A leading American antislavery reformer and a conductor of the Underground Railroad, Levi Coffin (1789-1877) contributed to the good repute in the North of illegal and contested fugitive slave activities.

Levi Coffin came of an old Nantucket, Mass., family, part of which had settled with a Quaker community in New Garden, N.C. There he was born of farmer parents on Oct. 28, 1789, and raised with little schooling. What he learned came by his own efforts. Coffin aspired at the time to be a teacher and taught a number of seasons in the area. North Carolina still permitted moderate antislavery measures. Coffin, already a friend of runaway slaves, sought means for helping them. In 1821 he opened a Sunday school for slaves. It was successful but stirred the antagonism of white neighbors, who discouraged friendly slaveholders from permitting their slaves to attend its sessions.

Increasing repression in the state dissatisfied...