Henry Wilson

About

Politician known for serving as 18th Vice President of the United States and serving under President Ulysses S. Grant from 1873 to 1875. He also known for being one of the most outspoken anti-slavery leaders of the Civil War era along with being a longtime U.S. Senator from Massachusetts who helped shape Union policy during and after the war.

Before fame

He grew up in extreme poverty. He was hired out to work at a young age and had only sporadic access to education. He became an avid reader despite this and taught himself whenever possible. He legally changed his name to Henry Wilson when he was 21 years old. He walked to Natick, Massachusetts in 1833 which is where he learned shoemaking and began saving money. He entered Massachusetts politics in the 1840s and aligned himself with reform movements and anti-slavery causes. He quickly gained a reputation as an energetic organizer and speaker. He had been elected to the United States Senate by 1855, where he would serve for nearly two decades and emerge as one of the Republican Party's leading voices during the Civil War.

Trivia

He cast a tie-breaking vote as vice president tied to the Civil Rights Act of 1875. He authored the three-volume historical work History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America. He was the fourth vice president to die while in office.

Family life

He was born Jeremiah Jones Colbath. He was born and raised in Farmington, New Hampshire. He was raised in an impoverished family. He married Harriet Howe in 1840, and they had two children together including an adoptive daughter. He died in Washington, D.C. while still serving as vice president in 1875.

Associated with

He and Charles Sumner were both powerful Massachusetts senators and anti-slavery leaders of the same era.