Levi Coffin
Levi Coffin Jr. was an American Quaker, Republican, abolitionist, farmer, businessman and humanitarian. An active leader of the Underground Railroad in Indiana and Ohio, some unofficially called Coffin the "President of the Underground Railroad", estimating that three thousand fugitive slaves passed through his care. The Coffin home in Fountain City, Wayne County, Indiana, is a museum, sometimes called the Underground Railroad's "Grand Central Station".
Born near what became Greensboro, North Carolina, Coffin was exposed to and came to oppose slavery as a child. His family immigrated to Indiana in 1826, avoiding slaveholders' increasing persecution of Quakers, whose faith did not permit them to own slaves and who assisted freedom seekers. In Indiana, Coffin settled near the National Road with other Quakers in Wayne County, Indiana, near the Ohio border. He farmed, as well as became a local merchant and business leader. Coffin became a major investor in and director of the local Richmond branch of the Second State Bank of Indiana in the 1830s, Richmond being the Wayne County seat. His financial position at the bank and standing in the community also helped supply food, clothing and transportation for Underground Railroad operations in the region.
At the urging of friends in the anti-slavery movement, Coffin moved southward to the important Ohio River port city of Cincinnati in 1847, where he ran a warehouse that sold only free-labor goods. Despite making considerable progress with the business, the free-labor venture proved unprofitable; Coffin abandoned the enterprise after a decade. Meanwhile, during this 1847 through 1857 period, Coffin assisted hundreds of runaway slaves, often by lodging them in his Ohio home across the river from Kentucky and not far downriver from Virginia. Kentucky and Virginia remained slave states until slavery was abolished after the American Civil War.
In his final decade, Coffin traveled around the Midwest, as well as overseas to France and Great Britain, where he helped form aid societies to provide food, clothing, funds and education to former slaves. Coffin retired from public life in the 1870s, and wrote an autobiography, Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, published in 1876, a year before his death.
Early life and education
Coffin was born on a farm in Guilford County, North Carolina, on October 28, 1798. The only son of Prudence and Levi Coffin Sr., he had six sisters. Both of his parents were devout Quakers and attended the historic New Garden Friends Meeting. Coffin's father was born in Massachusetts during the 1760s and migrated from Nantucket to North Carolina, where he farmed with other Quakers in the New Garden community.As Coffin later explained in his autobiography, Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, he inherited his anti-slavery views from his parent and grandparents, who had never owned slaves. The teachings of John Woolman influenced the Coffin family. Coffin's parents probably met Woolman in 1767 during religious meetings held near their New Garden home with other non-slaveholding Quaker families. His cousin, Vestal Coffin, probably attended the meeting and beginning as early as 1819, became one of the earliest Quakers to help slaves escape from North Carolina.
Educated at his rural home, Coffin received little, if any, formal schooling. Coffin related how he became an abolitionist at the age of seven when he asked a slave who was in a chain gang why he was bound. The man replied that it was to prevent him from escaping and returning to his wife and children. The event disturbed Coffin, who understood the consequences of a father being taken away from his family.
By the time he reached the age of 15, Coffin was helping his family assist escaping slaves by bringing food to escapees hiding on his family's farm. As the repressive Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 became more rigorously enforced, the Coffin family needed to increase the secrecy under which they assisted escaping slaves, doing most of their illegal activities at night. Local scrutiny of known abolitionists worsened as North Carolina passed the 1804 Black Laws. By the early 1820s, Quakers in North Carolina were being openly persecuted by those who suspected them of helping runaway slaves. Nonetheless, in 1821 Coffin and his cousin, Vestal, established a Sunday School to teach slaves to read the Bible. The plan proved short-lived; slaveholders soon forced the school to close.
As persecution worsened, thousands of Quakers left North Carolina for what had been the Northwest Territory in Coffin's childhood, where slavery had been prohibited since the country's founding, then affirmed by the states created there. Plus, land was less expensive. In 1822 Coffin accompanied Benjamin White to Indiana. He stayed with the Whites for about a year. On returning to North Carolina, Coffin reported the prosperity in Indiana. Convinced that Quakers and slaveholders could not coexist, Coffin decided to move to Indiana.
Marriage and family
On October 28, 1824, Coffin married his long-time friend Catherine White at the Hopewell Friends Meetinghouse in North Carolina. Members of Catherine's family were also anti-slavery activists and abolitionists and it is likely she met Coffin because of these activities.The couple postponed their move to Indiana after Catherine became pregnant with Jesse, the first of their six children, who was born in 1825. Coffin's parents moved to Indiana in 1825. Levi, Catherine, and their infant son followed his parents to Indiana the following year. In 1826, they settled in Newport in Wayne County, Indiana.
Like her husband, Catherine actively assisted fugitive slaves, including providing food, clothing, and a safe haven in the Coffin home. As Levi commented on his wife's humanitarian work, "Her sympathy for those in distress never tired, and her effort in their behalf never abated. Catherine White became known as Aunt Katie to slaves on the run."
