See also :African-American abolitionists

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William G. Allen William Gustavus Allen (c. 1820 – 1 May 1888) was an African-American academic, intellectual, and lecturer. For a time he co-edited ''The National Watchman,'' an abolitionist newspaper. While studying law in Boston he lectured widely on abolitio ...

(c. 1820 – 1 May 1888) *

Osborne Perry Anderson Osborne Perry Anderson (July 27, 1830 – December 11, 1872) was an African-American Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist and the only surviving African-American member of John Brown (abolitionist), John Brown's John Brown's Raid on Har ...

B

* Henry Walton Bibb * Mary E. Bibb *

James Bradley James Bradley (1692–1762) was an English astronomer and priest who served as the third Astronomer Royal from 1742. He is best known for two fundamental discoveries in astronomy, the aberration of light (1725–1728), and the nutation of th ...

* Henry Box Brown *

William Wells Brown William Wells Brown (c. 1814 – November 6, 1884) was a prominent abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian in the United States. Born into slavery in Montgomery County, Kentucky, near the town of Mount Sterling, Brown escap ...

C

John Anthony Copeland Jr. John Anthony Copeland Jr. (August 15, 1834 – December 16, 1859) was born free in Raleigh, North Carolina, one of the eight children born to John Copeland Sr. and his wife Delilah Evans, free mulattos, who married in Raleigh in 1831. Delilah was ...

Ellen and William Craft Ellen Craft (1826–1891) and William Craft (September 25, 1824 – January 29, 1900) were American fugitives who were born and enslaved in Macon, Georgia. They escaped to the North in December 1848 by traveling by train and steamboat, arriving ...

* Paul Cuffe (January 17, 1759 – September 7, 1817)

D

* Thomas Dalton * Moses Dickson *

Charles Remond Douglass Charles Remond Douglass (October 21, 1844 – November 23, 1920) was the third and youngest son of Frederick Douglass and his first wife Anna Murray Douglass. He was the first African-American man to enlist in the military in New York during the ...

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...

(c. February 1817 – February 20, 1895) * Thomas Downing (restauranteur)

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James Forten James Forten (September 2, 1766March 4, 1842) was an African-American abolitionist and wealthy businessman in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Born free in the city, he became a sailmaker after the American Revolutionary War. Following an apprentices ...

Margaretta Forten Margaretta Forten (September 11, 1806 – January 13, 1875) was an African-American suffragist and abolitionist.Alexander, Leslie''Encyclopedia of African American History, Volume 1''ABC-CLIO (2010), p. 1045.Eliza Ann Gardner Eliza Ann Gardner (May 28, 1831 – January 4, 1922) was an African-American abolitionist, religious leader and women's movement leader from Boston, Massachusetts. She founded the missionary society of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church ( ...

* Henry Highland Garnet *

Mifflin Wistar Gibbs Mifflin Wistar Gibbs (April 17, 1823 – July 11, 1915) was an American-Canadian politician, businessman, and advocate for Black rights. He became the first Black person elected to public office in British Columbia on November 16, 1866, upon win ...

* Rev. Samuel Green *

Shields Green Shields Green (1836? – December 16, 1859), who also referred to himself as "'Emperor"', was, according to Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave from Charleston, South Carolina, and a leader in John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, in October 1859 ...

H

Frances Harper Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (September 24, 1825 – February 22, 1911) was an American abolitionist, suffragist, poet, temperance activist, teacher, public speaker, and writer. Beginning in 1845, she was one of the first African-American women to ...

Lewis Hayden Lewis Hayden (December 2, 1811 – April 7, 1889) escaped slavery in Kentucky with his family and escaped to Canada. He established a school for African Americans before moving to Boston, Massachusetts to aid in the abolition movement. There h ...

Felix Holbrook Felix Holbrook was a Black activist living in Boston and Rhode Island during the mid- to late-eighteenth century. A slave for many years, he was a staunch advocate of abolitionism. He placed an ad in a Boston newspaper asking for his freedom, and ...

J

Harriet Jacobs Harriet Jacobs (1813 or 1815 – March 7, 1897) was an African-American writer whose autobiography, '' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl'', published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent, is now considered an "American classic". Born int ...

* John S. Jacobs *

Thomas James Thomas James (c. 1573 – August 1629) was an English librarian and Anglican clergyman, the first librarian of the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Life He was born about 1573 at Newport, Isle of Wight. In 1586 he was admitted a scholar of Winchest ...

L

Charles Henry Langston Charles Henry Langston (1817–1892) was an American abolitionist and political activist who was active in Ohio and later in Kansas, during and after the American Civil War, where he worked for black suffrage and other civil rights. He was a spoke ...

* John Mercer Langston *

Lewis Sheridan Leary Lewis Sheridan Leary (March 17, 1835 – October 20, 1859), an African-American harnessmaker from Oberlin, Ohio, joined John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, where he was killed. Life Leary's father was a free born African-American harnessma ...

Jermain Wesley Loguen Rev. Jermain Wesley Loguen (February 5, 1813 – September 30, 1872), born Jarm Logue, in slavery, was an African-American abolitionist and bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and an author of a slave narrative. Biogr ...

M

* Mary Meachum * Henry Moxley * Anna Murray-Douglass

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William Cooper Nell William Cooper Nell (December 16, 1816 – May 25, 1874) was an African-American abolitionist, journalist, publisher, author, and civil servant of Boston, Massachusetts, who worked for the integration of schools and public facilities in the s ...

