Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Remembered as an editor and as a commander of black troops in the Civil War and as an abolitionist, Thomas Wentworth Higginson is also notable as the "discoverer" and editor of Emily Dickinson's poems, the officiant at the marriage of Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell and as an ardent proponent of women's equality.

Emily Dickinson: A Young Contributor and Her Friend
The story of the connection of Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Emily Dickinson, both during her lifetime and after her death, when he helped bring her poems to public attention. Without Higginson's promotion of her work, we might not know of Emily Dickinson today.

Harriet Tubman Quotations
On this page: a quote by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1859, describing his impression of Harriet Tubman.

Lydia Maria Child - Biography
In 1868, Thomas Wentworth Higginson published a biographical sketch of Lydia Maria Child, who was a generation older than Higginson and part of the generation that inspired him and his fellow social reformers and writers.

Marriage Protest of Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell - 1855
When Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell married on May 1, 1855, the Rev. Thomas Wentworth Higginson performed the ceremony. He also read the statement in which Stone and Blackwell protested against marriage laws of the time, and he distributed the statement to other ministers as a model for others to follow.

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Women's History