Was thaddeus stevens married
- •
Thaddeus Stevens ‘College’ was originally founded as a public institution for orphans of Pennsylvania who were willing to learn a trade combined with an academic education. The organization originally began as a three-year high school from a bequest in the will of Thaddeus Stevens, philanthropist and statesman. First opening its doors in 1905, the school followed the principle “No preference shall be shown on account of race or color in admission to the school. They shall be fed at the same table,” as stated in the Stevens’ will. The school began with 15 students in attendance.
As an institution, equity is in its founding principles. Thaddeus Stevens suffered from a physical disability and grew up in poverty, and he profoundly valued access to opportunity and education. Through the legacy of his life and the bequest in his will, Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology today embodies those values.
In 1971, the school converted from its three-year program to a two-year educational system. At that time, the College began to work toward developing a cur
- •
Remarkable Radical: Thaddeus Stevens
When the farmer complained, the school refused to let the wrongly accused man graduate. Stevens, unable to stomach this injustice, contacted the farmer on his own, fessed up, and made arrangements to pay damages. The farmer withdrew his complaint, and, within a few years, Stevens paid the farmer back. In gratitude, the farmer sent Stevens a hogshead of cider.
The anecdote demonstrates early on in his life Stevens’s basic character—his rashness, his inconsistencies, his convictions, and his tenacity.
We know Thaddeus Stevens as an ardent abolitionist who championed the rights of blacks for decades—up to, during, and after the Civil War. With other Radical Republicans, he agitated for emancipation, black fighting units, and black suffrage. After the war, he favored dividing up Southern plantations among the freed slaves, embracing William Tecumseh Sherman’s “forty acres and a mule.” Throughout his career, he championed reforms in education and finance, but what seems to us today a minor cause—a growing hostility t
- •
Biographical Sidebar:
Thaddeus Stevens
The most prominent Radical Republican in Congress during Reconstruction, Thaddeus Stevens (1792-1868) was born and educated in New England. He moved as a young man to Pennsylvania, where he practiced law, became an iron manufacturer, and entered politics. Stevens served several terms in the legislature, where he won renown as an advocate of free public education. He also championed the rights of Pennsylvania's black population. |
A delegate to the Pennsylvania constitutional convention of 1838, he refused to sign the document because it limited voting to whites.
As a Congressman, Stevens during the Civil War urged the administration to free and arm the slaves and by 1865 favored black suffrage in the South. He became one of Andrew Johnson's fiercest critics and an early advocate of his impeachment.
To Stevens, Reconstruction offered an opportunity to create a "perfect republic" based on the principle of equal rights for all citizens. As floor leader of House Republicans, he helped to shepherd Reconstruction leg
Copyright ©tubglen.pages.dev 2025