People, Locations, Episodes

The New York Manumission Society is formed.

*The first meeting of the New York Manumission Society was held on this date in 1785. Their full name was ‘The New York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, and Protecting Such of Them as Have Been, or May be Liberated.’ John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, Noah Webster, and many slaveholders were among its founders. […]

John F. Webber, Soldier, and Abolitionist born

*John Webber’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1786. He was a white-American soldier and abolitionist. John Ferdinand Webber was born in Vermont, the son of John Webber and Hannah Morrill.  As a soldier in the War of 1812, he served as a private in Capt. S. Dickinson’s company. He was in the thirty-first […]

Arthur Tappan, Abolitionist born

*Arthur Tappan was born on this date in 1786. He was a white-American businessman, philanthropist, and abolitionist. Arthur Tappan was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, to Benjamin Tappan and Sarah Homes Tappan, a great-niece of Benjamin Franklin. He was the brother of Ohio Senator Benjamin Tappan, abolitionist Lewis Tappan, and a great-grandfather of Thornton Wilder. They were […]

Quakers, and American Abolition, a story

*Quakers and American abolition are affirmed on this date in 1787. Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends) were the only large religious American denomination to make it a requirement of membership to refuse to enslave people.  Quakers struggled internally for a century to come to this place.    Quakers such as John Woolman and Benjamin Lay […]

The Free African Society is Founded

*The Free African Society (FAS) was founded on this date in 1787. This benevolent organization held religious services and provided mutual aid for “free Africans and their descendants.”   FAS founding membership; all free Black men, including Samuel Baston, Joseph Johnson, Cato Freedman, Caesar Cranchell, James Potter, and William White. Notable members included Black abolitionists such as Cyrus […]

The Underground Railroad in America, a story

The Underground Railroad, the organization which helped escaped African slaves from the South on their journey to freedom in the North and Canada, begun in 1787, is celebrated on this date.

Lewis Tappan, Abolitionist born

*Lewis Tappan was born on this date in 1788. He was a white-American abolitionist. From Northampton, MA., Lewis Tappan was the brother of Senator Benjamin Tappan and abolitionist Arthur Tappan. His middle-class parents, Benjamin Tappan and Sarah Homes Tappan, were strict Congregationalists. Once Lewis was old enough to work, he helped his father in a dry goods […]

Josiah Henson, Abolitionist born

This date marks the birth of Josiah Henson in 1789. He was an 18th century Black abolitionist.

The first anti-slavery law in Canada was passed in 1783 by then Ontario. For the next 68 years it is estimated that 50,000 Blacks entered Canada for safety and freedom. One of them was Josiah Henson, a former slave from Kentucky. During his lifetime, three masters owned Henson. Henson started preaching to raise money in the hope of buying his freedom. His master took the money that Josiah had earned, and then raised the price of Henson’s freedom to $1,000.

Thomas Jennings, Tradesman born

*This date in 1791 is celebrated as the birth date of Thomas Jennings, a Black tradesman and abolitionist.   Thomas L. Jennings was born to a free Black family in New York City. As a youth, he learned a trade as a tailor. He built a business and married a woman named Elizabeth from Delaware, […]

Edward Strutt Abdy, Abolitionist born

*This date in 1791 is celebrated as the birth date of Edward Strutt Abdy, a white English legal academic and abolitionist. Edward Strutt Abdy was born in the U.K., the fifth and youngest son of Thomas Abdy, of Albyns, Essex, by Mary, daughter of James Hayes, of Holliport, a bencher of the Middle Temple. He […]

James Birney, Abolitionist born.

*James G. Birney was born on this date in 1792. He was a white-American abolitionist and politician who was once a slave owner.    From Danville, Kentucky, James Gillespie Birney graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1810, where he studied law. He then moved to Alabama, where he made lots […]

The Sierra Leone Company is Founded

*The Sierra Leone Company was founded on this date in 1792.   This white-European corporate body was involved in founding the second British Colony of Sierra Leone.   Their intent was to resettle Black Loyalists who had initially settled in Nova Scotia after the American Revolutionary War. The Company was formed by abolitionists Granville Sharp, Thomas […]

Sarah Moore Grimke, Abolitionist born

Sarah Moore Grimke was born on this date in 1792. She was a White American abolitionist and advocate of women’s rights.

From Charleston, S.C., she came from a distinguished Southern family. On a visit to Philadelphia, Grimke joined the Society of Friends. She converted her younger sister Angelina to the Quaker faith, and the two moved to the North permanently in January 1832. Angelina became an abolitionist in 1835, and in turn converted Sarah.

Lucretia Mott, Abolitionist, and Quaker born

Lucretia Coffin Mott was born on this date in 1793. She was a White American abolitionist and educator.

She was born in the seaport town of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and at the age of 13, she was sent to a coeducational Quaker school, Nine Partners, in Duchess County, New York. It was here that Lucretia met James Mott. From 1808-10, she served as an assistant teacher at Nine Partners, and during that time the Coffin family moved from Boston to Philadelphia.

John Rankin, Abolitionist born

*John Rankin was born on this date in 1793. He was a White American minister and abolitionist with the Underground Railroad.