Hinton, Richard J., journalist, who was for many years intimately connected with Kansas affairs, was born in London, England, Nov. 26, 1830. His early life was a struggle with poverty. He learned the stonecutter's trade, and notwithstanding the hardships to which he was subjected, managed to secure through his own efforts a good, practical education. He became interested in social and political problems, with the result that he wanted to be a citizen of a republic, and in 1851 he came to the United States.

Beginning with his editorship of the Massachusetts Abolitionist in 1838-1839, one of Torrey's principal interests was reform journalism. He served as editor of the Free American of Boston in 1841 and the Tocsin of Liberty of Albany, New York, in 1842-1843. He also served as a freelance reporter for several northern papers in 1841-1842. In his capacity as a reporter, in January 1842 Torrey attended the Slaveholders' Convention in Annapolis, Maryland, where he was arrested for refusing to leave a closed session of the meeting.

For the first months of 1844, the Bryonic [Charles T.] Torrey worked alone, personally collecting fugitives from as far away as Winchester, in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and making plans – grandiose ones in light of what happened – to mount rescue expeditions in distant North Carolina and Louisiana. There was a certain compulsive quality to his behavior, as if each success bred a need for another, still greater risk. Not alone among evangelical abolitionists, he was also hooked on the frisson of imagined crucifixion.