Dangerfield Newby Dangerfield F. Newby (c. 1820 – October 17, 1859), described as a "huge mulatto", was the oldest of John Brown's raiders, one of the five black raiders. He died during Brown's raid on the federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Life As was ...

P

* John Parker * Susan Paul * James W.C. Pennington * Gabriel Prosser * Harriet Forten Purvis *

Robert Purvis Robert Purvis (August 4, 1810 – April 15, 1898) was an American abolitionist in the United States. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and was likely educated at Amherst Academy, a secondary school in Amherst, Massachusetts. He s ...

R

* Peter Randolph *

Charles Bennett Ray Charles Bennett Ray (December 25, 1807 – August 15, 1886) was a prominent African-American minister and abolitionist who owned and edited of the weekly newspaper '' The Colored American''. Born in Massachusetts, he had most of his career and li ...

* Charles L. Reason *

Hetty Reckless Amy Hester "Hetty" Reckless (1776 – January 28, 1881) was a runaway slave who became part of the American abolitionist movement. She campaigned against slavery and was part of the Underground Railroad, operating a Philadelphia safe house. She ...

Charles Lenox Remond Charles Lenox Remond (February 1, 1810 – December 22, 1873) was an American orator, activist and abolitionist based in Massachusetts. He lectured against slavery across the Northeast, and in 1840 traveled to the British Isles on a tour with W ...

* John Swett Rock *

David Ruggles David Ruggles (March 15, 1810 – December 16, 1849) was an African-American abolitionist in New York who resisted slavery by his participation in a Committee of Vigilance and the Underground Railroad to help fugitive slaves reach free state ...

John Brown Russwurm John Brown Russwurm (October 1, 1799 – June 9, 1851) was an abolitionist, newspaper publisher, and colonizer of Liberia, where he moved from the United States. He was born in Jamaica to an English father and enslaved mother. As a child he t ...

(October 1, 1799 – June 9, 1851)

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Dred Scott Dred Scott (c. 1799 – September 17, 1858) was an enslaved African American man who, along with his wife, Harriet, unsuccessfully sued for freedom for themselves and their two daughters in the '' Dred Scott v. Sandford'' case of 1857, popula ...

(c. 1799 – September 17, 1858) *

Benjamin "Pap" Singleton Benjamin "Pap" Singleton (1809 – February 17, 1900) was an American activist and businessman best known for his role in establishing African American settlements in Kansas. A former slave from Tennessee who escaped to freedom in Ontario, Canada ...

James McCune Smith James McCune Smith (April 18, 1813 – November 17, 1865) was an American physician, apothecary, abolitionist, and author who was born in Manhattan. He was the first African American to hold a medical degree from the University of Glasgow in Sco ...

* Lucy Stanton *

Austin Steward Austin Steward (1793 – February 15, 1869) was an African-American abolitionist and author. He was born a slave in Virginia then moved at age 7 with the Helm household to New York State in 1800. The household settled in the town of Bath, Ne ...

(1793 – February 15, 1869) *

Maria W. Stewart Maria W. Stewart ( Miller) (1803 – December 17, 1879) was a free-born African American who became a teacher, journalist, lecturer, abolitionist, and women's rights activist. The first known American woman to speak to a mixed audience of men ...

William Still William Still (October 7, 1821 – July 14, 1902) was an African-American abolitionist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, businessman, writer, historian and civil rights activist. Before the Ameri ...

T

Sojourner Truth Sojourner Truth (; born Isabella Baumfree; November 26, 1883) was an American Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist of New York Dutch heritage and a women's rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York, but esc ...

(c. 1797 – November 26, 1883) *

Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 slaves, including family and friends, u ...

(c. March 1822 – March 10, 1913) *

Nat Turner Nat Turner's Rebellion, historically known as the Southampton Insurrection, was a rebellion of enslaved Virginians that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831.Schwarz, Frederic D.1831 Nat Turner's Rebellion" ''American Heri ...

(October 2, 1800 – November 11, 1831)

V

George Boyer Vashon George Boyer Vashon (July 25, 1824 – October 5, 1878) was an African American scholar, poet, lawyer, and abolitionist. Biography George Boyer Vashon was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the third child and only son of an abolitionist, John Be ...

Denmark Vesey Denmark Vesey (also Telemaque) ( July 2, 1822) was an early 19th century free Black and community leader in Charleston, South Carolina, who was accused and convicted of planning a major slave revolt in 1822. Although the alleged plot was dis ...

(c.1767 – July 2, 1822)

W

* David Walker (September 28, 1796 – August 6, 1830) *

William Whipper William Whipper (February 22, 1804 – March 9, 1876) was a businessman and abolitionist in the United States. Whipper, an African American, advocated nonviolence and co-founded the American Moral Reform Society, an early African-American aboli ...

(February 22, 1804 – March 9, 1876) *

Theodore S. Wright Theodore Sedgwick Wright (1797–1847), sometimes Theodore Sedgewick Wright, was an African-American abolitionist and minister who was active in New York City, where he led the First Colored Presbyterian Church as its second pastor. He was ...

(1797–1847)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:African-American abolitionists * Abolitionists African American Abolitionists Slavery-related lists