Hiram Wilson was born on September 25, 1803, in Ackworth, New Hampshire, the son of John Wilson and Polly McCoy. He attended the Oneida Institute, an institution that incorporated both education and manual labor and embraced the literal concepts of Perfectionism and Bible Communism; and subsequently, he studied theology at Lane Seminary in Cincinnati. When a group of theological students, called “Lane Rebels,” protested against efforts by the School’s trustees to put down their abolitionist activities, Wilson joined the rebels. Upon hearing that the theological students threatened to leave Lane en masse, Oberlin invited the “Lane Rebels” north to Oberlin’s recently created Theological Department to bolster the student body. Thirty-two students came to Oberlin, including Hiram Wilson. He received his theological degree from Oberlin in 1836. That same year, revivalist minister and theological professor Charles G. Finney gave Wilson twenty-five dollars to travel to Canada East and do educational work and training among fugitive slaves or refugees there.

Wilson returned to Canada the following spring as a delegate of the American Anti-Slavery Society. He then began raising and borrowing money in order to establish an educational institute for free blacks to prepare them for full citizenship and an integrated society. By 1839, Wilson had established ten schools (for blacks and poor whites) and recruited 14 teachers. Oberlin graduates filled a large percentage of the teaching posts. His work, which adapted social theory to native facts and conditions, gained the attention of abolitionist Gerrit Smith of Rochester, New York, and Quaker philanthropist James Cannings Fuller of Skaneateles, New York. In particular, Gerrit Smith's Rochester committee raised funds to supply Wilson’s schools with Bibles, clothing, and money. The bulk of the money raised by Fuller established the foundation of the British-American Institute, established by Wilson, Fuller, and ex-slave Josiah Henson (1789-1877) at Dawn, near Chatham, Canada West. The intent of this black settlement institute—situated on about 200 acres of land—was to integrate labor and education and introduce ex-slaves to the capitalist system in order to make them into self-sufficient freed-persons (northern refuge for blacks). The institute opened on December 12th, 1841.

Until 1849 Wilson acted as head of the institute, except for a visit to England during the World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1843. Although the Dawn settlement had a profitable and successful lumber industry and substantial farmland, the Institute itself suffered a series of setbacks owing to internal conflicts and financial instability. Prejudice in Canada had also become more evident following the increased visibility of blacks, along with the arrival of growing numbers of white refugees, seeking employment and other settlement opportunities. Wilson resigned from the institute in 1849 and established another fugitive sanctuary in St. Catharines. Under the auspices of the American Missionary Association, he opened a school there with his second wife. He housed approximately 125 refugees in his own home between 1850 and 1856. He also established a Sunday school in St. Catharines, but he abandoned his labors in 1861, possibly because of political or financial issues.

White abolitionist Hiram Wilson died in St. Catharines on April 16th, 1864.