Career
Indiana
Coffin continued to farm after moving to Indiana and within a year of his arrival he opened the first dry-goods store in Newport. In later years Coffin credited the success of his business, which he expanded in the 1830s, with providing him the ability to become heavily involved in the costly enterprise of the Underground Railroad, a risky enterprise that provided a network of stopover sites for fugitive slaves as they traveled north into Canada.Although the term "Underground Railroad" did not come into use until the 1830s, the network was operating in Indiana by the early 1820s. According to Coffin, not long after moving to Newport his home became one of the Underground Railroad stops. A large community of free blacks also lived near Newport, where fugitive slaves would hide before continuing north, but they were frequently recaptured because their hiding places were well known to the slave catchers. Coffin made contact with the local black community and made them aware of his willingness to hide runaways in his home to better protect them.
Coffin began sheltering fugitive slaves in his Indiana home during the winter of 1826–27. Word of his activities quickly spread throughout the community. Although many had previously been afraid to participate, some of his neighbors joined the effort after seeing his success at avoiding problems. The group formed a more formal route to move the fugitives from stop to stop until they reached Canada. Coffin referred to the system as the "mysterious road" and as time progressed the number of escaping slaves increased. Coffin estimated that, on average, he helped one hundred escape annually. The Coffin home became the convergent point of three major escape routes from Madison and New Albany, Indiana, and Cincinnati, Ohio. On some occasions when runaways gathered at his home, two wagons were required to transport them further north. Coffin moved the escaping slaves to the next stops along the route during the night. Coffin had numerous collaborators. In Madison, George DeBaptiste's barber shop was a key nerve center in the 1830s and 1840s.
Slave hunters frequently threatened Coffin's life. Many of his friends who feared for his safety tried to dissuade him from his covert activities by warning him of the danger to his family and business. Coffin, who was deeply moved by his religious convictions, later explained his rationale for continuing the effort:
When neighbors who were opposed to his activity boycotted his store, Coffin's business experienced a period of poor performance; however, as the local population grew, the majority of the new arrivals supported the anti-slavery movement and Coffin's business prospered. He made a substantial investment in the Second State Bank of Indiana, established in 1833, and became a director of the bank's Richmond, Indiana, branch. In 1836 he expanded his business to include a mill that processed flax seed used to produce linseed oil. He also established a hog-butchering operation, opened a paint shop, and eventually acquired of land.
In 1838 Coffin built a two-story, Federal-style brick home as his family's residence in Newport. Because the Levi Coffin House, its present-day name, had so many fugitives passing through it, the home became known as the "Grand Central Station" of the Underground Railroad. The Coffin house had several modifications made to create better hiding places for the runaway slaves. A secret door installed in the maids' quarters on the second floor provided access for fourteen people to hide in a narrow crawlspace between the walls. The hiding space could be used when slave hunters came to the Coffin home in search of runaways. Because Coffin demanded to see search warrants and slave-ownership papers before allowing entry to his home, it was never searched and escaping slaves had been transported to other locations by the time the slave hunters returned with the documents.
During the 1840s, pressure was brought to bear on the Quaker communities that helped escaping slaves.
In 1842 the leaders of the Religious Society of Friends advised their members to cease membership in abolitionist societies and end activities assisting runaway slaves. The leaders insisted that legal emancipation was the best course of action. Coffin continued to take an active role in assisting escaping slaves, and the following year the Quaker society expelled him from membership. Coffin and other Quakers who supported his activities separated and formed the Antislavery Friends; the two rival groups remained separate until a reunification occurred in 1851.
Despite the opposition, the Coffin family's desire to help the runaway slaves only increased. Coffin's wife, Catherine, who was also dedicated to the effort, organized a sewing society that met at their home to produce clothing to give to the runaways. She also provided meals and shelter to runaway slaves in the Coffin home. Other aid was obtained from neighbors and others who were sympathetic to the cause, but unwilling take the fugitives into their homes. Through these activities, Coffin was able to secure a steady supply of goods to assist in the ongoing operations.
Over the years, Coffin came to realize that many of the goods he sold in his business were produced with slave labor. Through his travels Coffin learned of organizations in Philadelphia and New York City that only sold goods produced with free labor. He began to purchase stock from these organizations and marketed free-labor goods to his fellow abolitionists, though the products provided him with little profit.
Free-labor proponents in the East also wanted to create a similar organization in the western states. In the 1840s, members of the Salem Free Produce Association approached Coffin to see if he would be interested in managing the proposed Western Free Produce Association. At first he declined, saying he lacked the money required to fund the venture, and that he did not want to move into the city. In 1845 a group of abolitionist businessmen opened a wholesale mercantile business in Cincinnati and the Free Produce Association raised $3,000 to help stock the new warehouse with goods. Different groups continued to pressure Coffin to accept a position as the new business's director, claiming there were no other western abolitionists qualified to manage the enterprise. Reluctantly, he finally agreed to oversee the warehouse for five years, in which time he could train someone else to run it, and in 1847 Levi and Catherine Coffin moved to Ohio.