Born crippled and poor in Danville in 1792, Thaddeus Stevens was schooled by his mother, Sally Morrill Stevens, and at nearby Caledonia County Grammar School, graduating from Dartmouth College in 1814. He became a brilliant lawyer committed to racial equality. As an abolitionist Congressman from his adopted state of Pennsylvania and as Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, he worked to finance the Civil War. He is recognized as the father of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and architect of the Reconstruction of the South. He was both renowned and reviled for his eloquent call for the abolition of slavery.