AFRICAN-AMERICAN ABOLOTIONISTS

Abolitionist, Underground Railroad conductor, reformer. and author. Born into slavery around 1814 on the John Young Plantation near Lexington, Ky. Escaped to freedom in Cincinnati (1834); employed on a Lake Erie steamer, where he ferried his Underground Railroad passengers to freedom in Canada; lecturing agent for the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society (1843-1847); became a lecturer in New England for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and the American Anti-Slavery Societies (1847), working side by side with William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips Represented the American Peace Society at the International Peace Conference (Paris, 1849); lectured in Europe (1849-1854), delivering over a thousand anti-slavery lectures and enlisting support from the British for the anti-slavery movement in the U.S.; emancipated (1854); recruited African-American enlistees for the Massachusetts 54th Regiment (1863), became a practicing physician after the war. Author of: Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave, Written By Himself (1847), which sold over 10,000 copies; Three Years in Europe; Or, Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met (1852), becoming a pioneer as an African-American writer of travel books; Clotel; Or, The Presidents Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States (1853), a story about Thomas Jefferson's relationship with his slave mistress Sally Hemings and was considered the first novel by an African-American, although not published in the U.S. until 1969; The Escape; Or, A Leap for Freedom (1856), the first drama published by an African-American; The Negro in the American Rebellion: His Heroism and His Fidelity (1867), becoming a pioneer in writing the military history of African-Americans. Died on November 6,1884, in Chelsea, Mass. Further reading, William Edward Farrison, William Wells Brown: Author and Reformer (1969).

Missionary, abolitionist, and editor, Born in 1795 in Sussex County, Del. Trained for the ministry by Philadelphia's First African Presbyterian Church pastor John Gloucester; licensed to preach (1819), and served as a missionary to slaves on Maryland's Eastern Shore: organized and preached at New Demeter Street Presbyterian Church (1821-1828), New York City's first African-American Presbyterian church; ordained (1822); traveling preacher and missionary to African -Americans in the New York City area (1824-1846): established, with John Russwurm, Freedom's Journal (1827), the nation's first African-American newspaper in the U.S.; agent of the New York African Free School (18271829), pastor of Gloucester's Philadelphia Church (1831-1832); organizer and pastor of Emmanuel Church in New York City Founded the American Anti-Slavery Society, served as executive committee member (1833-1838), agent (1834-1837, and 1840); helped found the New York Anti-Slavery Society (1833); executive committee member of the New York City Vigilance Committee (1835-1837); vice president of the American Moral Reform Society (1835-1836); manager of the American Bible Society (1835), principal editor of the Colored American (1837- 1839):executive committee member of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (1840-1841 1847-1853): manager of the Union Missionary Society (1842); founder of the American Missionary Association and executive committee member (I846-1855), and vice president (1848-1858). co-wrote The Colonization Scheme Considered, in Its Rejection by the Coloured People - in Its Tendency to Uphold Caste - in Its Unfitness for Christianizing and Civilizing the Aborigines of Africa, and for putting a Stop to the African Slave Trade (1840), which condemned the American Colonization Society's program. Died on November 6, 1858 in New York City. Further reading, Jane H. Pease and William H. Pease, "Cornish, Samuel E.," Dictionary of American Biography (1982)

