Samuel Porter Putnam was a United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 freethinker, critic

Critic

A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...

 and publicist

Publicist

A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a public figure, especially a celebrity, a business, or for a work such as a book, film or album...

.

Biography

He graduated at Dartmouth in 1861, when he entered the Union Army

Union Army

The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...

as a private, and was promoted during the war

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 to a captaincy. In 1865 he entered the theological seminary in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, where he was graduated in 1868, and preached for three years thereafter as a Congregational

Congregational church

Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

 minister in the pulpits of Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. In 1871 he became a Unitarian

Unitarian Church

Unitarian church usually refers to a church which follows Unitarianism, a Christian theology...

 minister, and preached for several years in various states.

He then renounced the Christian religion and became an avowed freethinker. He attacked the Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 and Christianity upon the platform, and for 20 years probably making more speeches against them than any other American, speaking almost every day for months together.

After his death, it was revealed that he was divorced with two children.

Writings

In 1887 he established a Journal of Freethought in San Francisco. He was the author of:

• Prometheus
• Gottlieb: His Life
• Golden Throne
• Waifs and Wanderings
• Ingersoll and Jesus
• Why don't he lend a Hand?
• Adami and Heva
• The New God
• The Problem of the Universe
• My Religious Experience
• Pen Pictures of the World's Fair
• Four Hundred Years of Freethought