American abolitionist, orator, and writer Henry Ward Beecher was born June 24, 1813, in Litchfield, Connecticut. The eighth son of the Reverend Lyman Beecher, the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, he was educated at the Lane Theological Seminary before becoming a Presbyterian minister in Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis. His pamphlet, “Seven Lectures to Young Men,” was published in 1844. Beecher moved to Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, in 1847; by that time he had developed a national reputation for his oratorical skills, and he drew crowds of 2,500 every Sunday.He strongly opposed slavery and favored temperance and woman's suffrage. Beecher condemned the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill from his pulpit and helped to raise funds to supply weapons to those willing to oppose slavery in those territories. These rifles became known as “Beecher's Bibles.” John Brown and five of his sons were some of the volunteers who headed for Kansas. Beecher supported the Free Soil Party in 1852 but switched to the Republican Party in 1860.
During the Civil War, Beecher's church raised and equipped a volunteer regiment. However, after the war, he advocated reconciliation. Beecher edited The Independent (1861-63) and the Christian Union (1870-78) and published several books, including Summer in the Soul (1858), The Life of Jesus Christ (1871), Yale Lectures on Preaching (1872), and Evolution and Religion (1885). Henry Ward Beecher died of a cerebral hemorrhage on March 8, 1887.