Thomas Wentworth Higginson, sometimes known as Wentworth, was an American Unitarian preacher, novelist, abolitionist, politician, and soldier. He was involved in abolitionism in the United States throughout the 1840s and 1850s, siding with disunion and militant abolitionism. He was a member of the Secret Six, which supported John Brown. During the Civil War, he led the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, the first federally sanctioned black regiment, from 1862 until 1864. Following the war, he wrote about his interactions with African-American soldiers and spent the remainder of his life advocating for the rights of freed people, women, and other disenfranchised groups. Higginson was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on December 22, 1823. He was a descendent of Francis Higginson, a Puritan preacher and one of the first immigrants in Massachusetts Bay. His father, Stephen Higginson (born November 20, 1770 in Salem, Massachusetts; died February 20, 1834 in Cambridge, Massachusetts), was a Boston merchant and philanthropist who served as Harvard University's bursar from 1818 to 1834. His mother belonged to Boston's famous Storrow family. His grandfather, Stephen Higginson, was a member of the Continental Congress. He was a distant relative of Henry Lee Higginson, the founder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and a great-grandson of his grandfather. John Wentworth, Lieutenant-Governor of New Hampshire, was a third great grandfather.
