Education
Born in Bangor, Maine into a Universalist family, Barrett studied to become a Universalist minister after experiencing trances and visions.
lecturer author Universalist minister
Born in Bangor, Maine into a Universalist family, Barrett studied to become a Universalist minister after experiencing trances and visions.
He wrote mainly about religion, but also about women"s rights and even botany. He initially kept his spiritualist experiences and beliefs to himself, but eventually "came out" to a congregation in Sycamore, Illinois, splitting the church. He would eventually be expelled from the Universalist ministry by the Illinois Convention in 1869 for his unorthodox beliefs.
In the early 1860s, Barrett moved to Madison, Wisconsin where he become a lecturer, writer, and forestry expert, as well as an editor of the Chicago-based newspaper The Spiritual Republic.
Barrett published a defence of feminism the following year entitled Social Freedom: Marriage as it is, and as it Should be.