senator, b. in Livermore, Me., 24 Feb., 1816; d. in Kenosha, Wis., 25 March, 1883. He received a common-school education, working on a farm during his vacations. In 1839 he was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Readfield. He was an ardent Whig and admirer of Henry Clay, and in 1840 was in the legislature, where he was active in debate. Impaired health occasioned his removal to Wisconsin in the latter part of this year, and opening a law-office in Green Bay, then a small village, he continued his residence there throughout his life. He was an unsuccessful candidate for congress in 1848, and two years afterward was elected circuit judge. The circuit judges were also judges of the supreme court, and during part of his term he served as chief justice of the state. Resigning his judgeship in 1855, he resumed his profession, and was an efficient Republican speaker in the canvass of 1856. In the trial that was held to ascertain whether William Boynton or Coles Bashford was lawful governor of Wisconsin, Mr. Howe appeared as Bashford's counsel and gained his case, and his success largely increased his reputation. In 1861 he was elected U. S. senator as a Republican, serving till 1879. During his long career he served on the committees of finance, commerce, pensions, and claims, was one of the earliest advocates of universal emancipation, and in a speech in the senate on 29 May, 1861, advocated in strong terms the negro-suffrage bill for the District of Columbia. He also urged the right of the National government to establish territorial governments over the seceded states. He made able speeches in 1865-'6 against the policy of Andrew Johnson, and voted in favor of his impeachment. He supported the silver bill in 1878, denounced President Hayes's policy regarding civil-service reform in the southern states, and opposed the anti-Chinese bill. On the death of Salmon P. Chase, President Grant offered Judge Howe a judgeship in the supreme court, which he declined. He had left the senate when the third-term question came up, but favored the election of Grant, and in 1880 spoke strongly in its support. In 1881 he was a U. S. delegate to the International monetary conference in Paris. In December, 1881, he was appointed postmaster-general by President Arthur, and, although his term of service was little more than a year, a reduction of postage was effected, postal-notes were issued, and reform measures urged with great force. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 284.

HOWELL, David, 1747-1826, educator, professor of law, acting president of Brown University, abolitionist leader, Providence Society.  Petitioned Congress for implementation of House Resolution of March, 1790, against slavery.

(Bruns, 1977, p. 515; Dumond, 1961, p. 57; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 284; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 301)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HOWELL, David, jurist, b. in New Jersey, 1 Jan., 1747; d. in Providence, R. I., 29 July, 1826. He was graduated at Princeton in 1766, and, removing to Rhode Island, was appointed professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Brown in 1769, also holding the chair of law from 1790 till 1824. In the interval he filled the several offices of member of the Continental congress in 1782-'5, attorney-general in 1789, judge of the supreme court, commissioner for settling the boundaries of the United States, and district attorney, and from 1812 until his death was a district judge of Rhode Island. Brown gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1793. Judge Howell was distinguished for wit, learning, and eloquence, and was a forcible political speaker. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 284.

HOWLAND, Emily, 1827-1929, Sherwood, Cayuga County, New York, opponent of slavery, philanthropist, educator.  Society of Friends, Quaker.  Worked with freed slaves and on Underground Railroad.  Teacher at the Normal School for Colored Girls in Washington, DC, 1857-1859. 

(Breault, 1981; Sernett, 2002, pp. 264-265, 338-339n29)

