Horace Mann (May 4, 1796 – August 2, 1859) was an American educational reformer, slavery abolitionist and Whig politician known for his commitment to promoting public education; he is thus also known as The Father of American Education. In 1848, after public service as Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, Mann was elected to the United States House of Representatives (1848–1853). From September 1852 to his death in 1859, he served as President of Antioch College.

Arguing that universal public education was the best way to provide a quality education for all of America's children, Mann won widespread approval from modernizers, especially in the Whig Party, for building public schools. Most U.S. states adopted a version of the system Mann established in Massachusetts, especially the program for normal schools to train professional teachers. Educational historians credit Horace Mann, along with Henry Barnard and Catharine Beecher, as one of the major advocates of the Common School Movement.

The great-grandson of Samuel Man, Horace Mann was born in Franklin, Massachusetts.

Throughout his childhood, Mann experienced a variety of educational experiences from a vocational education working on the family farm to religious education. Mann came to see education as an essential component of a healthy childhood. From age ten to age twenty, he had no more than six weeks' schooling during any year, but he made use of the Franklin Public Library, the first public library in America. He enrolled at Brown University when he was twenty years old and graduated in three years as valedictorian (1819). The theme of his oration was "The Progressive Character of the Human Race." He learned Greek and Latin from Samuel Barrett, who later became a Unitarian minister.

Mann studied law for a short time in Wrentham, Massachusetts and was a tutor of Latin and Greek (1820–1822) and a librarian (1821–1823) at Brown. During 1822, he also studied at Litchfield Law School and, in 1823, was admitted to the bar in Dedham, Massachusetts.

Mann defended James Allen in a robbery trial by placing a reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury by pointing out that the victim had previously identified someone else as the man who robbed him. The strategy worked, and there was a hung jury.

Mann was elected to the Massachusetts legislature in 1827 and, in that role, was active in the interests of education, public charities, and laws for the suppression of alcoholic drinks and lotteries. He established an asylum in Worcester, and in 1833, was chairman of its board of trustees. Mann continued to be returned to the legislature as a representative from Dedham until his removal to Boston in 1833. While in the legislature, he was a member and part of the time chairman of the committee for the revision of the state statutes, and many salutary provisions were incorporated into the code at his suggestion. After their enactment, he was appointed one of the editors of the work and prepared its marginal notes and references to judicial decisions. He was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate from Boston in 1835 and was its president in 1836–1837. As a member of the Senate, he spent time as the majority leader and aimed his focus at infrastructure, funding the construction of railroads and canals.

In 1830, Mann married Charlotte Messer, the daughter of former Brown University president Asa Messer. She died two years later on August 1, 1832; he never fully recovered from the intense grief and shock that accompanied her death.