Thomas Wentworth Higginson Thomas Wentworth Higginson ( December 22 , 1823 – May 9 , 1911 ) was an American Unitarian minister , author , abolitionist , and soldier . He was active in the American Abolitionism movement during the 1840s and 1850s , identifying himself with disunion and militant abolitionism . During the Civil War , he served as colonel of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers , the first federally authorized African - American regiment , from 1862 – 1864 . Following the war , Higginson devoted much of the rest of his life to fighting for the rights of freed slaves , women and other disfranchised peoples . Life . Early years . Higginson was born in Cambridge , Massachusetts on December 22 , 1823 . He was a descendant of Francis Higginson , a Puritan minister and emigrant to the colony of Massachusetts Bay . His father , Stephen Higginson ( born Salem , Massachusetts , November 20 , 1770 ; died Cambridge , Massachusetts , February 20 , 1834 ) , was a merchant and philanthropist in Boston and steward of Harvard University from 1818 until 1834 . His grandfather , also named Stephen Higginson , was a member of the Continental Congress . He was a distant cousin of Henry Lee Higginson , founder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra , a great grandson of his grandfather . Education and abolitionism . Higginson attended Harvard College at age thirteen and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at sixteen . He graduated in 1841 , and was a schoolmaster for two years and , in 1842 , became engaged to Mary Elizabeth Channing . He then studied theology at the Harvard Divinity School . At the end of his first year of divinity training , he withdrew from the school to turn his attention to the abolitionist cause . He spent the subsequent year studying and , following the lead of Transcendentalist minister Theodore Parker , fighting against the expected war with Mexico . Believing that war was only an excuse to expand slavery and the slave power , Higginson wrote anti - war poems and went door - to - door to get signatures for anti - war petitions . With the split of the anti - slavery movement in the 1840s , Higginson prescribed to the Disunion Abolitionists , who believed that as long as slave states remained a part of the union , Constitutional support for slavery could never be amended . Marriage and family . He married Mary Channing in 1847 after graduating from divinity school . Ministry . A year after leaving school , a growing passion for abolitionism led Higginson to recommence his divinity studies and he graduated in 1847 . Higginson was called as pastor at the First Religious Society of Newburyport , Massachusetts , a Unitarian church known for its liberal Christianity . He supported the Essex County Antislavery Society and criticized the poor treatment of workers at Newburyport cotton factories . Additionally , the young minister invited Theodore Parker , Ralph Waldo Emerson and fugitive slave William Wells Brown to speak at the church ; in sermons he condemned northern apathy towards slavery . Higginson proved too radical for the congregation and was forced to resign in 1848 . Politics and militant abolitionism . The Compromise of 1850 brought new challenges and new ambitions for the unemployed minister . He ran as the Free Soil party candidate in the Massachusetts Third Congressional District in 1850 , but lost . Higginson called upon citizens to uphold God ' s law and disobey the Fugitive Slave Act . He joined the Boston Vigilance Committee , an organization whose purpose was to protect fugitive slaves from pursuit and capture . His joining of the group was inspired by the arrest and trial of the free black Frederick Jenkins , known as Shadrach . Abolitionists helped him escape to Canada . He participated with Wendell Phillips and Theodore Parker in the attempt at freeing Thomas Sims , a Georgia slave who had escaped to Boston . In 1854 , when the escaped Anthony Burns was threatened with extradition under the Fugitive Slave Act , Higginson led a small group who stormed the federal courthouse in Boston with battering rams , axes , cleavers , and revolvers . They could not prevent Burns from being taken back to the South . Higginson received a saber slash on his chin ; he wore the scar proudly for the rest of his life . In 1852 Higginson became pastor of the Free Church in Worcester . During his tenure , Higginson not only supported abolition , but also temperance , labor rights , and rights of women . Returning from a voyage to Europe for the health of his wife , who had an unknown illness , Higginson organized a group of men on behalf of the New England Emigration Aid Company to use peaceful means as tensions rose after the passage of the Kansas - Nebraska Act of 1854 . The act divided the region into the Kansas and Nebraska territories , whose residents would separately vote on whether to allow slavery within each jurisdiction ' s borders . Both abolitionist and pro - slavery supporters began to migrate to the territories . After his return , Higginson worked to keep activism aroused in New England by speechmaking , fundraising , and helping to organize the Massachusetts Kansas Aid Committee . He returned to the Kansas territory as an agent of the National Kansas Aid Committee , working to rebuild morale and distribute supplies to settlers . Higginson became convinced that abolition could not be attained by peaceful methods . As sectional conflict escalated , he continued to support disunion abolitionism , organizing the Worcester Disunion Convention in 1857 . The convention asserted abolition as its primary goal , even if it would lead the country to war . Higginson was a fervent supporter of John Brown and is remembered as one of the " Secret Six " abolitionists who helped Brown raise money and procure supplies for his intended slave insurrection at Harper ' s Ferry , West Virginia . When Brown was captured , Higginson tried to raise money for a trial defense and made plans to help the leader escape from prison , though he was ultimately unsuccessful . Other members of the Secret Six fled to Canada or elsewhere after Brown ' s capture , but Higginson never fled , despite his involvement being common knowledge . Higginson was never arrested or called to testify . Woman ' s rights activism . Higginson was one of leading male advocates of woman ' s rights during the decade before the Civil War . In 1853 he addressed the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention in support of a petition asking that women