HUDSON, Erasmus Darwin, 1805-1880, Torrington, Connecticut, abolitionist, temperance advocate, physician.  Lecturing agent for the Connecticut Anti-Slavery Society, 1837-1849.  General Agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Wrote article on abolition. 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 296)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HUDSON, Erasmus Darwin, surgeon, b. in Torringford, Conn., 15 Dec., 1805; d. in Riverside, Greenwich, Conn., 31 Dec., 1880. He was educated by a private tutor and at Torringford academy, and was graduated in medicine at Berkshire medical college in 1827. He practised in Bloomfield, and became a member of the Connecticut medical society. In 1828 he lectured on temperance, and from 1837 till 1849 was lecturing agent of the Connecticut anti-slavery society and general agent of the American anti-slavery society. During the civil war he was appointed by the U. S. government to fit apparatus to special cases of gunshot injuries of bone, resections, ununited fractures, and amputations at the knee- and ankle-joints. He invented several prothetic and orthopædic appliances, which received awards at the Exposition universelle of Paris in 1857, and at the Centennial exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876. From 1850 till his death he resided in New York, devoting himself to orthopædic surgery and mechanical apparatus for deformities, artificial limbs, etc. He was a contributor to “The Liberator” and the “Anti-Slavery Standard” (Boston and New York, 1837-'49), was co-editor of “The Charter Oak” (Hartford, 1838-'41), and published numerous reported cases in the “Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion” (Washington, 1870-'2). He wrote an “Essay on Temperance” (1828), and published monographs on “Resections” (New York, 1870); “Syme's Amputation” (New York, 1871); and “Immobile Apparatus for Ununited Fractures” (New York, 1872).

HUMPHREY, Heman, 1779-1861, Amherst, Massachusetts, clergyman, temperance and anti-slavery advocate.  President of Amherst College.  Supported American Colonization Society.  Raised funds for the Society.

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 312; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 369; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 132)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HUMPHREY, Heman, clergyman, b. in West Simsbury, Conn., 26 March, 1779; d. in Pittsfield, Mass., 3 April, 1861. He taught to enable him to attend college, and was graduated at Yale in 1805. After studying theology under Timothy Dwight, he was pastor of the Congregational church at Fairfield, Conn., in 1807-'17, in Pittsfield in 1817-'23, and president of Amherst in 1823-'45. Taking charge of that institution in its infancy, he contributed largely to its growth and prosperity, and impressed upon it much of his own character. He was one of the pioneers of the temperance reform in 1810, preached six sermons on intemperance, and in 1813 drew up a report to the Fairfield association of ministers, which is believed to be the first temperance tract that was published in the United States. Among the most celebrated of his tracts on this subject is his “Parallel between Intemperance and the Slave-Trade,” which was also a formidable indictment of slavery. For fifty years he was a constant contributor to periodicals and literary journals. Middlebury gave him the degree of D. D. in 1823. He published “Essays on the Sabbath” (New York, 1830); “Tour in France, Great Britain, and Belgium” (1838); “Domestic Education” (Amherst, 1840); “Letters to a Son in the Ministry” (New York, 1842); “Life and Writings of Prof. Nathan W. Fiske” (1850); “Life and Writings of Thomas S. Gallaudet” (1857); and “Sketches and History of Revivals” (1859). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

HUNT, Harriot Kezia, MD, 1805-1875, physician, medical reformer, abolitionist, women’s rights activist

(Hunt, Harriot, Glances and Glimpses, 1856, J. R. Chadwick [autobiography]; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 385; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 459-460)

HUNTER, David Dard (“Black David”), 1802-1886, General, U.S. Army.  In 1862, he organized and formed all-Black U.S. Army regiments without authorization from the Union War Department.  Established the African American First South Carolina Volunteer Regiment in May 1862.  Without authorization, he issued a proclamation that emancipated slaves in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.  President Lincoln ordered the Black troops disbanded and countermanded the emancipation order. 

