Levi Coffin was an important figure in the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century enslaved people of African descent in the United States in efforts to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is als…
What is Levi Coffin best known for?
Levi Coffin. Jump to navigation Jump to search. Levi Coffin (October 28, 1798 – September 16, 1877) was an American Quaker, abolitionist, businessman, and humanitarian. He was an active leader in the Underground Railroad in Indiana and Ohio and was given the unofficial title of "President of the Underground Railroad.".
What did Levi Coffin do on the Underground Railroad?
Levi Coffin, (born October 28, 1798, New Garden [now in Greensboro], North Carolina, U.S.—died September 16, 1877, Cincinnati, Ohio), American abolitionist, called the “President of the Underground Railroad ,” who assisted thousands of runaway slaves on their flight to freedom.
How many slaves did Levi Coffin help escape?
With his wife Catharine, he aided over two thousand fugitive slaves at Fountain City, Wayne County, Indiana, from 1826 to 1846. Levi Coffin was an important figure in the Underground Railroad network that helped thousands of fugitive slaves escape to freedom in the years before the American Civil War.
When did Levi Coffin retire from public life?
Coffin retired from public life in the 1870s, and wrote an autobiography, Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, published in 1876, a year before his death. Coffin was born on a farm in Guilford County, North Carolina on October 28, 1798. The only son of Prudence and Levi Coffin Sr., he had six sisters.
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Why was Levi Coffin so important?
Levi Coffin was an important figure in the Underground Railroad network that helped thousands of fugitive slaves escape to freedom in the years before the American Civil War. Coffin was born on October 28, 1798, in North Carolina. He was a member of the Society of Friends.
Why did Levi Coffin help slaves?
During the Civil War he visited numerous contraband camps and continued to aid slaves in their quest for freedom on the Underground Railroad. After the war ended, Coffin raised over $100,000 for the Western Freedman's Aid Society to provide food, clothing, money, and other aid for recently freed blacks.
What was Levi Coffins mission?
Levi and Catharine Coffin, longtime residents of Wayne County and committed abolitionists, aided thousands of slaves as members of the Underground Railroad. The Coffin family moved to Newport (now Fountain City) from North Carolina in 1826 because they found slavery incompatible with their Quaker faith.
What did Levi and Catharine Coffin do?
Quakers Levi and Catherine Coffin helped thousands of fugitive slaves to safety in Newport, Indiana and Cincinnati, Ohio through the Undergound Railroad, a network of more than 3,000 homes and other stations that helped runaway slaves travel from southern states to freedom in northern states and Canada.
How many slaves did Levi Coffin help to freedom?
During the 20 years they lived in Newport (now Fountain City), the Coffins worked to provide transportation, shelter, food and clothing to more than 1,000 freedom-seekers.
How long do Coffins last underground?
Eventually these too will disintegrate, and after 80 years in that coffin, your bones will crack as the soft collagen inside them deteriorates, leaving nothing but the brittle mineral frame behind. But even that shell won't last forever.
Who ended slavery?
President Abraham LincolnOn February 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress submitting the proposed amendment to the state legislatures. The necessary number of states (three-fourths) ratified it by December 6, 1865.
How old was Levi Coffin when he died?
78 years (1798–1877)Levi Coffin / Age at death
What ended the Underground Railroad?
On January 1st, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation liberating slaves in Confederate states. After the war ended, the 13th amendment to the Constitution was approved in 1865 which abolished slavery in the entire United States and therefore was the end of the Underground Railroad.
Where did Levi Coffin grow?
Levi was born in Guilford County, North Carolina in 1798. The Coffins were Quakers and did not believe in slavery, but Levi grew up seeing the horrors of slavery first hand living in a slave state.
Who was one of the most famous conductors of the Underground Railroad?
Harriet TubmanOur Headlines and Heroes blog takes a look at Harriet Tubman as the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad. Tubman and those she helped escape from slavery headed north to freedom, sometimes across the border to Canada.
Who ended slavery?
President Abraham LincolnOn February 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress submitting the proposed amendment to the state legislatures. The necessary number of states (three-fourths) ratified it by December 6, 1865.
How old was Levi Coffin when he died?
78 years (1798–1877)Levi Coffin / Age at death
Where did they bury slaves?
