Levi Coffin
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Levi Coffin (b. October 28, 1798 in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States, d. September 16, 1877 in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States) was an American educator and abolitionist.
In 1821, he wanted to start a school for slaves, however, their owners refused to allow them to attend. In 1826, he moved to Fountain City, Indiana (then called Newport), where he helped thousands of slaves escape to Canada. In 1847, he moved to Cincinnati where he opened a store which sold goods made by freed slaves. He also visited the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to raise funds and in 1867 he was a delegate to the International Anti-Slavery Conference in Paris.
Levi Coffin was also a prominent member of the Underground Railroad who secretly helped tens of thousands of slaves to escape from the South to the North in the years of slavery, using a number of safe houses, called Stations. One of these was Coffin's house in Newport (now known as Fountain City), Indiana, where he and his wife, Catharine, both Quakers and both opposed to slavery, lived for twenty years. The house became known as Grand Central Station, and Coffin's prominence in the organization is reflected by the fact, that he is often referred to as the "President of the Underground Railroad". He came to be called this by a slavecatcher who said, "There's an underground railroad going on here, and Levi's the president of it." By his own reckoning, Levi Coffin was involved in the escape of about 2,000 slaves, about 2% of the 100,000 slaves who escaped by way of the Underground Railroad in total.
Questioned about why he aided slaves, Coffin said "The Bible, in bidding us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, said nothing about color, and I should try to follow out the teachings of that good book." Another time he simply said, "I thought it was always safe to do right."
After the Civil War, he continued his good work and raised over $100,000 dollars for the Western Freedman's Aid Society, a group that he helped to lead.
His home[1] in Fountain City, Indiana is a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public for tours. Visitors can see the "hidey hole"[2] that he had built into an upstairs wall (even though his house was never officially searched, Levi was prepared) and a wagon with a false bottom that demonstrates how runaway slaves were sometimes moved.
His home was also named one of the United States' Top 25 Historic Sites[3] by the History Channel.
He is interred at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ http://www.waynet.org/nonprofit/coffin.htm
- ^ Image of the "hidey hole"
- ^ http://www.aetntravel.com/soh/attractions.htm
[edit] Sources
[edit] External links
- The Coffin House in Fountain City (Newport), Indiana.
- Levi Coffin's handwritten will hosted at the University of Cincinnati
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Coffin, Levi |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | American educator and abolitionist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 28, 1798 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Greensboro, North Carolina, United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 16, 1877 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Cincinnati, Ohio, United States |
