Darrow's father was an ardent abolitionist and a proud iconoclast and religious freethinker. Pearson was a "zealous" atheist and a freethinker. He then renounced the Christianity and became an avowed freethinker. Some argue that Lincoln was neither a Christian believer nor a secular freethinker. His father, a lawyer and businessman, was a freethinker, his mother a writer and suffragette. Despite being raised as a Protestant, he was a freethinker in religious matters. Layton, however, identified himself not as an observant Jew but rather as a freethinker. Historian Paul Israel has characterized Edison as a "freethinker". Pearson was known in his lifetime as a prominent "freethinker" and socialist. Abilgaard was also known as a religious freethinker and an advocate of political reform. Apparently a freethinker, she seems uninterested in religion as a whole. Like his great-grandfather Clemens, Vonnegut was a freethinker. In his high school years, he became a typical liberal freethinker. He became a republican and freethinker in his youth. The baron was a freethinker and a known gambler.