Abolitionist, Author. He is remembered for his 19th century poetry and journalism articles, along with being a colleague of abolitionist leader John Brown. Born into poverty as a peasant, his father was a rural constable and a blacksmith. He began to write poetry with his limited education at age 15, and by 1852, had published a collection of poems, "Guesses at the Beautiful." Although he was supported by wealthy clients of Victorian England including the wife of poet Lord Byron, he was found in rags on the streets of London singing for pennies. According to the Senate Select Committee Report on the Harper's Ferry Invasion minutes, he came to the United States from England in 1854, staying in the slums of New York City before touring to Kansas. His income was made by working for newspapers, selling poems, and being a lecturer. He was very interested in the cause of freeing slaves in the South. During his travels, he met Brown in Iowa in the last months of 1857. He traveled with Brown and a group of men including Brown's sons to Canada. After Canada, he traveled throughout the South before returning to England for a time as he was homesick and wanted permission from his parents to become a Roman Catholic. He returned from England, leaving on March 2, 1859, and arriving in New Orleans on April 17th of the same year. After staying in New Orleans for a time, he traveled to Texas afterward. Some sources state he was in Texas during October of 1859. Since his parents refused to give permission to join the Roman Catholic church, he joined without their permission. He studied for three months in a Jesuit college in preparation of becoming a priest, but abandoned this thought. He knew that Brown was planning to start an armed revolt of enslaved people and destroy slavery in the South. On October 16, 1859, Brown raided the arsenal near Harper's Ferry in what is now West Virginia. After being arrested for this crime, Brown was brought to trial, found guilty and was executed on December 2, 1859. On January 21, 1860, Realf was arrested and brought to Washington D.C. and testified for the Senate Select Committee Report on the Harper's Ferry Invasion. He admitted that Brown had plans to free slaves, named the men involved with the plot, but denied he went to England for Brown's monetary support. Serving during the American Civil War, he enlisted in 1862 in the 88th Illinois Infantry Regiment, which was nicknamed the Second Chicago Board of Trade Regiment. He became a commissioned officer over a colored regiment, and mustered out of the military in 1866. During this time, he was a war poet, writing with patriotic themes. In June of 1865, he married Sophia Graves. He met his wife after she answered a newspaper ad soliciting single women to write letters to Union soldiers. In 1868 he established a school for freedmen in South Carolina and was employed by the United States Internal Revenue Service for Edgefield district until 1870. With his political beliefs, he was not readily welcomed by the local residents. At that point, he returned north to Pittsburgh and worked as a journalist and lecturer. In 1873 he delivered a poem before the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, and in 1874 wrote one for the Society of the Army of the Potomac. One of his more famous lectures was "The Unwritten Story of the Martyr of Harpers Ferry." An illness in the fall of 1877 caused him almost complete blindness, and when he was able to leave the hospital friends provided the means for him to go to San Francisco, California arriving in July of 1878. His health continued to fail; hence he was unable to work. There were problems with his marriage. He committed suicide by poison from an overdose of narcotics a few months later after divorcing his wife. His wife never remarried. His most admired poems are " My Slain," "An Old Man's Idyl," and "Indirection." All his poems were collected and published in 1898 as "Poems by Richard Realf, Poet, Soldier, Workman," which are still available in the 21st century. His suicide note read, "He loved his fellows, and their love was sweet. Plant daisies at his head and at his feet."