(1817 – 1895)

Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, was internationally known as an uncompromising abolitionist. Douglass advised President Lincoln to make abolition the purpose of the Civil War and his oratorical and literary brilliance made him a respected speaker on the abolition lecture circuit and an admired editor of The North Star and Frederick Douglass’ Paper newspapers in Rochester NY.

(1797 – 1874)

Gerrit Smith was a wealthy radical abolitionist dedicated to helping the oppressed. Smith’s home in Peterboro New York was a haven for abolitionists, and freedom seekers. Smith donated thousands of dollars to abolition activities, sent agents to purchase freedom for those enslaved, established a manual labor school for African-American men in 1834 on his estate, and gave 120,000 acres of New York State land to black male Americans.

(1820 – 1913)

Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave, was the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad. Tubman, known as the Moses of her People, was persistent in aiding others to escape. From 1849 until the Civil War she escorted scores of former slaves to Canada without losing a “passenger,” and then became a spy during the Civil War to support the cause of the North.

(1798 – 1880)

Lucretia Coffin Mott, an American Quaker minister, spent her life consistently working for social reform, especially for the rights of African-Americans and women. Mott spoke out publicly against slavery, organized anti-slavery organizations, and opened her home to freedomseekers after the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850.  Mott attended the International Antislavery Convention in London in 1840.

(1805 – 1879)

William Lloyd Garrison was an untiring reformer leading a moral crusade for the abolition of slavery in the United States.  Garrison published The Liberator, an abolition newspaper from 1831 to 1865, established the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832 and the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, and believed the Constitution supported slavery.

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