Levi Coffin

As far back as colonial times, the Quakers were passionate opponents of slavery; it is no accident that so many white abolitionists in antebellum America belonged to the Society of Friends. Levi Coffin was born in slaveholding North Carolina, but the Quaker schoolteacher found the institution repugnant. While still in North Carolina, he struggled to open a school for slaves, but he was thwarted by owners who denied their chattel permission to attend. Moving with his wife to Newport, Indiana, in 1826, Coffin found himself situated along the most frequently traveled escape route for runaways trying to get to Canada. Soon the Coffins' home became a major "station" along the Underground Railroad. It has been estimated that Levi Coffin gave safe harbor to over three thousand runaway slaves, providing them with shelter, food, and clothing to sustain them along their...