The orientation of Henry Wilson(1812-1856).
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Henry Wilson (Feb. 16, 1812 - Nov. 22, 1875). Sometime United States Senator and Vice-President. The first of eight children of Winthrop and Abigail (Witham) Colbath, he was born in Farmington, New Hampshire, and christened Jeremiah Jones Colbath. The family was so poor that at the age of ten and one half the boy was "bound out" to a nearby farmer, who agreed to provide room, board and one month of schooling per year in return for his labor. Upon receiving his freedom, in 1833, he had his name legally changed to Henry Wilson, hoping thus to escape the stigma of his father's alcoholism. Migrating to Natick, Massachusetts, he entered the shoemaker's trade. At the start of 1836, while visiting Washington during a trip to recover his health, he came in contact with slavery. The system disgusted him and its ultimate extinction by constitutional means became the main ambition of his life.
Returning to Massachusetts, Wilson studied at various academies for a little more than a year, when the failure of a debtor left him penniless. Back in Natick, he taught school for one term and then became a factor in the "putting-out" system, delivering leather to shoemakers and selling the finished product. He continued intermittently in this business until 1847, when politics became his sole preoccupation. [TRUNCATED]
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University
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