Henry Ward Beecher, a notable and respected man in his time, influenced the mind of society through his riveting sermons and reformist ideas in addition to fighting through a public sex scandal that had the potential to ruin his social image. In his early life, Henry’s love for adventure and the outdoors eventually led to what he would successfully become and later impact the public as: a “political preacher” (Applegate). During his childhood, Henry frolicked through vast pastures and open, inviting fields instead of keeping his nose in the books. When his family transported from Connecticut to East coast Massachusetts, Henry found that Boston “held one attraction for (him) – sailing ships” (HBSC). His apparent love for spontaneity and …show more content…
independence prompted his father, Lyman Beecher to convince him to eventually become a navy officer. Throughout his time at Mount Pleasant Institute, Henry gained the skills to transform into “a powerful orator” (HBSC). This newfound speaking proficiency joined with steadfast religious beliefs instilled in him by his father led to Henry’s decision to become a minister. After his enrollment and later graduation from Amherst College, Henry entered Lane Seminary and upon completion of his studies, married Eunice Bullard. During his beginning, Henry’s fascination with “debating, speech, and English Literature” fostered his talents for public speaking and appeased his father’s wishes for careers in ministry to continue in the Beecher family (HBSC). Henry Beecher’s childhood appreciation for nature and thirst for adventure later propelled his life in a direction involving religion and activism and gave him the opportunity to influence the minds of America. Throughout Henry’s influential career, he challenged the deeply rooted beliefs of slavery, traditional sermons, and women’s rights and encouraged individuals to become public activists. In the beginning, Henry’s sermons flourished on the western frontier, “with its easy manners, wide open opportunities, and unashamed pursuit of happiness” (Applegate). His development of an emotional and almost theatrical style combined with his emphasis on Christ’s devotion and unequivocal compassion led to his growing popularity in the mid 1800s. With his reputation spreading like wildfire, Henry eventually relocated to New York after several wealthy businessmen recruited him to lead a new church there. People claimed that Henry Ward Beecher proved one of a kind, “with his odd combination of western informality, eastern education, and unabashed showmanship” (Applegate). During his sermons, Henry frequently spoke of the wrongs of slavery, and his sermons “often could not fit inside the building” (HBSC). Henry believed in the emancipation of slaves so strongly that he would urge his congregation to purchase the freedom individuals currently enslaved at that time. Because of his popular notoriety, President Abraham Lincoln himself, during the Civil War, “sent Henry to London to persuade Great Britain to remain neutral” (HBSC). After playing a huge part in the war whether altering the public image of slavery or sailing across the Atlantic to sway a nation’s opinion, Henry continued to approach commonly disputed “ideas like women’s suffrage and Darwinian evolution” (Applegate). Throughout his life, Henry Beecher shaped the minds of individuals around him and their opinions on controversial issues such as slavery and women’s rights. Even as an esteemed societal figure, Henry became involved in a sex scandal that had the capability to alter his reputation, yet he fought through the public defamation and continued to alter the lives of those around him.
In the later 1800s, Theodore Tilton, a former friend of Henry, accused him of having as affair with his wife, Elizabeth Tilton. Henry successfully repressed Tilton’s allegations until Victoria Woodhull, a profound feminist and entrepreneur, published the story, “sparking a firestorm in the national press” (Applegate). The scandal and public embarrassment continued as Tilton sued Henry in civil court. The trial became the “most notorious one of the 19th century” and affected other members of the Beecher family as well (HBSC). Harriet Beecher backed her brother while her sister, Isabella believed that Henry had committed the crime of adultery. In the end, the court found Henry innocent, and he continued to lecture while giving his opinions on worldly events. Despite the fuss over his social decisions, Henry remained a pivotal public figure. The public admired his stances of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and his political backing of Grover Cleveland for President of the United States in 1884. Upon his death on March 8, 1887, “the city of Brooklyn declared a day of mourning” (Applegate). Members from various different multicultural communities gathered in the procession to his funeral in Green-Wood Cemetery, located in Brooklyn, New York. A tenacious and devoted man, Henry Beecher persevered through the public embarrassment of a sex scandal and soon resumed his position as a strong influencer of
society. Throughout most of the 1800s, Henry Ward Beecher remained an essential figurehead of social reform and activism even while his reputation underwent a public attack due to an infamous sexual disparagement. Similar to his famous sibling, Harriet Beecher, he endured many criticisms about his beliefs and mannerisms, yet he continued to stand firm in his opinions and attempted to influence the thoughts of others as well. Both Henry and Harriet Beecher held rigid positions on slavery and played integral parts in the reformation on the world’s view on slavery. Whether preaching about activism and public reform or writing a book that would alter societal opinion, Henry Beecher as well as Harriet Beecher gained the public’s attention and respect throughout their lifetimes and even after their deaths.
