The Hand-Book to Arizona

Richard J. Hinton (1830-1901), an Englishman, crossed the Atlantic in 1851 and took up residence in New York City. While there he learned the printer's trade and soon became a newspaper reporter. As a reporter he opposed the Fugitive Slave Law, became an anti-slavery advocate, and assisted in the organization of the Republican Party, which came into being in large part to oppose the expansion of slavery as embodied in the Kansas-Nebraska Act. With many another Kansas journalist of the late 1850s, Hinton certainly was “among those that helped to make Kansas free,” as he wrote in 1900. 

Following the Civil War, Hinton contributed articles to many different magazines and wrote several books, including John Brown and His Men: With Some Account of the Roads They Traveled to Reach Harper's Ferry (1894), an admiring biography of Hinton's old leader and hero. He also held several politically appointed positions within the federal government.