Born on October 10, 1837 in Boston, Massachusetts, Robert Gould Shaw was the second child and only son of Francis George and Sarah Blake Shaw, two prominent abolitionists at the time. Shaw’s family line consisted of very successful merchants and businessmen who had amassed millions through trade, making the childhood of Shaw and his four sisters a comfortable one. When Shaw turned four, his father retired from his part time law practice so he could pursue a literary career and to spend more time with his family; he moved his family to the country near Brook Farm. It was here that Shaw was exposed to the beliefs of freethinkers’ such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson, along with the open-minded ideals of the local Unitarian church.