George Luther Stearns (January 8, 1809 – April 9, 1867) was an American industrialist and merchant in Medford, Massachusetts, as well as an

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

and a noted recruiter of black soldiers for the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

Biography

Early life and family

George L. Stearns was born in Medford, Massachusetts on January 8, 1809, the eldest son and second child of Luther and Mary (Hall) Stearns. His paternal immigrant ancestor, Isaac Sterne, arrived in Salem on June 12, 1630, from Suffolk,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He had sailed to the new colony with

John Winthrop John Winthrop (January 12, 1587/88 – March 26, 1649) was an English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led t ...

, a future governor, and Sir

Richard Saltonstall Sir Richard Saltonstall (baptised Halifax, England 4 April 1586 – October 1661) led a group of English settlers up the Charles River to settle in what is now Watertown, Massachusetts in 1630. He was a nephew of the Lord Mayor of London R ...

, among others. Isaac Sterne moved to Watertown, located along the

Charles River The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles b ...

, where he died in 1671. What became known as the American Stearns family (note spelling variation) grew, with branches moving northward and westward. For decades men typically worked as farmers, teachers, and clergymen. Stearns' father, Luther Stearns, was born on February 17, 1770, the eldest of five children born to Captain Josiah Stearns, a soldier in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. He commanded a company of 50 men from

Lunenburg, Massachusetts Lunenburg is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 11,946 at the 2020 census. History Lunenburg was first settled by Europeans in 1718 and was officially incorporated in 1728. The name stems from one of t ...

. Luther Stearns had entered Dartmouth College at age seventeen but transferred, graduating from Harvard in 1791. He worked as a tutor at Harvard and eventually studied medicine. He later became an obstetrician. He was honored in 1811 by an honorary degree from Harvard. After getting his practice started, Luther married Mary Hall of

Brattleboro, Vermont Brattleboro (), originally Brattleborough, is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The most populous municipality abutting Vermont's eastern border with New Hampshire, which is the Connecticut River, Brattleboro is located about ...

, on December 29, 1799; she was 16 years old, not an uncommon marrying age for women. They settled in Medford, Massachusetts to be closer to her relatives. They had three children together: Elizabeth Hall, George Luther, and Henry Laurens Stearns (named after the American Ambassador of that name, a distant relative). The senior Stearns later opened a private preparatory school for boys in Medford; many students came from the American South and the West Indies. Stearns died of pneumonia on April 27, 1820, when son George was eleven years old. To earn money, young George sometimes tended the locks on the Middlesex Canal in town. At the age of 15, he entered the workforce to support his mother and sisters.

Career

In early life, Stearns was engaged in the business of ship-chandlery. After a prosperous career, he began the manufacture of sheet and pipe-lead, doing business in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and residing in Medford. He married Mary Elizabeth Preston on October 12, 1843. They met through acquaintances, including her father Warren Preston, a probate judge in Norridgewock, Maine; and Lydia Maria Child, an American abolitionist and women's rights activist. Before voting in the Missouri and Kansas territories about the future of slavery in each jurisdiction, Stearns was one of the chief financiers of the Emigrant Aid Company. It supported the settlement of

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

by antislavery homesteaders. He identified with the antislavery cause, and became a Free-soiler in 1848. He also established the Medford station of the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

to help escaped refugee slaves to gain freedom (some continued to Canada, which had abolished slavery). Stearns was one of the "

Secret Six The so-called Secret Six, or the Secret Committee of Six, were a group of men who secretly funded the 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry by abolitionist John Brown. Sometimes described as "wealthy," this was true of only two. The other four were in po ...

" who aided John Brown in

, and financially supported him for the raid on

Harpers Ferry Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia. It is located in the lower Shenandoah Valley. The population was 285 at the 2020 census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where the U.S. stat ...

; Brown was executed for this attack. Stearns had owned the pikes and 200

Sharps rifle Sharps rifles are a series of large-bore, single-shot, falling-block, breech-loading rifles, beginning with a design by Christian Sharps in 1848 and ceasing production in 1881. They were renowned for long-range accuracy. By 1874 the rifle wa ...

s taken to Harpers Ferry by Brown and his followers. Following Brown's arrest, Stearns briefly fled to Canada but returned to Medford to face inquiry following Brown's execution. Soon after the opening of the Civil War, Stearns advocated the enlistment of African Americans in the Union Army. Massachusetts Governor John Andrew asked Stearns to recruit the first two Northern state-sponsored black

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscript ...

s. He contributed strongly to recruiting the enlistees of the 54th and 55th Massachusetts regiments and the 5th cavalry. Stearns was commissioned as major through the recommendation of

Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...