In areas with a low percentage of people kept in slavery, the dead were buried in small plots or outside the edges of the white family graveyard on a farm. Large plantations had large graveyards dedicated for the everlasting resting place of those freed from slavery by death.
What dangers did the slaves face as they traveled through the Underground Railroad?
If they were caught, any number of terrible things could happen to them. Many captured fugitive slaves were flogged, branded, jailed, sold back into slavery, or even killed. Not only did fugitive slaves have the fear of starvation and capture, but there were also threats presented by their surroundings.
Who was Levi Coffin?
Levi Coffin (October 28, 1798 – September 16, 1877) was an American Quaker, Republican, abolitionist, farmer, businessman and humanitarian. An active leader of the Underground Railroad in Indiana and Ohio, some unofficially called Coffin the "President of the Underground Railroad," ...
How did Coffin help the slaves?
By the time he reached fifteen, Coffin was helping his family assist escaping slaves by bringing food to escapees hiding on his family's farm. As the repressive Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 became more rigorously enforced, the Coffin family needed to increase the secrecy under which they assisted escaping slaves, doing most of their illegal activities at night. Local scrutiny of known abolitionists worsened as North Carolina passed the 1804 Black Laws. By the early 1820s Quakers in North Carolina were being openly persecuted by those who suspected them of helping runaway slaves. Nonetheless, in 1821 Coffin and his cousin, Vestal, established a Sunday School to teach slaves to read the Bible. The plan proved short-lived; slaveholders soon forced the school to close.
What did Catherine White do for slaves?
Like her husband, Catherine actively assisted fugitive slaves, including providing food, clothing, and a safe haven in the Coffin home. As Levi commented on his wife's humanitarian work, "Her sympathy for those in distress never tired, and her effort in their behalf never abated. Catherine White became known as Aunt Katie to slaves on the run."
Why is the Levi Coffin House called the Grand Central Station?
Because the Levi Coffin House, its present-day name, had so many fugitives passing through it, the home became known as the "Grand Central Station" of the Underground Railroad. The Coffin house had several modifications made to create better hiding places for the runaway slaves.
Why did Coffin sell his company?
Despite his constant attention to the business, the poor supply and insufficient supply of free-labor products proved to be insurmountable, making it impossible for Coffin to find a replacement to run the company so that he could return to Indiana. The company remained in business primarily through the financial support of wealthy benefactors. Coffin sold the business in 1857, after deciding it would be impossible to maintain a profitable business.
Why did Coffin travel to Mississippi?
Coffin located a cotton plantation in Mississippi, where the owner had freed all his slaves and hired them as free laborers. The plantation struggled financially because it had no equipment to automate cotton production. Coffin helped the owner purchase a cotton gin that greatly increased the plantation's productivity and provided a steady supply of cotton for Coffin's association. The cotton was shipped to Cincinnati, where it was spun into cloth and sold. Other trips to Tennessee and Virginia were less successful, although he did succeed in spreading the word about the free-labor goods movement.
How much money did the Coffin raise?
After the war Coffin raised more than $100,000 in one year for the Western Freedman's Aid Society to provide food, clothing, money, and other aid to the newly freed slave population in the United States. In 1867 he served as a delegate to the International Anti-Slavery Conference in Paris.
Who was Levi Coffin?
Quick Facts. Levi Coffin was born in North Carolina on October 28, 1798 into a Quaker family who greatly influenced by the teachings of John Woolman a Quaker preacher, who believed slaveholding was not compatible with the Quaker beliefs and advocated emancipation. Growing up in the South, Coffin was frequently exposed to slaves ...
What is Levi Coffin's grave?
Cemetery Name: Spring Grove Cemetery. Levi Coffin was born in North Carolina on October 28, 1798 into a Quaker family who greatly influenced by the teachings of John Woolman a Quaker preacher, who believed slaveholding was not compatible with the Quaker beliefs and advocated emancipation.
How much money did the Coffin raise?
After the war ended, Coffin raised over $100,000 for the Western Freedman's Aid Society to provide food, clothing, money, and other aid for recently freed blacks. With the war over, slavery illegal, and passage of the 15th Amendment, granting African Americans the right to vote, Coffin retired from public life and wrote his memoirs.