(Dumond, 1961, p. 372; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 66, 140, 243, 275, 690-691; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 321; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 100; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 516)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HUNTER, David, soldier, b. in Washington, D. C., 21 July, 1802; d. there, 2 Feb., 1886. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1822, appointed 2d lieutenant in the 5th infantry, promoted 1st lieutenant in 1828, and became a captain in the 1st dragoons in 1833. He was assigned to frontier duty, and twice crossed the plains to the Rocky mountains. He resigned his commission in 1836, and engaged in business in Chicago. He re-entered the military service as a paymaster, with the rank of major, in March, 1842, was chief paymaster of Gen. John E. Wool's command in the Mexican war, and was afterward stationed successively at New Orleans, Washington, Detroit, St. Louis, and on the frontier. He accompanied President-elect Lincoln when he set out from Springfield for Washington in February, 1861, but at Buffalo was disabled by the pressure of the crowd, his collar-bone being dislocated. On 14 May he was appointed colonel of the 6th U. S. cavalry, and three days later was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers. He commanded the main column of McDowell's army in the Manassas campaign, and was severely wounded at Bull Run, 21 July, 1861. He was made a major-general of volunteers, 13 Aug., 1861, served under Gen. Frémont in Missouri, and on 2 Nov. succeeded him in the command of the western department. From 20 Nov., 1861, till 11 March, 1862, he commanded the Department of Kansas. Under date of 19 Feb., 1862, Gen. Halleck wrote to him: “To you, more than any other man out of this department, are we indebted for our success at Fort Donelson. In my strait for troops to reënforce Gen. Grant, I applied to you. You responded nobly, placing your forces at my disposition. This enabled us to win the victory.” In March, 1862, Gen. Hunter was transferred to the Department of the South, with headquarters at Port Royal, S. C. On 12 April he issued a general order in which he said: “All persons of color lately held to involuntary service by enemies of the United States, in Fort Pulaski and on Cockspur island, Ga., are hereby confiscated and declared free in conformity with law, and shall hereafter receive the fruits of their own labor.” On 9 May, in general orders declaring Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina (his department) under martial law, he added, “Slavery and martial law, in a free country, are altogether incompatible. The persons in these three states, heretofore held as slaves, are therefore declared forever free.” Ten days later this order was annulled by the president. (See LINCOLN, ABRAHAM.) In May Gen. Hunter organized an expedition against Charleston, in which over 3,000 men were landed on James island, but it was unsuccessful. Later he raised and organized the 1st South Carolina volunteers, the first regiment of black troops in the National service. Thereupon a Kentucky representative introduced into congress a resolution calling for information on the subject. This being referred to Gen. Hunter by the secretary of war, the general answered: “No regiment of fugitive slaves has been or is being organized in this department. There is, however, a fine regiment of persons whose late masters are fugitive rebels—men who everywhere fly before the appearance of the National flag, leaving their servants behind them to shift, as best they can, for themselves.” In August Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation to the effect that, if Gen. Hunter or any other U. S. officer who had been drilling and instructing slaves as soldiers should be captured, he should not be treated as a prisoner of war, but held in close confinement for execution as a felon. In September Gen. Hunter was ordered to Washington and made president of a court of inquiry, to investigate the causes of the surrender of Harper's Ferry, and other matters. In May, 1864, he was placed in command of the Department of West Virginia. He defeated a Confederate force at Piedmont on 5 June, and attacked Lynchburg unsuccessfully on the 18th. From 8 Aug., 1864, till 1 Feb., 1865, he was on leave of absence, after which he served on courts-martial, being president of the commission that tried the persons who conspired for the assassination of President Lincoln. He was brevetted major-general U. S. army, 13 March, 1865, and mustered out of the volunteer service in January, 1866, after which he was president of a special-claims commission and of a board for the examination of cavalry officers. He was retired from active service, by reason of his age, 31 July, 1866, and thereafter resided in Washington. Gen. Hunter married a daughter of John Kinzie, who was the first permanent citizen of Chicago. Mrs. Hunter survived her husband. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 321.

HUSSEY, Erastus, 1800-1889, Battle Creek, Michigan, political leader, abolitionist leader, agent, Underground Railroad.  Helped more than one thousand slaves escape after 1840.  Co-founder of the Republican Party.  Member of the Free Soil and Liberty Parties. 