Edwin M. Stanton Edwin McMasters Stanton (December 19, 1814December 24, 1869) was an American lawyer and politician who served as U.S. Secretary of War under the Lincoln Administration during most of the American Civil War. Stanton's management helped organize ...

. Later he also enlisted black soldiers for the U.S. Colored Troops from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, and

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. He is credited with recruiting more than 13,000 African Americans. He also established schools for their children and found work for their families while the men served in the army. Stearns founded the ''Nation'', ''Commonwealth'', and ''Right Way'' newspapers for the dissemination of his ideas. After President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

's Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, Stearns worked tirelessly for the

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

of African Americans. Among his many admirers and friends were Louisa May Alcott, Henry David Thoreau,

Charles Sumner Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American statesman and United States Senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces in the state and a leader of th ...

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...

, and President Andrew Johnson. He also helped to found the Freedmen's Bureau, a federal organization designed to support emancipated African Americans (

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...

) in the South after the end of the war.

Death and legacy

Stearns died of pneumonia in New York City, New York on April 9, 1867.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

gave th
eulogy
at his funeral at the First Parish Church in Medford ( Unitarian). Writer John Greenleaf Whittier published a poem in honor of Stearns in the May 1867 edition of the '' Atlantic Monthly'', entitled "G.L.S." It read, in part: "No duty could overtask him;
No need his will outrun;
Or ever our lips could ask him;
His hands the work had done." "A man who asked not to be great;
But as he served and saved the state." In 1897, a monument was erected on Boston Common to commemorate Colonel

Robert Gould Shaw Robert Gould Shaw (October 10, 1837 – July 18, 1863) was an American officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Born into a prominent Boston abolitionist family, he accepted command of the first all-black regiment (the 54th Mas ...

and the 54th Massachusetts regiment he commanded. Together with 20 of his men, he was killed in July 1863 in the

Second Battle of Fort Wagner The Second Battle of Fort Wagner, also known as the Second Assault on Morris Island or the Battle of Fort Wagner, Morris Island, was fought on July 18, 1863, during the American Civil War. Union Army troops commanded by Brig. Gen. Quincy Gil ...

. At the dedication of the monument,

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...

, President of

Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature. The campus was de ...

, made an address. He attributed the organization and recruiting of the US Colored Troops to be the work "of John A. Andrew ... and that of George L. Stearns, who, with hidden generosity and a great sweet heart, helped to turn the darkest hour into day, and in doing so freely gave service, fortune and life itself to the cause which this day commemorates.""Exercises at the Dedication of the Monument to Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the Fifty-fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Infantry," May 31, 1897, Boston: Boston City Council, 1897. Following this commemoration, Joseph H. Smith, a veteran of the 54th, started a movement to have a commemorative tablet placed in the Statehouse at Boston, to honor Major Stearns' services. The resolution was passed in 1897 to place a tablet in Memorial Hall or other establishments in Boston and signed by Governor Wolcott. It was not enacted at the time, but a second resolution was passed in 1901 by the Massachusetts legislature to authorize it. The tablet is entitled: "In Memoriam George Luther Stearns" and says, in part:The Magnet and the Iron: John Brown and George L. Stearns
/ref>

A merchant of Boston who illustrated in his life and character the nobility and generosity of citizenship. Giving his life and fortune for the overthrow of slavery and the preservation of free institutions. To his unresting devotion and unfailing hope, Massachusetts owes the Fifty-fourth and Fifth-fifth Regiments of colored infantry, and the federal government ten thousand troops, at a critical moment in the great war. In the darkest hour of the republic, his faith in the people never wavered.

Notes

References

* Heller, Charles E., ''Portrait of an Abolitionist: A Biography of George Luther Stearns, 1809-1867.'' Greenwood Press, 1996. . Attribution *

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stearns, George Luther 1809 births 1867 deaths Deaths from pneumonia in New York City Abolitionists from Boston Union Army officers People of Massachusetts in the American Civil War American Civil War industrialists Underground Railroad people Massachusetts Free Soilers John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry Secret Six