Henry's first-person narrative is the most important element of these stories. Through it he recounts the events of his life, his experiences with others, his accomplishments and troubles. The great achievement of this narrative voice is how effortlessly it reveals Henry's limited education while simultaneously demonstrating his quick intelligence, all in an entertaining and convincing fashion. Henry introduces himself by introducing his home-town of Perkinsville, New York, whereupon his woeful g...
John’s was born on January 16, 1736 in Braintree, Massachusetts. He was the middle child of three. He was the son of John Hancock, who was born on June 1, 1702 in Lexington, Massachusetts and child of Mary Hawke, who was born on October 13, 1711 in Hingham, Massachusetts. His mother was married once before she married Johns farther. Her marriage ended in her former husband’s death. John Hancock Sr was a “faithful Shepard.” He always kept an alert watch over the ethics and religious well-being of all members of the neighborhood. Ever since John’s (Jr.) birth, he was perceived to go to Harvard. When he was six, his parents sent him to a local dame school. Later he was sent to another institute, in where he met John Adams, whom became a friend of his. Like all the other children, John learned the basics of writing, figuring, and reading. All things appeared to be going well, until spring of 1774. His father had gotten sick, that later would kill him. His grief grew more because they would have to move. His mother’s parents were both dead and a very difficult choice would have to be made by her. Her anxiety to make that decision was diminished by the offer from the bishop and his wife, to live with them in Lexington. A year later, John was sent away to live with his uncle Thomas and aunt Lydia, and attend Boston Latin School. The move genuinely altered John Hancock’s life.
Henry’s father, a strict, war-obsessed man essentially dictates Henry’s life, distancing the two as Henry continues to oppose his father’s views. Because of his father’s controlling ways, there is little love to be lost between the father and son. This animosity between them can be seen when Henry is about to leave his apartment to retrieve the family photos of his Japanese friend Keiko. His father tells him that should Henry leave to help Keiko, he “[is] no longer part of this family” (Ford 185).
Winthrop’s Boston: A Portrait of a Puritan Town, 1630 - 1649 by Darret B. Rutman seemed to be a long and excruciating read. The book had a great deal of information that the reader could learn from it, but most was lost when trying to stay awake to read it. On the other hand, Rutman had the concept down. The importance should be put on the idea behind the book because if you are interested in the idea you will gain knowledge. Nonetheless this book shows you the circumstances that Winthrop faced, what the founder of Boston fought through to create “The City on the Water”.
Henry is somewhat naïve, he dreams of glory, but doesn't think much of the duty that follows. Rather than a sense of patriotism, it is clear to the reader that Henry goals seem a little different, he wants praise and adulation. "On the way to Washington, the regiment was fed and caressed for station after station until the youth beloved
On November 2, 1872 Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly published a story reporting that a prominent and well known minister, Henry Ward Beecher, allegedly had an extra marital affair with Elizabeth Tilton, the wife of a well known editor and Beecher’s assistant, Theodore Tilton. Both Tiltons were members of Beecher’s congregation. Victoria Woodhull, supporter of free love and a proponent of women’s suffrage, implied in her article that Beecher, a pastor of the Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn and an advocate of strong moral values, did not practice what he preached and committed adultery, something he advised against from the pulpit. It is believed that Mrs.Tilton confessed the affair to her husband in 1870 and subsequently retracted her confession under pressure from Beecher as well as Mr. Tilton. Mr. Tilton, apparently seeking to unburden himself, told the story to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a women’s movement activist, who in turn repeated it to Mrs. Woodhull.