How did William help his family?
By the age of 15, William was helping his family assist escaping slaves by giving them food and shelter on their farm. In 1821, William became a teacher and opened up a school for slaves to teach them how to read, though it was not successful as slave owners would not permit their slaves to attend.
Who was Levi Coffin?
Levi Coffin was an important figure in the Underground Railroad network that helped thousands of fugitive slaves escape to freedom in the years before the American Civil War. Coffin was born on October 28, 1798, in North ...
What was the name of the group that Coffin was a member of?
Coffin was born on October 28, 1798, in North Carolina. He was a member of the Society of Friends. Due to his religious beliefs, he became a strong opponent of African American slavery. By the time he turned fifteen, Coffin already had begun to assist fugitive slaves.
Where did the former slaves go?
Many former slaves went to Canada, where Southern slave owners did not have the legal right to retrieve them. Coffin's active participation in the Underground Railroad caused his fellow abolitionists to nickname him the "president of the Underground Railroad.".
Description
Levi Coffin was a prominent abolitionist and member of the Underground Railroad in both Indiana and Ohio. Levi Coffin came from a Quaker family and was born on October 28, 1798 on a farm in New Garden, North Carolina to Levi and Prudence Coffin.
Rights
PHOTO & VIDEO: Levi Coffin, via wikicommons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Levi_coffin.JPG
Overview
Levi Coffin (October 28, 1798 – September 16, 1877) was an American Quaker, Republican, abolitionist, farmer, businessman and humanitarian. An active leader of the Underground Railroad in Indiana and Ohio, some unofficially called Coffin the "President of the Underground Railroad," estimating that three thousand fugitive slaves passed through his care. The Coffin home in Fountain City, Wayne …
Early life and education
Coffin was born on a farm in Guilford County, North Carolina on October 28, 1798. The only son of Prudence and Levi Coffin Sr., he had six sisters. Both of his parents were devout Quakers and attended the historic New Garden Friends Meeting. Coffin's father was born in Massachusetts during the 1760s and migrated from Nantucket to North Carolina, where he farmed with other Quakers in the New Garden community.
Marriage and family
On October 28, 1824, Coffin married his long-time friend, Catherine White at the Hopewell Friends Meetinghouse in North Carolina. Catherine's family probably also helped slaves escape, and it is likely she met Coffin because of this activity.
The couple postponed their move to Indiana after Catherine became pregnant with Jesse, the first of their six children, who was born in 1825. Coffin's parent…
Career
Coffin continued to farm after moving to Indiana and within a year of his arrival he opened the first dry-goods store in Newport. In later years Coffin credited the success of his business, which he expanded in the 1830s, with providing him the ability to become heavily involved in the costly enterprise of the Underground Railroad, a risky enterprise that provided a network of stopover sites for fugitiv…
Later years
After the war Coffin raised more than $1,000 in one year for the Western Freedman's Aid Society to provide food, clothing, money, and other aid to the newly freed slave population in the United States. In 1867 he served as a delegate to the International Anti-Slavery Conference in Paris.
Coffin did not enjoy being in the public eye and considered his job soliciting financial aid as begging for money, which he thought to be demeaning. He stated in his autobiography that he gl…
Death and legacy
Coffin died on September 16, 1877, at around 6:30 p.m. at his home in Avondale, Ohio. His funeral was held at the Friends Meeting House of Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Daily Gazette reported that the crowd was too large to be accommodated indoors; hundreds had to remain outside. Four of Coffin's eight pallbearers were free blacks who had worked with him on the Underground Railroad. Coffin was interred in Cincinnati's Spring Grove Cemetery in an unmarked grave. Coffin's wife, Cat…
See also
• Peter Fossett, former enslaved person at Monticello who was a conductor of Coffin's Underground Railroad
Notes
1. ^ "Marker: J-75". www.ncmarkers.com.
2. ^ Mary Ann Yannessa (2001). Levi Coffin, Quaker: Breaking the Bonds of Slavery in Ohio and Indiana. Friends United Press. p. 1. ISBN 0-944350-54-2.
3. ^ "Notable Hoosier: Levi and Catharine Coffin" (PDF). Indiana Historical Society. Archived from the original on August 30, 2016. Retrieved August 20, 2016.