Abolitionist. clergyman, printer, educator, and editor. Born on October 19, 1825, in New York City. Oberlin College (1847). Learned the printing trade while working at the Northhampton Gazette; moved to Cleveland and became a crusader against the Black Laws of Ohio (1847) which prohibited African -Americans from settling without proof of freedom and a co-signer, attending common schools, and testifying in any court where a white person was involved; chairman of the group that organized the National Convention of Colored Freemen, with Frederick Douglass presiding (Cleveland, 1848): lobbied the Ohio legislature (1849), contributing to the Ohio Black Law repeal and better educational opportunities for African-American children; compositor and editor of the Cleveland Daily True Democrat (1851-1852), editor of Aliened American (1853-1854), and librarian of the Cleveland Library Association (1854-1856). Went to Canada (1856): embarked on a tour of England, Ireland and Scotland (1858-1863), raising funds for a church and school for free Negroes in Buxton, Canada: elected president of the National Board of Commissioners of Colored People of Canada and the U.S. (1858): assigned to the Freedmen's Bureau as an inspector-general of schools in Maryland and Delaware (1865), founding over 100 schools and hiring over 100 teachers. Ordained as a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (1867): organized voters in Wilmington, Del. (1869): clerk in the corporation department of the auditor-general's office of Harrisburg, Pa.; general secretary of the General Conference of the AME Zion Church (1875-1880, 1888-1900); member of the Harrisburg School Board (1878-1891), president (1891-1893), becoming the nation's first African-American city school board president in a predominately white community. Died on December 3, 1900, in Harrisburg, Pa. Further reading, Russell H. Davis, Black Americans in Cleveland (1974).

Abolitionist, editor, author, physician, Black Nationalist, army officer, and colonizationist. Born into slavery on May 6. 1812, in Charlestown, Va. Harvard College of Medicine. Emancipated (1822); became an officer of the Pittsburgh Anti-Slavery Society; helped organize literary societies, delegate to colored conventions in Philadelphia and New York (1836), published The Pittsburgh Mystery (1843-1847), first African-American newspaper west of the Allegheny Mountains. which was devoted to the anti-slavery movement: co-editor, with Frederick Douglass, of the North Star (1847), traveling throughout the eastern U.S. gathering subscribers and news for the weekly: organized resistance against the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850: wrote The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, Politically Considered (1852), the first full-length draft of Black Nationalism, in which he criticized abolitionists and recommended emigration out of the U.S. Attended the National Emigration Convention (Cleveland, 1854), where he reported on "The Political Destiny of the Colored Race" and stressed the need for an independent black nation; traveled to Liberia and the Niger Valley (1859), where he negotiated a treaty granting African-Americans the right to establish a self-governing colony in Abbeokuta, which is now Nigeria; wrote his Official Report of the Niger Valley Exploring Party (1861). Recruited African-American soldiers for state regiments (1863); commissioned as a major In the Army (1865), becoming the first African-American field officer of high rank, and was sent to Charleston, SC.; customs inspector in Charleston (1873-1874); supported the Liberian Exodus Joint Stock Exchange Company (1878), which carried emigrants to Liberia. Died January 24, 1885, in Wilberforce, Ohio. Further reading, Victor Ullman, Martin R. Delaney, The Beginning of Black Nationalism (1971).

Abolitionist, journalist, and public servant who was called the "father of the civil rights movement" and became the nation's most famous African-American. Born into slavery, as Frederick Washington Bailey, reportedly on February 14, 1817, in Tuckahoe, Md. Escaped slavery (1838). became an agent and abolitionist lecturer for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (1841). wrote his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845); lectured against slavery in Great Britain (1845-1847); founded the anti-slavery weekly newspaper North Star in Rochester, NY. (1847- 1863): used his print shop as an Underground Railroad station: elected president of the Colored Convention Movement (1848); helped found the women's rights movement at the Seneca Falls Convention (New York, 1848). Wrote that the best remedy for the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, was a "good revolver. a steady hand, and a determination to shoot down any man attempting to kidnap." Supporter of the Free Soil Party (1852), and the new Republican Party (1856), became a recruiter for the Massachusetts 54th and 55th Regiments; chaired the National Convention of Colored Men (Syracuse, 1864): editor of the weekly newspaper New National Era (1870-1874), and spoke against convict lease, the crop-lien system, the prevalence of lynching, and the anti-Negro rulings of the U S. Supreme Court; opposed the "Great Exodus" of African-Americans from the South to Kansas (1870). Became the first African-American marshal of the District of Columbia (1877-1881), where he led President Garfield's inaugural procession, recorder of deeds of the District of Columbia (1881 -1886), served as minister-resident and consul general to the Republic of Haiti and charge d'affaires for the Dominican Republic (1888-1891). Died on February 20, 1895, in Washington, DC. Further reading, Frederic May Holland, Frederick Douglass: The Orator (1891). Excerpts from NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AN AMERICAN SLAVE.