wrote a pamphlet to the people in England and told about all the good things
Much of Henry David Thoreau’s work was affected by his early life and education. Henry David Thoreau was born into a normal middle class family in Concord Massachusetts on July 12, 1817. Thoreau’s family were shopkeepers and later operated a small but profitable business making pencils and selling graphite that later turned out to be very prosperous (Sattelmeyer 1). The fact that Henry’s family had money made it possible for him to get a good education. Instead of following the family business which could have been a prosperous decision, Henry went to better his education in high hopes of making something of himself. This decision marks the starting point of Thoreau’s educational adventure.
Henry Lee Lucas was born on August 23, 1936 to Anderson and Viola Lucas. He was born in the small town of Blacksburg, Virginia, which rested in the Appalachian Mountains. Shortly after birth his father, Anderson, lost both legs in a drunken driving accident. This left his mother, Viola, as the sole source of income in the house. While forced to share a minute two-room log cabin with eight siblings for the early part of his life, Henry’s siblings were quickly famed out to distant relatives leaving just his half-brother and him to be forced reside with his abusive mother. To make money, Lu...
Thomas Paine, political activist, writer/pamphleteer, inspired many Americans through his writing. He was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States who had faith in America and its people.
King Henry was once young and seemingly uninterested in his role as a future King of England. Many of Henry’s legendary and heroic traits did not originate in Henry V; instead, they appeared in previous Shakespearean plays including Henry IV. As the British heir apparent, young Henry was known as “Prince Hal, Henry, Harry, Prince Harry, Harry Monmouth, and the Prince of Wales” (Britannica). In Henry V, King Henry is this play’s main protagonist. Shakespeare’s audience briefly witnesses the gradual transformation of Henry from a youthful hell-raiser and playboy to a dignified King. Henry’s immature reputation is described by the Bishop of Canterbury when he says that “a heady currance scour[s] his faults” (I.i.36). In Henry IV, the audience is first introduced to Prince Hal, at his apartment in London and a cheap tavern called the Boar’s Head in Eastcheap, where the future King mingled and formed networks with drinking buddies. There he pla...
down that path, due to your own choices and the choices of those that went before you. You are fully immersed in the life of dependence and specialization and wage-slavery that Henry is steadily inching towards, and so you know exactly how much Henry is throwing away, exactly what sort of bondage he is selling himself into.
The major endeavours of Henry VIII during his reign over England from 1509 to 1547 included the Field of the Cloth of Gold and the Reformation of the English Church. The sole reason for these actions is said to be love and seems to be related to the King’s obsession for a male heir but other factors were involved. Paramount among these is the influence of his family in the earlier years of his life. Other reasons such as general insecurities and competitiveness with other royal houses are also possible motives. To say that the major endeavours of Henry VIII during his reign were motivated by his obsession with a male heir is not completely accurate as other, more viable, explanations are available.
In “ A Description of New England ”, Smith starts by describing the pleasure and content that risking your life for getting your own piece of land brings to men. On the other hand, Bradford reminds us how harsh and difficult the trip to the New World was for the p...
The civil war had resulted in the ever-changing amount of kings over the years. This lack of stability could result in Henry being faced with a lack of support from his subjects. Their faith in a king who would guide the country was low, and their interest in the monarchy was fading. They needed consistency, which Henry could not offer considering his unsteady path to safeguarding his position on the throne. The nobility was another issue he had faced. Growing power of nobility in England could be met with resistance to Henry being on the throne. Henry was a calculated king, whom was not interested in the common characteristics of a king; drinking, constant lavish gatherings… Henry was more interested in being a strong and strict king. An opposition from the nobility could result in large reluctancy to follow Henry, further causing insecurity. However, he still had the more favourable opinion than Richard, who was strongly disliked in England, apart from in the north of