Women and the Alphabet Author:Thomas Wentworth Higginson Thomas Higginson was an American minister, author, abolitionist, and soldier. During the Civil War, he served as colonel of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, the first federally authorized African-American regiment. Higginson spent much of his life devoted to the causes surrounding freed slaves, women and others needing help. After reading ... more »"Ought Women to learn the Alphabet?" which was originally published in the Atlantic Monthly, Sophia Smith founded the women's college that would have her name. Other topics in this collection of essays include physiology, temperament, the home, society, study and work, principles of government, suffrage, and objections to suffrage.« less