Important People
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman is one of the most famous abolitionists of all time. She lived in Maryland as a slave. She escaped slavery in 1849 and then returned the next year to help relatives escape who were up for auction. She returned many times after that to help more slaves escape. It is estimated that she saved 300 people from slavery and she made 19 trips back to Maryland. She died when she was about 93, a free woman.
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was a slave from Maryland. He escaped and went to live in Rhode Island. After reading William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator, Douglass became an abolitionist. His home was a stop on the Underground Railroad, and he wrote a paper called The North Star, which was anti-slavery. After the civil war, he served as federal marshall under President Hayes, and he was an ambassador to Haiti.
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison was from Boston. He was the creator of The Liberator, and abolitionist newspaper. The Liberator compelled more people to be abolitionists and it also strengthened the sense of urgency to free the slaves. Garrison was also known for his nonviolent attics of fighting slavery. He organized the New England Anti-Slavery Society and the Society later published the "Declaration of Sentiments" which he wrote. Garrison inspired many famous abolitionists and helped the anti-slavery movement.
Solomon Northrup
Solomon Northrup was a fugitive slave who wrote one of the most famous novels about slavery. He started out as a freeman, but was kidnapped, as stated in the tittle of his book, Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northrup,A Citizen of New York, Kidnapped in Washington City, And Rescued In 1841, From A Cotton Plantation Near The Red River In Louisiana.
William Still
William Still was a free black who became chairman of the Pennsylvania Vigilance Committee. He kept records of slave names, freedman's names, and their stories. He founded a coal supply company during the Civil War that helped Black soldiers in the Union Army.
Thomas Garett
Thomas Garrett worked very hard to free slaves. He devoted his life, and his wife's fortune to freeing the slaves. Harriet Tubman herself showed up on his doorstep once in awhile. He was once fined fifteen hundred dollars for freeing six slaves. The setback was minimal.
Henry "Box" Brown
Henry Brown was a slave sick of being stuck. Brown came up with a plan to get to freedom. He befriended a carpenter who constructed him a big box. Brown got himself inside and shipped himself to the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Office. He arrived alive and free.