be allowed to vote on ratification of the new constitution . Published as “ Woman and Her Wishes , ” the address was used many years as a woman ' s rights tract , as was an 1859 article he wrote for the Atlantic Monthly , “ Ought Women to Learn the Alphabet ? ” A close friend and supporter of woman ' s rights leader Lucy Stone , he performed the marriage ceremony of Stone and Henry B . Blackwell in 1855 and , by sending their protest of unjust marriage laws to the press , was responsible for their " Marriage Protest " becoming a famous document . Together with Stone , he compiled and published " The Woman ' s Rights Almanac for 1858 , " which provided data such as income disparity between the sexes as well as a summary of gains made by the national movement during its first seven years . He also compiled and published , in 1858 , " Consistent Democracy : The Elective Franchise for Women . Twenty - five Testimonies of Prominent Men , ” brief excerpts favoring woman suffrage from the speeches or writing of such men as Wendell Phillips , Henry Ward Beecher , Rev . Wm . H . Channing , Horace Greeley , Gerrit Smith , and various governors , legislators , and legislative reports . A member of the National Woman ' s Rights Central Committee since 1853 or 1854 , he was one of nine activists retained in that post when that large body of state representatives was reduced in 1858 . After the Civil War , Higginson was an organizer of the New England Woman Suffrage Association in 1868 , and of the American Woman Suffrage Association the following year . He was one of the original editors of the suffrage newspaper " The Woman ’ s Journal , " founded in 1870 , and contributed a front - page column to it for fourteen years . As a two - year member of the Massachusetts legislature , 1880 – 82 , he was a valuable link between suffragists and the legislature . Civil War years . During the early part of the Civil War , Higginson was a captain in the 51st Massachusetts Infantry . From November 1862 to October 1864 , when he was retired because of a wound received in the preceding August , he was colonel of the First South Carolina Volunteers , the first authorized regiment recruited from freedmen for the Federal service . Secretary of War Edwin M . Stanton required that black regiments be commanded by white officers . Higginson described his Civil War experiences in " < a href = " Army % 20Life % 20in % 20a % 20Black % 20Regiment " > Army Life in a Black Regiment " ( 1870 ) < / a > , which has been published online by Project Gutenberg ( gutenberg . org ) . He contributed to the preservation of Negro spirituals by copying dialect verses and music he heard sung around the regiment ' s campfires . Later years and death . After the Civil War , he devoted most of his time to literature . His writings show a deep love of nature , art and humanity , and are marked by vigour of thought , sincerity of feeling , and grace and finish of style . In his " Common Sense About Women " ( 1881 ) and his " Women and Men " ( 1888 ) , he advocated equality of opportunity and equality of rights for the two sexes . In 1891 Higginson became one of the founders of the Society of American Friends of Russian Freedom ( SAFRF ) . He edited its public appeal " To the Friends of Russian Freedom " . Later , in 1907 Higginson was the vice - president of the SAFRF . Higginson died May 9 , 1911 . He is buried in Cambridge Cemetery in Cambridge , Massachusetts at the intersection of Riverview , Lawn , and Prospect paths . Beliefs . Higginson ' s deep conviction in the evils of slavery stemmed in part from his mother ' s influence . He greatly admired abolitionists , who , despite persecution , showed courage and commitment to the worthy cause . The writings of William Lloyd Garrison and Lydia Maria Child were particularly influential to Higginson ' s abolitionist enthusiasm during the early 1840s . Homeopathy . Higginson was a strong advocate of homeopathy . In 1863 he wrote to Mary Channing Higginson – " . . and also Ms . Laura Towne , the homeopathic physician of the department , chief teacher and probably the most energetic person this side of civilisation : a person of splendid health and astonishing capacity . . . I think she has done more for me than anyone else by prescribing homeopathic arsenic as a tonic , one powder every day on rising , and it has already , I think ( 3 doses ) affected me . " Political parties . In politics , Higginson was successively a Republican , an Independent and a Democrat . Relationship with Emily Dickinson . Higginson is remembered as a correspondent and literary mentor to the poet Emily Dickinson . In April 1862 , Higginson published an article in the " Atlantic Monthly " , titled " Letter to a Young Contributor , " in which he advised budding young writers . Emily Dickinson , a 32 - year - old woman from Amherst , Massachusetts sent a letter to Higginson , enclosing four poems and asking , " Are you too deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive ? " ( Letter 261 ) He was not – his reply included gentle " surgery " ( that is , criticism ) of Dickinson ' s raw , odd verse , questions about Dickinson ' s personal and literary background , and a request for more poems . Higginson ' s next reply contained high praise , causing Dickinson to reply that it " gave no drunkenness " only because she had " tasted rum before " ; she still , though , had " few pleasures so deep as your opinion , and if I tried to thank you , my tears would block my tongue " ( Letter 265 ) . But in the same letter , Higginson warned her against publishing her poetry because of its unconventional form and style . Gradually , Higginson became Dickinson ' s mentor and " preceptor , " though he almost felt out of Dickinson ' s league . " The bee himself did not evade the schoolboy more than she evaded me , " he wrote , " and even at this day I still stand somewhat bewildered , like the boy . " ( " Emily Dickinson ' s Letters , " " Atlantic Monthly " , October 1891 ) After Dickinson died , Higginson collaborated with Mabel Loomis Todd in publishing volumes of her poetry – heavily edited in favor of conventional punctuation , diction , and rhyme . In " White Heat " ( Knopf , 2008 ) , an account of Higginson ' s friendship with Dickinson , author Brenda Wineapple credits Higginson with more editorial sensitivity than literary historians have assumed . Higginson ' s intellectual prominence helped gain favor for Dickinson ' s altered but still startling and strange poetry . 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