Businessman, abolitionist, and reformer who became one of the best known abolitionists of the first half of the 19th century. Born in 1766 in Philadelphia, Pa. Powderboy on a Philadelphia privateer, Royal Louis, during the Revolutionary War, apprenticed to sailmaker Robert Bridges, foreman (1786-1798), owner (1798-1842) where he amassed a fortune of over $100,000 and employed over 40 white and African-American workers; promoted women's rights, temperance, peace, and equal rights for Negroes; joined with Richard Allen in circulating a petition calling for the U.S Congress to emancipate the slaves (1800), which Congress rejected; organized, with the assistance of Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, an African-American volunteer force of 2,500 men for the defense of Philadelphia during the War of 1812 Wrote a pamphlet (1813), protesting against a bill before the Pennsylvania legislature prohibiting the immigration of free Negroes from other states; strongly opposed colonization at a meeting of the Negro Convention (1830), where he supported raising funds for an African-American technical college; credited with persuading William Lloyd Garrison to call for emancipation and equality rather than colonization, and became a major contributor to his Liberator publication. Organized the American Anti-Slavery Society at his Philadelphia home on Lombard Street (1833), serving on its board of managers and providing financial assistance ~ founded and served as president of the American Moral Reform Society (1839), which was established for the "promotion of Education, Temperance Economy and Universal Liberty." Died on February 24, 1842. in Philadelphia, Pa. Further reading, Esther M, Doughty, Forten the Sailmaker, Pioneer, Champion of Negro Rights (1968).

Abolitionist, clergyman, temperance leader, editor, and diplomat. Born into slavery in 1815 in New Market, Md. Oneida Theological Institute in Whitesboro, NY, (1840). Licensed to preach in Troy, NY. (1842), and became a pastor of the city's only African-American Presbyterian church; became one of the nation's most prominent Negro abolitionists (1842-1860); co-editor of the Troy National Watchman (1842), editor (1843), where he worked for enfranchisement of free Negroes. women's rights, temperance, religious reform, and the world peace movement; delivered his famous "Call to Rebellion" speech at the National Negro Convention (Buffalo, 1843), where he demanded that all African-Americans embrace a "motto of resistance:" called for the establishment of a national African-American press (1847). Delegate to the World Peace Congress (Frankfurt, 1850); sent to Jamaica by the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland (1853-1856), as pastor of the Stirling Presbyterian Church; elected president of the African Civilization Society (1858); became one of the first to demand that President Lincoln permit the enlistment of African-American soldiers (1863); pastor of the 15th Street Presbyterian Church in Washington (1864-1866), where he became the first African-American to deliver a sermon before the U.S. House of Representatives worked for the Freedmen's Bureau; resident minister and consul general of Liberia (1882). Died on February 12, 1882, in Liberia. Further reading, Benjamin Quarles, Black Abolitionists (1969).

Abolitionist, colonizationist, and organizer of what Is now called The Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. Born into slavery around 1732. Emancipated (1770); worked in the leather trade, acquired real estate, and attended night school; became a minister in the Methodist Church; urged the Committee of Safety to enlist slaves in the Colonial armies (1775). Initiated into a British army lodge #441 of Free Masons and was attached to the 38th Foot Regiment near Boston during the Revolutionary War (1775): organized and became master of African Lodge #1 (1775), which was granted a license from the provincial grand master of North America, becoming the first organized body of African-American Masons; granted a charter from the British Grand Lodge (1784), which authorized the organization in Boston of a "regular lodge of Free and accepted Masons, under the title or denomination of the African Lodge," that resulted in the formation of African Lodge #459; granted warrants to establish lodges in Providence and Philadelphia (1797), with Hall serving as grand master. Made the first major statement on colonization in Africa (1787), lobbied the Massachusetts legislature for support in educating African-Americans (1787); signer of a petition seeking to have the Massachusetts State Legislature abolish slavery (1777), and was successful, after one of his Masons was kidnapped, in getting the Commonwealth to pass an act ending the slave trade (1788); founded the African Society House on Boston's Belkap Street (1806), Boston's first separate schoolhouse for African-American children. Died on December 4, 1807, in Boston, Mass. Further reading, Charles H. Wesley, Prince Hall, Life and Legacy (1977)

