Birth date and Birthplace: May 9, 1800, Torrington, Connecticut
Death date and Death place: December 2, 1859, Charlestown, Virginia
Burial Site: John Brown Farm, North Elba, New York
Quote:
“Who wouldn't stand on nothing and peek through a noose for such a cause?”
It is time to do away with the idea of John Brown as defined by a defeated South, a post-Reconstruction North, or a racially alienated white intelligentsia. Who was John Brown? In politics, he was an advocate of justice and human equality for all people. In religion, he represented an orthodoxy untainted by prejudice. In community, he was an agent for progress. In war, he was a scourge to terrorists. In history, he is a gauge of our national commitment to telling the truth about our forefathers, our culture, and ourselves.
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Louis A. DeCaro Jr., New York, NY
Birth date and Birthplace: February 11, 1802, Medford, Massachusetts
Death date and Death place: October 20, 1880, Wayland, Massachusetts
Burial Site: Wayland, Massachusetts
Quote:
“Since I have been an abolitionist, every form of human suffering has become doubly interesting. Every shackle on every human soul not only arrests my attention but excites the earnest inquiry ‘What can I do to break the chain.’”
Abolitionist Lydia Maria Child wrote the first American anti-slavery book, denouncing the prejudices of Northerners as well as Southerners and outlining the evils of slavery for both slave and slaveholder. She edited the National Anti-Slavery Standard newspaper and championed the rights of women and Native Americans.
Lydia Maria Francis Child was clearly a major roll player in the movement to abolish slavery in America. Child's involvement in the events and issues that pushed Americans into the bloodiest conflict ever fought on U.S. soil, continue to shape the nation in the 21st century.
The abolitionist movement’s most prolific and versatile writer, Lydia Maria Child left a priceless legacy of books, pamphlets, fiction, and journalism that influenced thousands of readers, including major politicians and clergymen. Child’s inspiring vision of racial equality, her penetrating critique of racist ideology, and her pioneering model of educational empowerment for the disfranchised remain valuable today.
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Constance Jackson, Rolling Hills, CA
Carolyn Karcher, Washington, D.C.
Jane Sciacca, Wayland, MA
Birth date and Birthplace: February 14, 1818; Tuckahoe, Maryland
Death date and Death place: February 20, 1895; Washington, DC.
Burial site: Rochester, NY
Quote:
“One of the most valuable lessons left us by this struggle of slavery is faith in man, faith in the rectitude of humanity, and faith in the conquering power of truth as opposed to error—opposed to falsehood. The Abolitionists believed that this was the secret of their power.” (Speech in Louisville, Kentucky, 1873)
Every little while, I could hear something about the abolitionists. It was always used in such connection as to make it an interesting word to me. If a slave ran away and succeeded in getting clear, or if a slave killed his master, set fire to a barn, or did anything very wrong in the mind of a slaveholder, it was spoken of as the fruit of abolition. The Narrative, Chapter VII, 1845.
The mission of the political abolitionists of this country is to abolish slavery. The means to accomplish this great end is, first, to disseminate antislavery sentiment; and, secondly, to combine that sentiment and render it a political force which shall, for a time, operate as a check on violent measures for supporting slavery; and, finally, overthrow the great evil of slavery itself.—The end sought is sanctioned by God and all his holy angels, by every principle of justice, by every pulsation of humanity, and by all the hopes of this republic. Frederick Douglass’ Paper, November, 1852.
Abolition Work.
Frederick Douglass engaged in the most dangerous assignment of his day. He choose to speak publicly, usually before hostile audiences, about the horrific experiences of chattel slavery before audiences large and small, black and white. Moreover, in facing groups on both sides of the debate over slavery, his very presence put a human face on a subject so many understood only as an abstraction.
Abolition Legacy.
Through his intelligence, his oratorical gifts, his eloquence in writing, and his unyielding faith in the humanity of the black American, Douglass became recognized as an uncompromising voice for the abolishment of slavery and for the preservation of the ideal of American freedom for all of us.
Information by:
TEAM DOUGLASS
Frederick Douglass Institute
West Chester University
West Chester PA 19383
Birth date and Birthplace: December 12, 1805, Newburyport, MA
Death date and Death place: May 24, 1879, New York City, NY
Burial site: Roxbury, MA
Two of Garrison’s striking quotes on abolition:
“I have need to be all on fire, for I have mountains of ice about me to melt.” (Letter from Garrison to Samuel Joseph May, Some Recollections of Our Anti-Slavery Conflict, 36 – 37.)
“I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On the subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm…but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – AND I WILL BE HEARD.” (The Liberator, January 1, 1831,1).
Abolition Work:
Garrison’s abolition work was that of journalism – of getting a controversial perspective to the public eye and ear through writing and speaking. Although frequently reviled even in the North, he claimed that hisses were music to his ears. His moral suasion tactic kept people aware of the horrible injustice of slavery.
Abolition Legacy:
Garrison was a powerful example of one whose emotional commitment to a moral revolution was unswerving. Today we recognize his emphasis on the need for moral commitment to equality.
