People

• John Brown was a militant white abolitionist who eventually took up arms to free slaves. He was born in Connecticut in 1800, grew up in Ohio, lived in Kansas, and later lived in the northeastern United States where he worked for African-American rights. In the 1850s he was involved in a number of armed actions in Kansas where there were fights between proslavery and antislavery groups. In October, 1859, a year before the start of the War Between the States, Brown and a group of armed followers captured the U. S. military arsenal at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. They intended to use this mountain base to incite slaves to rise up and win their freedom. The attack failed and Brown was captured, tried for treason, and hanged. He became a martyr for the abolition of slavery, and was immortalized in the song which began: "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave," The melody for this song was later used for the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Harriet Tubman met with John Brown prior to his ill-fated final battle, and is said to have aided him in the planning of the operation, and in finding recruits. She considered him a hero.

• Frederick Douglass was an African-American journalist, writer and speaker, and one of the most prominent spokesmen for blacks in the 1800s. He published an antislavery magazine called the North Star (later known as Frederick Douglass' Paper) in Rochester, New York. Mr. Douglass was born into slavery in 1817 near Easton on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, which was just to the north of Harriet Tubman's girlhood home. He educated himself as a young man. Then in 1838, he escaped to New England where at first he worked at low-paying jobs, but then he began to catch the attention of abolitionists and became a forceful activist against slavery and mistreatment of blacks. During the War Between the States he worked to recruit African-Americans for the army, and in later years held a number of government positions until his death in 1895. His eloquence is shown in comments he wrote to Harriet in 1867:

  The difference between us is very marked. Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way. I have wrought in the day--you at night. I have had the applause of the crowd and the satisfaction that comes of being approved by the multitude, while the most that you have done has been witnessed by a few trembling, scared, and foot-sore bondmen and women, whom you have led out of the house of bondage, and whose heartfelt "God bless you" has been your only reward.

• William Lloyd Garrison was a journalist and staunch abolitionist who led in the movement to end slavery. From his base in Boston, he published an influential paper called The Liberator. Garrison was uncompromising and unrelenting in his attacks on the institution of slavery, beginning in the early 1830s and continuing until 1865 when the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution ended slavery. Harriet traveled to Boston and was acquainted with Garrison and his work.

• Thomas Garrett was a Quaker in Wilmington, Delaware who helped thousands of slaves escape along the Underground Railroad. During his life he was arrested, fined, thrown into jail, and lost all his money twice to court judgments, each time starting over again, but he continued regardless. When he was 60 years old, court fines left him without a penny, but he went back to work and regained some of his fortune. Garrett is credited with helping more than 2,700 fugitive slaves, including fugitives brought out by Harriet Tubman, who stayed with him on more than a few occasions during her rescue trips to Maryland. Once when Garrett was brought to court and ordered to pay a large fine for having helped slaves escape, the judge told him in a stern voice that this would be a lesson to him never to help runaway slaves again. Garrett fixed his eyes on the judge and defiantly said to the court:

  Judge--thee hasn't left me a dollar, but I wish to say to thee [Quakers of that day used the word "thee" in their speech], and to all in this court room, that if anyone knows of a fugitive who wants a shelter, and a friend, send him to Thomas Garrett, and he will befriend him!

• William Seward was the U. S. Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln during the War Between the States, and later under Andrew Johnson. He worked actively against the spread of slavery, and became a friend of Harriet Tubman, helping her gain a home and property for her parents in Auburn, New York in the 1850s. This is where Harriet herself went to live in the years after the war.

• William Still was an African-American activist in Philadelphia who helped fugitives escape to Canada along the Underground Railroad. He was one of the first prominent abolitionists that Harriet Tubman met in Philadelphia following her escape from slavery, and his influence helped her realize the potential for her own work in rescuing slaves. He was born as a free black in New Jersey in 1821, where he worked on his parent's farm until the age of 23. At that time he moved to Philadelphia, taught himself to read and write, and became the Director of the "Vigilance Committee," which was a group that helped fugitive slaves. He kept records of activities on the Underground Railroad, thereby giving later generations important historical documents of underground activities of the times.

• Sojourner Truth was the name taken by Isabella Baumfree, who was known as an orator and abolitionist in the days before the War Between the States. She was born a slave in New York state in 1797, but gained her freedom in 1828 when that state ended slavery. She had a series of visions, and in 1843, in New York City, she changed her name to Sojourner, and began to appear at rallies and gatherings as a forceful speaker against slavery and an advocate of truth. During the War Between the States she lived in Washington, D.C. where she helped care for soldiers and newly freed slaves. She died in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1883. During her lifetime she knew and worked with Harriet on issues of slavery and women's rights.