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Abolitionist, educator, and reformer. Born into slavery in 1817 in Louisa County, Va. Oberlin College preparatory department's first African-American student. Emancipated (1834): helped establish and taught in a school for African-American children in Chillicothe, Ohio (1836); member of the executive committee and sales agent for Columbus, Ohio's civil rights-oriented publication, Palladium of Liberty (1842-1843), participated in the State Colored Convention (Columbus, 1844), where he proposed the repeal of Ohio's Black Laws, the provision of equal education for African-American children, and the increased opportunity for home ownership; member of the Liberty Party: served on the Business and Organization Committee at the Colored National Convention (Cleveland, 1848), and was appointed to the National Central Committee. Appointed deputy most worthy patriarch for the West of the National Organization of the Sons of Temperance (1848); helped organize the Ohio Colored American League (1850); organizer and worshipful master of the St. Marks Masonic Lodge (1852-1855), and later deputy grand master in the state organization; became principal of the Columbus Colored Schools (1856); member of the Manual Labor Committee of the Colored National Convention (Rochester. 1853), where he was responsible for the establishment of Wilberforce University by the Methodist Episcopal Church in Wilberforce, Ohio (1856): recording secretary and business agent of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Lorain County, Ohio Underground Railroad conductor who was convicted in the rescue of a fugitive slave (1858), which brought him national distinction. Moved to Kansas after the Civil War; principal of the Colored Normal School at Quindaro (1872): presided over the Convention of Colored Men (Topeka, 1880): joined the Prohibition Party (1886). Died in 1892 in Lawrence, Kan. Further reading, Jacob R Shipherd History of the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue (1859).

Clergyman, author, abolitionist, civil rights leader, and educator. Born in 1807 on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Learned the stone mason and blacksmith trades; studied theology; was pastor of African Congregational Churches in Newton, Conn. (1838-1840), and in Hartford (1840 1847), where he served as president of the Hartford Central Association of Congregational Ministers; became president of the Union Missionary Society (1841), where he urged members to boycott slave produced products and oppose colonization; performed the marriage ceremony for Frederick Douglass and his wife (1841). Wrote: A Text Book of the Origin and History of Colored People (1841); Covenants Involving Moral Wrong Are Not Obligatory Upon Man: A Sermon (1842): The Fugitive Blacksmith (1850), a scathing condemnation of slavery in the U.S.; The Reasonableness of the Abolition of Slavery (1856). Connecticut delegate to the World's Anti-Slavery Convention (1843), and American Peace Convention delegate to the World's Peace Society (London, 1843); pastor of New York City's First Presbyterian Church (1847-1855): emancipated in Hartford (1851), after fleeing to Europe in response to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850; traveled to Scotland as a guest of the Glasgow Female Anti-Slavery Society; helped organize one of the first civil rights organizations, the New York Legal Rights Association (1855), whose goals included gaining equal treatment in New York City's transportation system. Died in 1870 in Jacksonville, Fla. Further reading Benjamin Quarles, Black Abolitionists (1969).

