Levi and Catharine Coffin
Levi Coffin was born on October 28, 1798 on a farm in New Garden, North Carolina as the only son to Levi and Prudence Coffin. Levi was raised in a Quaker family and earned a large bulk of his education at home by his father and six sisters.
One of his first encounters with slaves was when he was a young boy chopping wood with his father. They noticed a group of a slaves handcuffed and chained together while they were on their way to be sold in Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana. Levi’s father asked the men why they were chained together and one of the men replied, “They have taken us away from our wives and children, and they chain us lest we should make our escape and go back to them.” This is not his only encounter with slaves going to be sold, when Levi was fifteen-years-old he was attending a corn husking when a slave dealer came up with a group of slaves . Levi decided to stay after to talk with the slaves and learned that one of the slaves was freed born and became an indentured servant to Edward Lloyd. He was then kidnapped and sold into slavery, the young teenagers first reaction was to take Stephen to his father the next night. After hearing this slaves fascinating story, Levi’s father wrote to Edward Lloyd about his former servant’s whereabouts and Stephen was eventually freed from slavery in Georgia (indianahistory.org).
On October 28, 1824, Levi Coffin married Catharine White, a woman he had known his entire life. In 1826, Levi moved to Newport, Indiana, now Fountain City, to be closer to family and became a very important merchant for the city (indianahistory.org). Over the next twenty years, the Coffin family will continue to help thousands of escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad along major throughout the northern states.
Coffin is said to never too busy for helping on the Underground Railroad, his successful businesses only helped him in freeing slaves more. This dedication earned Coffin the designated title of “President of the Underground Railroad” and his home became known as “Grand Central Station” of the Underground Railroad. The Coffins were alway prepared for more guests in their home, they averaged over one hundred a year. Levi Coffin said, “We found it necessary to always be prepared to receive such company and properly care for them,” the Coffins never gave their guests less than their best, no matter what other said.
In 1821, Levi and his cousin, Vestal Coffin, started a Sunday school in New Garden for slaves where they were taught to read the bible, but this was soon shut down, this only encouraged Coffin more. When questioned my other on why he helped escaped slave, knowing full well the possible repercussions of his actions, he mentioned the only thing a man who grew up in a highly religious family could, the bible. Coffin said, “Read in the Bible when I was a boy that is was right to take in the stranger and administer to those in distress, and that I thought it was always safe to do right. The Bible, in bidding us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, said nothing about color, and I should try to follow out the teaching of that good book.” Even as the Underground Railroad expanded Coffin went to every extent to help those in need, regardless of expenses (indianahistory.org).
During and after the Civil War, Coffin was a leading figure in the Western Freedmen’s Aid Society, a group that helped educated and provide for former slaves. After, in just one year, Coffin earned over $100,000 for the society he was delegated to the International Anti-Slavery Conference in Paris. Levi Coffin died on September 16, 1877 at the age of seventy nine and is now buried in Cincinnati’s Spring Grove Cemetery.
Levi Coffin was born on October 28, 1798 on a farm in New Garden, North Carolina as the only son to Levi and Prudence Coffin. Levi was raised in a Quaker family and earned a large bulk of his education at home by his father and six sisters.
One of his first encounters with slaves was when he was a young boy chopping wood with his father. They noticed a group of a slaves handcuffed and chained together while they were on their way to be sold in Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana. Levi’s father asked the men why they were chained together and one of the men replied, “They have taken us away from our wives and children, and they chain us lest we should make our escape and go back to them.” This is not his only encounter with slaves going to be sold, when Levi was fifteen-years-old he was attending a corn husking when a slave dealer came up with a group of slaves . Levi decided to stay after to talk with the slaves and learned that one of the slaves was freed born and became an indentured servant to Edward Lloyd. He was then kidnapped and sold into slavery, the young teenagers first reaction was to take Stephen to his father the next night. After hearing this slaves fascinating story, Levi’s father wrote to Edward Lloyd about his former servant’s whereabouts and Stephen was eventually freed from slavery in Georgia (indianahistory.org).
On October 28, 1824, Levi Coffin married Catharine White, a woman he had known his entire life. In 1826, Levi moved to Newport, Indiana, now Fountain City, to be closer to family and became a very important merchant for the city (indianahistory.org). Over the next twenty years, the Coffin family will continue to help thousands of escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad along major throughout the northern states.
Coffin is said to never too busy for helping on the Underground Railroad, his successful businesses only helped him in freeing slaves more. This dedication earned Coffin the designated title of “President of the Underground Railroad” and his home became known as “Grand Central Station” of the Underground Railroad. The Coffins were alway prepared for more guests in their home, they averaged over one hundred a year. Levi Coffin said, “We found it necessary to always be prepared to receive such company and properly care for them,” the Coffins never gave their guests less than their best, no matter what other said.
In 1821, Levi and his cousin, Vestal Coffin, started a Sunday school in New Garden for slaves where they were taught to read the bible, but this was soon shut down, this only encouraged Coffin more. When questioned my other on why he helped escaped slave, knowing full well the possible repercussions of his actions, he mentioned the only thing a man who grew up in a highly religious family could, the bible. Coffin said, “Read in the Bible when I was a boy that is was right to take in the stranger and administer to those in distress, and that I thought it was always safe to do right. The Bible, in bidding us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, said nothing about color, and I should try to follow out the teaching of that good book.” Even as the Underground Railroad expanded Coffin went to every extent to help those in need, regardless of expenses (indianahistory.org).
During and after the Civil War, Coffin was a leading figure in the Western Freedmen’s Aid Society, a group that helped educated and provide for former slaves. After, in just one year, Coffin earned over $100,000 for the society he was delegated to the International Anti-Slavery Conference in Paris. Levi Coffin died on September 16, 1877 at the age of seventy nine and is now buried in Cincinnati’s Spring Grove Cemetery.