way of Philadelphia. During this same period in Ohio, 40,000, fugitives are said to have escaped by way of the underground railroads. A number of slaves also escaped from Texas and the Southwest into Mexico. There is at present at Nacimiento Coahuila, Mexico, a colony of about 300 Negroes which is made up of the descendants of fugitive slaves and Negro soldiers who remained in Mexico when the United States Army went there to drive the French out of the country. When the American Army crossed the Rio Grande it was divided into two parts. One part went to help drive out the French. The Negro soldiers, under the command of Colonel Shafter, went westward and fought against the Indians. For services which these Negroes rendered, the Mexican Government granted them fourteen leagues of land which is at present held as a reservation so that it can be protected from intruders. The papers setting aside this grant were signed by the representatives of the government of Mexico and of the United States. Seibert "The Underground Railroad;" Mitchell "The Underground Railroad;" William Still "Underground Railroad Records;" "The Reminiscences of Levi Coffin;" Smedley "The Underground Railroad in Chester and the Neighboring Towns of Pennsylvania." REFERENCES: NEGROES CONNECTED WITH ABOLITION Brown, William Wells.-Anti-slavery agitator. Agent of the underground railroad. Born a slave in St. Louis, Mo., 1816. As a boy, Brown worked in the printing office of Elijah B. Lovejoy. In 1834 he escaped to the North and obtained a position on a Lake Erie steamer. Here he was of great service in assisting slaves to make their way to Canada. In 1843, he became a lecturer for the Anti-Slavery Society and continued in that position until 1849. He is the author of several books, the most important of which are "The Black Man," "The Rising Sun," and "Sketches of Places and People Abroad." Douglass, Frederick. Noted American anti-slavery agitator and journalist, Born a slave at Tuckahoe, near Easton, Maryland, February, 1817. Died February 2, 1895. In 1838 Douglass escaped from slavery under the disguise of a sailor. He went first to New York City and then to New Bedford, Massachusetts. In 1841 he attended an anti-slavery convention at Nantucket and spoke with such power and eloquence that he was immediately sent out as a lecturer under the auspices of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. He became one of the most prominent anti-slavery agitators. He received and accepted an invitation to lecture in Great Britain. In 1847 he settled at Rochester, New York, and began to publish an abolition paper, "The North Star." In 1845 he published his autobiography. In 1882 his autobiography was republished under the title, "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass." He held a number of prominent political positions the more important of which were: Marshal of the District of Columbia, Recorder of Deeds of the District and Minister to Haiti. Whipper, William. Successful business man, anti-slavery agitator, editor of The National Reformer. Mr. Whipper began the lumber business in Columbia, Pennsylvania, in partnership with Stephen Smith. In order to have a better field for their operations they moved to Philadelphia and opened one of the largest wood and coal yards in the city. The firm owned many rafts and employed many boatmen and raftsmen. In 1849, the firm was said to hold, besides many thousand bushels of coal, 250,000 feet of lumber, 22 merchantmen cars running between Philadelphia and Baltimore, and $9,000 worth of stock in the Columbia bridge. Their notes were accepted for any amount. Mr. Whipper gave much of his time to the advocacy to the freedom of the slave. In 1838 Mr. Whipper became editor of the National Reformer, a monthly magazine published by the American Moral Reform Society. This magazine was the first effort in journalism by Philadelphia Negroes. Forten, James.-Negro abolitionist. Born in Philadelphia, September 6, 1776; died March 4, 1842. Forten was a sail-maker by trade. He was educated in the school of the Quaker abolitionist, Anthony Benezet. Forten acquired considerable wealth. With the assistance of Richard Allen and Absolom Jones he helped to raise 2,500 colored volunteers for the protection of the city of Philadelphia when it was threatened by the English. He was chairman of the first convention of free Negroes held in Philadelphia, 1817. He was a warm friend and supporter of William Lloyd Garrison. It is said that several times, by personal contributions, he enabled Garrison to continue the publication of the "Liberator." Harper, Mrs. Frances E. Watkins.-Distinguished anti-slavery, lecturer, writer and poet. Born of free parents, 1825, Baltimore, Maryland; died February 22, 1911. Mrs. Harper went to school to her uncle, Rev. William Watkins, who taught a school in Baltimore for free colored children. About 1851 she moved to Ohio and began teaching, but later came to Little York, Pennsylvania, where he became acquainted with the workings of the underground railroad and thereafter determined to devote her life to the anti-slavery cause. In 1854 she began her career as a public lecturer, and in 1860 married Fenton Harper. By 1864 she had become known as an anti-slavery writer both in poetry and prose. After the close of the Civil War she came South, but later returned to Philadelphia and devoted her time to writing and lecturing for temperance work. For a time she had charge of the W. C. T. U. work among colored people. She published several books of poems. "Iola Leroy, or the Shadows Uplifted" is her best prose work. Hayden, Lewis.