Anna Murray Douglass (1813-1882) frequently assisted freedom seekers from her Rochester, New York home while her husband, Frederick Douglass, was on the abolitionist lecture circuit.
ROLES: Abolitionist // UGRR Operative
Category: Abolitionist Page 3 of 7
Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was perhaps the most famous freedom seeker in US history, escaping from slavery in Baltimore in 1838 to become an abolitionist orator, writer, and politician.
ESSAYS: Blackett // Barker // Crew // Finkelman // Jackson // Miller
ROLES: Abolitionist // UGRR Operative
Frederick Douglass used forged papers to escape from Baltimore in 1838 (House Divided Project)
Dr. John Doy (-1869) was an English-born abolitionist best known for his dramatic escape from a Missouri prison. In January 1859, Doy attempted to lead a group of Missouri freedom seekers from Kansas to Iowa, but slave catchers overtook the party and clapped Doy and his son in jail. In June 1859, Missouri authorities sentenced Doy to five years of hard labor for “seducing” slaves from the state, but a band of Lawrence abolitionists rescued Doy from prison in July. Still a fugitive, Doy published his Narrative (1860) recounting his confinement and rescue. Missouri governor Thomas Fletcher finally pardoned Doy after the state abolished slavery in 1865. Doy died in 1869 in Battle Creek, Michigan, of suspected suicide.
ROLES: Abolitionist // UGRR Operative
Benjamin Drew (1812-1903) was an abolitionist who traveled to Canada and interviewed over 100 freedom seekers, whose stories he published in A North-Side View of Slavery.
ROLES: Abolitionist
Mary and Emily Edmonson were enslaved sisters who unsuccessfully attempted to flee Washington, DC aboard the Pearl in 1848. Abolitionists later helped raise funds to purchase the sisters’ freedom.
ROLES: Abolitionist // Freedom Seeker
Henry Highland Garnet (1815-1882) was a freedom seeker and abolitionist, whose 1843 “Address to the Slaves” urged enslaved Southerners to resist the slave system.
ROLES: Abolitionist // Freedom Seeker
John Gloucester was the minister of the First African Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia.
ESSAYS: LaRoche
ROLES: Abolitionist
Leonard Grimes was the pastor of Twelfth Baptist Church in Boston who assisted freedom seekers.
ESSAYS: Grover // LaRoche // Pinsker
ROLES: Abolitionist // UGRR Operative
Rev. Leonard Grimes ( House Divided Project)
Harriet (1816-1893) and Lewis Hayden (1811-1889) fled slavery and became key leaders in Boston’s antislavery vigilance network. In 1844, the Haydens (Lewis, Harriet, and Harriet’s son from a previous marriage) escaped from Kentucky with Harriet’s five year old son Joe thanks to help from white abolitionists Calvin Fairbank and Delia Webster, who faced lengthy jail time for their role in helping the Haydens. Harriet and Lewis went to Detroit and Canada, before eventually relocating to Boston. There, the Haydens became active members of Boston’s antislavery vigilance committee, sheltering freedom seekers (most famously William and Ellen Craft) and openly defying the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. The Haydens remained active in the Underground Railroad and Republican politics through the Civil War. In 1873, Lewis Hayden won election to a single term in the Massachusetts state legislature.
ESSAYS: Barker // Blackett //Crew // Cohen // Grover // Larson // LaRoche // Miller // Sinha
ROLES: Abolitionist // Freedom Seeker // UGRR Operative
Lewis and Harriet Hayden (NPS)