Richard Hildreth

Richard Hildreth (June 28, 1807 – July 11, 1865), was an American journalist, author and historian. He is best known for writing his six-volume History of the United States of America covering 1497–1821 and published 1840-1853. Historians consider it a highly accurate political history of the early Republic, but with a strong bias in favor of the Federalist Party and the abolition of slavery. Early life Hildreth was born at Deerfield, Massachusetts. He was the son of Hosea Hildreth (1782–1835), who was a teacher of mathematics and later a Congregational minister. His mother was Sarah McLeod, who had married Hosea in 1806. Hosea Hildreth was appointed professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Phillips Exeter Academy in 1811, and young Richard began attending Phillips in 1816, staying for seven years thereafter. In 1826, he graduated from Harvard College. After studying law at Newburyport, he was admitted to the bar at Boston in 1830. Career In 1832, Hildreth he became joint founder and editor of a daily newspaper, the Boston Atlas. In 1834, he wrote a popular anti-slavery novel The Slave: or Memoir of Archy Moore (1836; enlarged edition, 1852, The White Slave).