On numerous journeys into Southern slave territories, the fearless ex-slave Harriet Tubman led over 200 people to freedom, including her parents. Her dangerous work was so successful that Southerners placed a $40,000 bounty on her head. Today, she is widely recognized as the Underground Railroad’s most successful “conductor.”

Tubman’s activities were not limited to perilous rescues. She also recruited black soldiers for the Union army and actively aided Union troops, a job that went uncompensated. Tubman devoted the rest of her life to charitable work on behalf of former slaves, and converted her Auburn, New York home into a sanitarium for the old and poor.

Born a Kentucky slave, William Wells Brown used his oratorical skills as a lecturer for both the American Anti-Slavery Society and the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society to spread the abolitionist message. In 1847, Brown published the first edition of his Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself. This slave narrative sold more than thirteen thousand copies in six editions in the United States and England. In 1849 he traveled abroad and began lecturing in England, where he remained until 1854. Brown was a prolific writer, publishing an autobiography, a travel book, a book of abolitionist songs, a play, novels, and a history of black people. Brown is perhaps best remembered today as a pioneer in African American literature. Clotelle, the first novel published by an African American, was the work of his pen. Clotelle is a fictionalized account of Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with his slave Sally Hemings, first published in 1853.

Henry Highland Garnet was the first African American to speak before the House of Representatives, and one of the founders of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. At first an advocate of moral suasion, or the use of lecturing and moral persuasion to sway public opinion, he later turned his attention to political lobbying. At the National Negro Convention of 1843 in Albany, NY, Garnet’s growing militancy became apparent in a controversial speech. His “An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America” called for slaves to free themselves. Disheartened by the hostile treatment of blacks in America, Garnet took a stance unpopular among black activists by supporting African colonization. He spent the last months of his life as minister to Liberia, a country in west Africa colonized by American ex-slaves and black freemen.

Samuel Ringgold Ward, an escaped slave, became the pastor of two all-white congregations in South Butler and Cortland, New York. In 1834, he was attacked by a proslavery mob of New York merchants, and was jailed without “accuser or trial.” From then on, he committed himself to the anti-slavery cause. In 1851, fearing arrest for his part in a slave rescue, Ward escaped to Canada, where he continued to work as an anti-slavery agent. Ward used his powerful oratorical skills overseas, and lived the remainder of his life in Jamaica, free from the constant threat of arrest.

This document alludes to the poignant story of Nancy Richardson, a mother who worked diligently and ultimately purchased freedom for her enslaved daughter, Floria Barnes. This testimony legally certifies that “Floria Barnes a negro woman now before me is the identical negro woman who was heretofore purchased by her mother Nancy Richardson, and who was by the Said Nancy Richardson, manumitted and set free...”

Gift of Gail ’56 and Stephen Rudin

This notice offers a $200 reward for the capture and return of the slave Warner Sale to his owner.

Gift of Gail ’56 and Stephen Rudin

In 1839, Joseph Cinque led a bloody revolt on the slave ship Amistad, which had embarked from Cuba. Under the control of Cinque and his fellow Africans, the crew secretly sailed to Long Island, New York, instead of to Sierra Leone, where they were supposed to return. On arrival in New York, the Africans were arrested and charged with murder and piracy. The sensational trial that followed went all the way to the Supreme Court, where the defendants were represented by the former U. S. President, John Quincy Adams. In 1841, the Supreme Court ruled that the Africans were illegally incarcerated and that they must be returned to Africa, which they were, the following year.

Samuel J. May Antislavery Collection

This pamphlet features accounts of two slave insurrections. The first account, published by Charleston authorities, describes the massive but unsuccessful slave insurrection in Charleston, South Carolina. The insurrection was led by the freed slave Denmark Vesey in 1822, and was foiled by a slave.

The second account tells the story of the Virginian slave Nat Turner, who, led by divine visions, planned and carried out a bloody and far-reaching uprising. Turner and his “army” of about 75 other slaves murdered at least 57 whites before they were stopped by a mob of about 3,000, who either killed or arrested the rebellious slaves. Those captured, including Turner himself, were later tried and hanged.

Samuel J. May Antislavery Collection.

Douglass’ Monthly ran from 1858-1863. It was one of four papers published by Frederick Douglass, all of them dedicated to abolitionism and social reform. This August, 1862 issue celebrates the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.