Abolitionist and civil rights leader who was the father of famed surgeon, Charles PURVIS. Born on August 4, 1810, in Charleston, SC. Inherited a small fortune from his father, a cotton broker; lobbied for the establishment of a manual labor school for African-Americans (1831); helped found the Philadelphia Library Company of Colored People (1833). helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia (1833): vice president and corresponding secretary from Pennsylvania of the Colored National Convention (1833); opposed a legislative motion that would have prevented out-of-town free Negroes from locating in Pennsylvania (1833); traveled to England (1834) , with letters of introduction from abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. Fought unsuccessfully for the repeal of a new state law barring African-Americans from voting (1838); chaired a committee that drew up a protest entitled "Appeal of Forty Thousand Citizens Threatened with Disfranchisement, to the People of Pennsylvania;" member of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery: president of the Vigilance Committee of Philadelphia (1839-1844), and chairman of the General Vigilance Committee (1852-1857) (whose missions were to assist runaway slaves by providing housing and food). President of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society (1845-1850), caused his township to reverse a policy of excluding African-American children from public schools (1853), by withholding his substantial tax responsibilities; supported temperance crusade, women's rights, and prison improvements; opposed colonization, criticized President Lincoln for suggesting that African-Americans voluntarily leave the country during the Civil War; presided over the 50th anniversary meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society (Philadelphia, 1883), Died on April 15, 1898, in Philadelphia, Pa. Further reading, Benjamin Quarles, Black Abolitionists (1969).

Abolitionist, reformer, and one of America's first great African-American orators. Born in 1810 in Salem, Mass Appointed the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society's first African-American lecturer (1838), speaking in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New York. Pennsylvania, and the Midwest; delegate to the World's Anti-Slavery Convention (London, 1840). where he went on to lecture in England, Ireland, and Scotland on anti-slavery topics, became the first African-American to address the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1842). where he spoke on "Rights of Colored Persons in Traveling;" addressed a Boston crowd on the topic of ending slavery in the District of Columbia (1842), with a speech entitled "Address from the People of Ireland." Elected a vice president and served on the finance committee of the National Convention of the American Equal Rights Association (1867): opened a Ladies and Gentlemen's Dining Room (1856); recruited for the 54th Massachusetts Regiment (1863). the first northern Negro regiment to see action in the Civil War; became a Boston street light inspector (1865); clerk in the Boston Customs House (1871-1873), advocated equal school rights, universal suffrage, and abolition. Died on December 22, 1873, in Massachusetts. Further reading, Carter G Woodson. Negro Orators and Their Orations (1925).

Abolitionist, businessman, journalist, and hydropathist. Born in 1810 in Norwich, Conn. Moved to New York City and worked as a grocer (1829-1934); traveling agent for the abolitionist weekly, Emancipator and Journal of Public Morals (1833-1842), where he wrote articles, edited newspapers gathered subscriptions, emphasized the importance of the press, and gave lectures on denouncing slavery and colonization, became the nation's first African-American bookseller when he opened and operated a bookstore near Broadway (1834-1835), distributing abolitionist and anti-colonization publications. Wrote the pamphlets, Extinguisher, Extinguished (1834), and Abrogation of the Seventh Commandment, by the American Churches (1835); Underground Railroad conductor (1835-1838), receiving fugitive slaves from Philadelphia and preparing them to move farther north; aided Frederick Washington Bailey, better known as Frederick Douglass. in his escape to freedom (1838), while he was secretary of the New York Vigilance Committee; publisher and editor of the Mirror of Liberty (1838-1841), where he protested against colonization, disenfranchisement, segregation, and slavery. Became a member of the Northhampton Association of Educuation and Industry (1842), erected the first new building specifically for hydropathy in the U.S., operating from 1846 to 1849, advertising that he could cure headaches, bronchitis, general and nervous debilities, pulmonary affections, liver complaints, jaundice, acute and chronic inflammatory rheumatism, neuralgia, sciatica, lame limbs, paralysis, fevers. salt rheum, and scrofulous and erysipelas humors; treated Sojourner Truth and William Lloyd Garrison, and saved the lives of many people who were diagnosed with incurable diseases. Died on December 26, 1849, in Norwich, Conn. Further reading, Dorothy Porter, Early Negro Writing (1971).