(Dumond, 1961, p. 339)

HUTCHINSON Family, Jesse, 1778-1851, Jesse Jr., Judson, Asa, John, b. 1821, Abby, b. 1829; family singers.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 334; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HUTCHINSON, Jesse, farmer, b. in Middleton, Mass., 3 Feb., 1778; d. in Milford, N. H., 16 Feb., 1851. His ancestor, Richard, came to this country from England in 1634, acquired much land in Salem, Mass., and was paid a premium by the state for “setting up” the first plough in Massachusetts. He married Mary Leavitt, of Mount Vern on, N. H., in 1800, and resided on a farm in Milford for several years. They occasionally sang in chorus, taking parts in the quartets of ballads and sacred music, and were the parents of the “Hutchinson family,” who achieved a reputation as popular singers, and were identified with the anti-slavery and temperance movements. The religious sentiment of New England was noticeable in their productions and repertory. The family became abolitionists when it required courage to face political prejudice, and some of them were excommunicated from the Baptist church on this account. The children numbered sixteen, three of whom died in infancy. All inherited musical talent, and people came from far and near to hear them sing in chorus in prayer-meetings, or at home. They were often urged to appear in public, and in the summer of 1841 the four youngest children, Judson, John, Asa, and Abby, made a successful concert-tour in New England. In 1843 the family appeared in New York city, and achieved an immediate success. N. P. Willis spoke of them as a “nest of brothers with a sister in it.” They accompanied themselves with a violin and violoncello, and excelled in sacred and descriptive songs, and in ballads, both humorous and pathetic. Their own productions were received with most enthusiasm by the popular taste, although their melodies were simple and crudely harmonized. They were coworkers with Garrison, Greeley, Rogers, and other leaders of anti-slavery reform, often aiding in mass conventions, singing popular and original songs with their quartet chorus. In 1845 they travelled in Great Britain and Ireland, and met with popular success. They travelled from the Atlantic to the Pacific in the political canvasses of 1856 and 1860, forming several bands from a third generation in their family. During the civil war some of these bands visited recruiting-stations to encourage volunteer enlistments, and after the battle of Bull Run they went to Virginia, where they were expelled from the National lines by Gen. McClellan because they sang Whittier's “Ein Feste Burg” as an anti-slavery song. Appeal was made to President Lincoln, who said, after Sec. Chase read the obnoxious song in a cabinet-meeting: “It is just the character of song that I desire the soldiers to hear.” By the unanimous consent of the cabinet and the order of President Lincoln, they were re-admitted to the National camps.—The eldest son, Jesse, wrote many songs for popular airs, which he sang with effect. The principal of these were the “Emancipation Song,” “Family Song,” “Old Granite State,” “Good Old Days of Yore,” “The Slave Mother,” “The Slave's Appeal,”
“Good Time Coming,” and “Uncle Sam's Farm.” It was he that organized the company.—Judson was the humorist, excelling in burlesque and political songs, some of which were an Italian burlesque, “The Bachelor's Lament,” “Away Down East” “The Modern Belle” “Anti-Calomel,” “Jordan,” and “The Humbugged Husband.”—Asa was the basso, and the executive member of the troupe.—John, b. in Milford, N. H., 4 Jan., 1821, possessed the most vocal talent. Among his songs and those of his son Henry were “Will the New Year come To-Night, Mother?” “Bingen on the Rhine,” “The Newfoundland Dog,” “The Bridge of Sighs,” “The People's Advent,” and Russell's “Ship on Fire.”—Abby, the contralto, b. in Milford, N. H., 29 Aug., 1829, began at an early age to sing with her brothers. She was admired for her simplicity and archness, and sang “Over the Mountain and over the Moor” “The Slave's Appeal,” “The Spider and the Fly,” “Jamie's on the Stormy Sea” and “The May Queen.” She married Ludlow, Patton, of New York city, in 1849, and has since lived in retirement. Her brothers continued to appear in concerts, and from time to time have, brought before the public their own families of, young singers. They were followed by many bands of imitators. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 334.

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