Birth date and Birthplace: January 3, 1793, Nantucket Is., MA
Death date and Death place: November 11, 1880, Philadelphia, PA
Burial site: Fairhill Burial Ground, Philadelphia, PA
Three of Mott’s striking quotes on abolition:
“I have felt bound to plead their cause in season and out of season…to give all my power and aid in every effort for their immediate emancipation.”
“I confess to you my friends, that I am a worshipper after the way called heresy.”
“Let Our Lives Be in Accordance with Our Convictions of Right, Each striving to Carry Out our Principles.”
Truth for Authority, not Authority for Truth.
Abolition Work:
Lucretia Mott advocated the galvanizing idea that slavery was sinful and must be abolished. Moved by radical British women Quaker immediatists such as Elizabeth Heyrick and the American Hicksite reformers who insisted on following one’s Inner Light, Lucretia Mott formulated her own distinctive abolitionist ministry encompassing action, justice, love, and mercy. She spoke eloquently and fearlessly, and acted upon her convictions by speaking out against slavery and harboring freedom seekers, and agitating for African American suffrage and education after Emancipation.
Abolition Legacy:
Unswerving in her moral insight, human rights vision, melding of action and eloquence, dedication, and passion for abolition, Lucretia Mott provided the outstanding and continuously inspiring leadership model for her generation and all future generations of social justice reformers. Her chosen motto Truth for Authority, not Authority for Truth still inspires progressive champions working today for peace and human rights across the globe.
Information by:
TEAM MOTT
National Women’s Hall of Fame
76 Fall Street
Seneca Falls, NY 13148
Birth date and Birthplace: November 29, 1811, Boston, Massachusetts
Death date and Death place: February 2, 1884, Boston, Massachusetts
Burial Site: Milton Cemetery, Boston, Massachusetts
“The great struggle between Equality and Caste, between free institutions and a government founded on race – is not, by any means ended. The rebellion was only a preliminary skirmish. To your tents, Oh Israel.”
Wendell Phillips, one of the greatest abolitionist orators, was born into an aristocratic Boston family. In 1835, after his graduation from Harvard Law School, he was converted to the abolitionist cause by William Lloyd Garrison. Like Garrison, he pressed for immediate abolition and he advocated for disunion. Both before and after the Civil War he ardently devoted much of his life to African American causes.
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Hugh Humphreys, Hamilton, NY
Birth date and Birthplace: March 6, 1797, Utica NY
Death date and Death place: December 28, 1874, New York City
Burial site: Peterboro Cemetery, Peterboro NY
Quote:
“What a wonder, what a shame, what a crime, that in the midst of the light and progress of the middle of the nineteenth century, such an abomination and outrage as slavery, should be acknowledged to be a legal institution.”
Abolition Work:
Scores of freedom seekers came to Smith’s Underground Railroad station. Smith recommended that slaves should be supplied, not with Bibles, but with compasses and pistols. He funded the journalistic efforts of Frederick Douglass, the abolition activities of John Brown, and donated over 5 million dollars to the cause of abolition. He helped establish the Liberty Party which led to Abraham Lincoln’s election, thus assuring the abolition of slavery in the United States.
Abolition Legacy:
Smith’s legacy of compassion for those in need and his optimism regarding his ability to help serves us well today as we continue to deal with issues of racism and sexism.
Information by:
TEAM SMITH
Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark
Smithfield Community Association
P.O. Box 42
Peterboro NY 13134
Birthdate and Birthplace: mid-Hudson Valley in Upstate New York 1797
Death date and Death place: November 26, 1883, Battle Creek, Michigan
Burial Site: Battle Creek, Michigan
Quote:
“Where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter…. The white men will be in a fix pretty soon.”
Isabella Baumfree was born into slavery in New York around 1797. At age 29 Isabella walked away from slavery. In 1843 Isabella had a divinely inspired vision of herself as a traveling human rights advocate. She renamed herself Sojourner Truth and set forth on her life’s work.
Throughout her life Sojourner continually reminded her allies that black women were half the slave population, and that without changing the conditions of all women’s oppression, black women would not achieve freedom.
It was clear to Truth that legal emancipation was not full freedom. Overcoming the challenges of slavery, illiteracy, penury, prejudice, and sexism in her own lifetime, Sojourner Truth worked for freedom and to end racism by mobilizing thousands to support abolition.
Information by:
Billie Luisi-Potts, Seneca Falls, NY
Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland in 1820. As a young girl, she dedicated her life to the accomplishment of freedom for African Americans. Following her successful escape to the North in 1849, she risked her own freedom by returning to the South several times to lead other slaves to freedom. As a notorious Underground Railroad “conductor,” she led groups of slaves through eastern Pennsylvania and central New York and on to Canada. Her bravery in the face of the constant danger of capture won her acclaim from many leading abolitionists including John Brown, Lydia Maria Child, William Seward, Gerrit Smith, and Wendell Phillips.
During the Civil War, Tubman worked as a nurse, laundress, and spy for the North, then faced the pervasive post-war racial discrimination as she was unable to acquire her government pension for wartime service. Following the war she settled in Auburn, New York, on land purchased from William Seward with money earned from Sarah Elizabeth Bradford’s biography of her. She lived in Auburn until her death in 1913.
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