Samuel Porter Putnam (July 23, 1838 - December 11, 1896) was an American

freethinker Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other metho ...

, critic and

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Biography

Putnam was born in Chichester, New Hampshire. His father was a minister of a Congregational church. He graduated from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

in 1861, then entered 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 ...

as a private, and was promoted during the

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to a captaincy.Cooke, Bill. ''Putnam, Samuel Porter (1838-1896)''. In Tom Flynn. (2007). ''The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief''. Prometheus Books. pp. 624-625. In 1865 he entered the theological seminary in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, where he graduated in 1868, and preached for three years thereafter as a

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

minister in the pulpits of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

. In 1871 he became a Unitarian minister, and preached for several years in various states. He then renounced the

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

and became an avowed freethinker. He attacked the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

and Christianity upon the platform, and for 20 years probably making more speeches against them than any other American, speaking almost every day for months together. Putnam was married to Louise Howell for eighteen years, they divorced in 1885 due to religious differences. They had two children. In 1888 with George E. MacDonald he founded the ''Freethought'' journal in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. It dissolved in 1891. He formed the Freethought Federation of America as president in 1892. It merged with the

American Secular Union The American Secular Union (ASU, also sometimes called the "American Secular Union and Freethought Federation") espoused secularism and freethought at the end of the 19th century in the United States. As the National Liberal League suffered cripp ...

and became the American Secular Union and Freethought Federation in 1895. Historian Leigh Eric Schmidt discusses Putnam's life in ''Village Atheists: How America's Unbelievers Made Their Way In a Godly Nation'' (2016)."Village Atheists Engagingly Explores a Persecuted American Minority"
PopMatters.

Death

Putnam died from a

gas leak A gas leak refers to a leak of natural gas or another gaseous product from a pipeline or other containment into any area where the gas should not be present. Gas leaks can be hazardous to health as well as the environment. Even a small leak in ...

age on December 11, 1896. His body was found on the floor with twenty year old lecturer May Collins in her hotel room 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 ...

. They had planned to go to the theatre together but were "poisoned by illuminating gas."

Publications

''Prometheus: A Poem''
(1877) * ''Gottlieb: His Life''
''Golden Throne''
* ''Why Don't He Lend a Hand?'' (1880) * ''Ingersoll and Jesus'' (1882)
''Waifs and Wanderings: A Novel''
(1884) * ''Adami and Heva: A New Version'' (1886) * ''The New God'' (1887) * ''The Problem of the Universe'' * ''My Religious Experience'' (1890) * ''Pen Pictures of the World's Fair''
''Four Hundred Years of Freethought''
(New York: Truth Seeker Company, 1894)

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Putnam, Samuel Porter 1838 births 1896 deaths 19th-century American journalists 19th-century American male writers American atheism activists American critics American male journalists Critics of Christianity Freethought writers People from Chichester, New Hampshire Union Army soldiers