U.S. Vice President Henry Wilson (1812-1875) was effective in helping to shape the Republican party's antislavery measures and politics.

Henry Wilson, born on Feb. 16, 1812, in Farmington, N.H., was originally named Jeremiah Jones Colbath (he changed his name by act of legislature in 1833). Of a poor family, at 10 he was indentured to a farmer. Such was his hunger for self-improvement that he studied grammar and read widely in books on history and literature.

Free at 21, and with $85 in hand, Wilson became a shoemaker in Natick, Mass. He was debilitated by overwork and in 1838 went south for a change in climate. His view of slavery in Washington, D.C., and Virginia filled him with enduring libertarian sentiments. He became a successful shoe manufacturer. In 1840 he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives as a Whig, and the "Natick cobbler" became a force in state politics.

Wilson's keen...