Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, Reputed President of the Underground Railroad

Coffin, Levi. Reminiscences of Levi Coffin. The American Negro, His History and Literature. 2nd ed. Cincinnati, OH: Robert Clarke & Co., 1880.
    Source Type
    Primary
    Year
    1880
    Publication Type
    Book
    Citation:
    Levi Coffin, Reminiscences of Levi Coffin (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1880), 719.

    This work is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text.
    Body Summary:
    THE subject of this sketch was attending school at Oberlin, Ohio--an institution open to all, without regard to race or color--when his latent sympathies for the oppressed and down-trodden slave were first called into action. A slave man had escaped from Kentucky, and made his way to Oberlin. Though enjoying liberty here he was not happy, for his wife was still in bondage, and he was constantly planning some way for her escape. This case, with many pathetic and touching details, was laid before Calvin Fairbank; and, though he was well aware of the danger attendant upon such a project, he voluntered to go to Kentucky and bring the slave woman away.
    Citation:
    Levi Coffin, Reminiscences of Levi Coffin (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1880), 719-20.

    This work is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text.
    Body Summary:
    Fairbank writes:--

    I left for Kentucky about the 24th August, 1844, and taking time to learn the best route and become acquainted with reliable sources of aid, I arrived in Lexington, Kentucky, on the first of September. Miss Delia Webster was then teaching in Lexington. I examined into the case of Berry's wife, the slave woman, whom I had come to aid, but it seemed doubtful whether I could succeed in getting her away. In the meantime Miss Webster told me of a slave man named Lewis Hayden, his wife, and son of ten years, who were very anxious to escape, and I resolved to aid them. Interviews were held and arrangements made, and on the night of September 28th, Miss Webster and I, waiting in a hired hack near the residence of Cassius M. Clay, on the outer part of the city, were joined by Hayden and wife and son. At Millersburg, twenty-four miles distant, we were detained nearly an hour, having to obtain another horse in the place of one of ours, which failed; and while here we were recognized by two colored men from Lexington. On their return they unwittingly started the report which afterwards led to our arrest. At nine o'clock the next morning we crossed the river at Maysville, Kentucky, and were soon safe in Ripley, Ohio. I conducted the fugitives to a depot of the Underground Railroad, where they took passage and reached Canada in safety.
    How to Cite This Page: "Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, Reputed President of the Underground Railroad," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/10446.