-Born 1815, died 1889. Runaway slave from Kentucky to Boston, Abolitionist. Mr. Hayden's home was a common meeting place for councils affecting his race. It was also a station of the underground railroad. He himself came as a fugitive from Kentucky in 1844. Through native strength of character he soon became a dominant figure in Boston's Negro colony, and so remained until his death. He was probably the only Negro office holder before the war. In 1859 he was appointed messenger to the Massachusetts Secretary of State, which position he held, except for a short interval, until his death. He was in 1873, elected to the State Legislature. Ray, Charles B.-Anti-slavery Agitator. Agent Underground Railroad. Born Falmouth, Mass., December 25, 1807; died New York City, August 15, 1886. Congregational minister Congregational minister and editor of the Colored American from 1839 to 1842. In 1833 became identified with the abolition movement. Was associated with Henry Ward Beecher, Gerrit Smith, Lewis Tappin and others prominent in the Anti-Slavery movement. Mr. Ray was secretary of the Local Vigilance Committee in New York City and also of the State Vigilance Committee. He was prominently connected with the work of the Underground Railroad. His home was an important station where almost daily fugitives were received. Nell, William C.-Anti-slavery agitator and author of Boston. In 1840 was a leader in the agitation for public schools to be thrown open to Negro children. Continued a leader in this agitation until they were opened to all children regardless of race. Mr. Nell's works are "Services of Colored Americans in the Wars of 1776 and 1812," Boston, 1852, and "Colored Patriots of the American Revolution," Boston, 1855. Lane, Lunsford.-Born a slave at Raleigh, N. C. He is placed in Prof. Basset's "History of the Anti-Slavery Leaders of North Carolina" among the four prominent abolitionists of that State. It is said that Lane waited on LaFayette when he passed through Raleigh in 1824. Lane's ambition was to be free, and he began early in life to save money to purchase his freedom. He and his father manufactured a superior kind of smoking tobacco. They were at length permitted to manufacture this tobacco on their own account. At the end of eight years Lane had saved a Thousand Dollars with which to purchase his freedom. In 1839 he bought a home and negotiated for the purchasing of his wife and children for $2,500. Because of the laws of North Carolina, Lane was compelled to go to New York City to have the articles of his emancipation executed. When he returned he was arrested and was informed that under the law he must leave the State within twenty days. Before he could close up his business he was arrested and taken before the mayor on the charge of "delivering abolition lectures in Massachusetts." Replying to this charge, Lane made a statement before the Mayor's Court which was probably the only abolition speech ever made by a Negro before a Southern audience. REFERENCES: Basset, Anti-Slavery Leaders in North Carolina, Johns Hopkins University Studies; Washington, The Story of the Negro; and W. G. Hawkins, Lunsford University Studies; Washington, The Story of the Negro; and W. G. Hawkins, Lunsford Lane, Boston, 1863. Purvis, Robert-Anti-slavery agitator; chairman of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee of the Underground Railroad and member of the first Anti-slavery Convention in 1833. Purvis was one of the signers of the Declaration of Sentiments. He was at that time the most prominent anti-slavery man of the Negro race. In 1883 at the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Anti-Slavery Convention held in Philadelphia he was one of the three original signers present. John G. Whittier, the poet, and Elizur Wright, the anti-slavery editor, were the other two. Redmond, Charles Lenox.-Born at Salem, Massachusetts, 1810 died 1873. First Negro to take lecture platform as an anti-slavery speaker. He was president of the Essex County Anti-Slavery Society and was a vice president of the New England Anti-Slavery Society. In 1838 he took the field as a lecturer under the auspices of the American Anti-Slavery Society. In this capacity he canvassed New England. In 1840 he went to England as a delegate to the first World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London. While abroad he delivered many anti-slavery lectures. On his return he brought a remarkable document, an "Address" from the Irish people to their countrymen and countrywomen in America. With the name of Daniel O'Connell at its head, sixty thousand names were appended to this monstrous memorial. The Irish-Americans were called upon to treat the Negroes as brethren and everywhere to unite with the abolitionists. Russwurm, John Brown.-Born in Jamaica, 1799; died in Liberia, 1851. Editor of the first Negro newspaper published in the United States, the "Freedmen's Journal," published in New York City, 1827. Mr. Russwurm, one of the first Negroes to graduate from a college in the United States, graduated from Bowdoin College in 1826; in 1829 he went to Liberia and became superintendent of the public schools and editor of the Liberia Herald. In 1836 he was appointed Governor of the District of Maryland in Liberia, in which position he died. Tubman, Harriet.--Fugitive slave and one of the most famous of the Underground railroad operators, died March 10, 1913. Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in Maryland about 1849 when between twenty and twenty-five years of age, and at once began to make trips into the South to aid others to escape. In nineteen trips she is said to have led over three hundred fugitive slaves into the Northern States and Canada. She was employed during the Civil War in the secret service of the Federal Army. After the war she founded a home at Auburn, New York, for aged colored persons. She retained much of her vigor until she was over eighty years old. For the two years previous to her death she was cared for by friends and particularly the New York State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs. REFERENCE: "Harriet, The Moses of Her People," Sarah H. Bradford, New York Truth, Sojourner.