Home > American Civil War > Thaddeus Stevens Biography

Born April 4, 1792
Danville, Vermont
Died August 11, 1868
Washington, D.C.

Union political leader, head of the Radical
Republicans in the U.S. Congress

Led the fight to abolish slavery and secure equal
rights for black Americans during the Civil War
and Reconstruction

Thaddeus Stevens was a highly influential—and also controversial—politician during and immediately after the Civil War. People in the North who opposed slavery hailed him as one of the bravest leaders in American history. No one did more to promote the principles of freedom and equality laid out in the U.S. Constitution. "Every man, no matter what his race or color, has an equal right to justice, honesty, and fair play with every other man; and the law should secure him those rights," Stevens once said. "Such is the law of God and such ought to be the law of man."

But white...