Horace Mann was born on May 4th, 1796, to Rebecca and Thomas Mann, in Franklin, Massachusetts. Horace's father died when Horace was only 13, leaving his mother to care for him and his two siblings, Stephen and Louise.

Horace's family was poor, and so he wasn't really able to go to school. He occasionally attended the village school, but until he was 15, was never able to go more than 10 weeks a year. After he left that, he worked braiding straw for hats to pay to go to school at Williams Academy in Wrentham. 

Mann was accepted into Brown University at the age of 20, where he grew interested in politics, education, and social reform. He graduated in 1819, as the valedictorian of his class.

After graduating, Mann went on to practice law until 1827, in which he won a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, in which he served until 1833. He was elected to the state Senate in 1835 and became president of the state Senate in 1836. 

Mann was someone who believed that, in a democratic society, education should be free and universal, nonsectarian, democratic in method, and reliant on well-trained professional teachers. These beliefs shaped his career. 

During his time in office, Mann worked to improve infrastructure and established an insane asylum in Worcester, the first state asylum in the country. 

In 1837, he helped pass the legislature for the State Board of Education, one of the first in the country. He later became the secretary of this Board. 

Before Mann and the Board of Education redid the entire education system, the Massachusetts educational system was on its last legs. Established in 1647, it had slowly been dying until Mann and the Board of Education reformed it.