-A noted anti-slavery speaker, born about 1775, in Africa. Brought when a child, to America, she was sold as a slave in the State of New York. After slavery was abolished in New York in 1827, Sojourner Truth became widely known in the North and was a prominent figure in anti-slavery meetings. Sojourner Truth was noted as a public speaker. She was able to "bear down an audience by a few simple words." She was greatly admired by Wendell Phillips, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and other prominent anti-slavery agitators. REFERENCE: Narrative Sojourner Truth, Boston, 1850. Still, William.-Secretary of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee of the Underground Railroad. Born October 7, 1821, in Burlington County, New Jersey. Still's father purchased his freedom. His mother was a fugitive slave. His brother was kidnapped and carried to Alabama. The Vigilance Committee was the directing body for all the numerous lines of the underground railroad which centered in Philadelphia. William Still, as secretary, kept a record of all the fugitive slaves who passed through the hands of the committee. In 1872 this record was published in book form under the title "Underground Railroad." This book is one of the most remarkable records extant concerning the history of slavery. Walker, David.-First Negro to attack slavery through the press. Born free at Wilmington, North Carolina, 1785. Walker early went to Boston and began business. In 1829 he published an anti-slavery pamphlet, "Walker's Appeal," which was widely circulated and stirred the South as no other anti-slavery pamphlet up to that time had done. Governor Giles of Virginia, in a message to the Legislature, referred to the appeal as "seditious pamphlet sent from Boston." Gibbs, Mifflin Wistar.-Lawyer and anti-slavery agitator; _born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April, 1823. He died in Little Rock, Ark., July 11, 1915. He was actively connected with the anti-slavery movement and the underground railroad. In 1849 he lectured on the anti-slavery platform. In 1850 went to California and engaged in the dry goods business. On the discovery of gold in British Columbia, in 1858, Mr. Gibbs went to Victoria and established there the first mercantile house other than that of the Hudson Bay Company. In 1868, after having read law with an English lawyer at Victoria, he returned to the United States and entered the law department of Oberlin College, from which he was graduated in 1870. He settled in Little Rock, Arkansas, and was admitted to the bar. In 1873 he was elected city judge, being the first Negro to hold such an office in the United States. In 1877 he was appointed Register of the United States land office in Little Rock. In 1897 he was appointed United States Consul to Tamatave, Madagascar. He has written an autobiography under the title of "Lights and Shadows.' pur Knights of Liberty.-In 1846 Moses Dickson and eleven other free Negroes organized at St. Louis, The Knights of Liberty for the pose of overthrowing slavery. Ten years was to be spent working slowÎy and secretly making their preparations and extending the society. At the end of this time because of changes in conditions North and South the plan of operation was altered and Underground Railroad work was done. It is said that the Knights of Liberty assisted yearly hundreds of slaves to escape. After emancipation Mr. Dickson in memory of the original organizers, established in 1871, The Knights and Daughters of Tabor Society. The Union Benevolent Society.-Organized by free Negroes at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1843. Its purpose was to care for the sick, bury the dead, encourage education and industry among free Negroes and help slaves to freedom. The white people knew of this society and aided it. In 1852 a lodge was permitted to be organized among the slaves. The masters did not know that this society was actively engaged in Underground Railroad work. NEGRO ANTI-SLAVERY NEWSPAPERS. In connection with the anti-slavery movement a number of papers were published by Negroes. A list of papers published by Negroes before the Civil War follows: 1806. 1821. 1829. 1841. 1845. 1845. 1845. Philadelphia, Pa Philadelphia, Pa. Philadelphia, Pa. San Francisco, Cal New York, N. Y 1852 1855 1855 July 23, 1859 SLAVERY AND RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. The first division of a religious denomination in the United States, on account of slavery, said to have occurred among the Baptist of Kentucky. The Alabama Synod of the associated Reformed Presbyterian Church severed its connection with the central body which had excluded slave holders from communion. The True Reformed Dutch Church embodied in its proposed rules that: "Slavery, and all trafficking whatever in human flesh and blood, if it still exists among us, shall be forever abolished in the True Reformed Dutch Church, immediately upon the adoption of these ecclesiastical ordinances.” A small number of Methodists withdrew from the regular connection and formed in Michigan a separate connection, under the name of Wesleyan Methodists. May 31, 1843, at Utica, New York, Wesleyan Methodist connection of America was established. May 7. The Southern Methodist Episcopal Conferences organized at Louisville, Kentucky, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. This done in accordance with a plan of separation adopted by the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church held in New York City in 1844. Baptist Associations in the South met at Augusta, Georgia, and organized Southern Baptist Convention. The Free Presbyterian Church organized. This was a small group of churches which separated from the Old School Presbyterian Church because of the slavery question. The Free Presbyterians were earnestly opposed to slavery. Many members of this church in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana were conductors on the Underground Railroad. The Civil War settled the slavery |