Thomas Wentworth Higginson CollectionMicrofilm Roll MS 127
IntroductionThis collection consists mainly of letters received by Higginson from 1855 to 1860. Thomas Wentworth Higginson was a Massachusetts minister and author who was active in the anti-slavery movement before the U.S. Civil War. Descriptive InformationRepository: Creator: Title: Dates: Quantity: Abstract: Identification: Note: Biographical SketchThomas Wentworth Higginson was a Massachusetts minister and author who was active in the anti-slavery movement before the U.S. Civil War. In 1854 he led a failed attempt to break Anthony Burns, a captured fugitive slave, out of the Boston Court House jail. Beginning in 1855 he worked with militant abolitionist groups who advocated the admission of Kansas into the Union as a free (non-slave) state. Higginson travelled to Kansas Territory with a company of free state settlers in fall 1856 and published his letters from there in the New York tribune titled, "A Ride through Kanzas" with the signature "Worcester". Higginson was one of the group of New England abolitionists that included Gerrit Smith, Reverend Theodore Parker, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, George Luther Stearns and Franklin Sanborn, that financially supported John Brown's anti-slavery activities in territorial Kansas and later his raid on Harper's Ferry, Va., Oct. 16, 1859. At the beginning of the Civil War he was appointed colonel of a regiment of freed slaves and was wounded at Wiltown Bluff, S. C., Aug. 1863. After the war he served as chief of staff to Mass. Governor John D. Long in 1880, was a representative to the state legislature in 1880 and 1881 and was state military and naval historian from 1889-1891. His published writings include histories, biographies and essays. Scope and Content Notes The early letters document Higginson’s involvement with the
Massachusetts State Kansas Committee. The correspondence between the
members of the committee and Higginson discusses their fundraising activities
in Massachusetts and differences of opinion over how the funds are being
spent. There is an August 1855 letter from Charles Robinson (later the
Governor of Kansas) explaining the political situation in Kansas. Higginson received correspondence from people wanting assistance to go to Kansas. The families of people the Worcester group had already sent wrote him for information on their relatives. Most of the letters from Kansas describe the political events in the anti-slavery towns of Lawrence and Topeka during the territorial period. There are accounts of the state voter census and the votes that were held in Lecompton, the pro-slavery capital. There are many references to John Brown’s activities in Kansas. Letters from 1860 concern John Brown’s disastrous attack on Harper’s Ferry, Va., the possibility of rescuing some of his men and the subsequent arrest of some of Higginson’s associates. Organization of the Collection Adjunct Descriptive DataRelated materials: Separated material: Other finding aid: Index: Bibliography: Higginson, Mary Thacher, editor. Letters and journals of Thomas Wentworth
Higginson, 1846-1906. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1921. Controlled Access HeadingsPersonal names: Corporate names: Geographic names: Subjects: Titles: Administrative InformationRestrictions on use: Notice: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code). The user is cautioned that the publication of the contents of this microfilm may be construed as constituting a violation of literary property rights. These rights derive from the principle of common law, affirmed in the copyright law of 1976 as amended, that the writer of an unpublished letter or other manuscript has the sole right to publish the contents thereof unless he or she affirmatively parts with that right; the right descends to his or her legal heirs regardless of the ownership of the physical manuscript itself. It is the responsibility of a user or his or her publisher to secure the permission of the owner of literary property rights in unpublished writing. Preferred citation: Acquisition information: Description of Subordinate ComponentsMC 380 Thomas Wentworth Higginson papers Microfilm is available on a self-service basis in the Research Room
or may be borrowed from the Kansas State Historical Society through
interlibrary loan. |
|
 |
