Levi Coffin

Abolitionist, temperance leader, philanthropist

• Born: October 28, 1798
• Birthplace: New Garden, North Carolina
• Died: September 16, 1877
• Place of death: Cincinnati, Ohio

Significance: As an operator on the Underground Railroad, abolitionist Levi Coffin helped more than two thousand slaves escape bondage in the American South. His home in Indiana became known as the Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad, and he was often called the president of the movement.

Background

Levi Coffin was born to Levi Coffin Sr. and Prudence Williams Coffin on October 28, 1798, in New Garden, Guilford County, North Carolina. He was the only son of seven children. His sisters were Deborah, Beulah, Ann, Mary, Sarah, and Priscilla. As a Southern state, North Carolina was home to many slave owners. Coffin’s family followed the Quaker religion. They were particularly influenced by abolitionist and Quaker preacher John Woolman. Woolman said that slavery was at odds with Quaker teachings and beliefs, and he wanted slaves to be freed.

Coffin was primarily educated at home by his father. When he was about fifteen years old, Coffin helped his family hide and care for escaping slaves. He attended a school for a time when he was about twenty-one years old. He established and headed a school in a new building attached to the New Garden Quaker meeting house in 1818.

Coffin joined the first local manumission society, which was an organization begun by Quakers to abolish slavery. In 1821, when he was about twenty-three years old, he and a cousin, Vestal Coffin, opened a school to teach slaves about Christianity and to read the Bible. Local slave owners refused to allow slaves to attend, however, and the school was soon closed.

Life’s Work

Coffin married in 1824, and he and his wife, Catharine, moved to Indiana in 1826. They operated a store in Newport, which later became Fountain City.

From 1826 to 1865, Levi and Catharine Coffin aided escaping slaves. They aided many fugitives in reaching Canada and other northern refuges. Catharine Coffin organized like-minded friends to aid her in making clothing and other goods for the fugitives.

Coffin often traveled at night with groups of slaves, hiding them in other Underground Railroad safe houses and havens until they could continue their journeys. One woman reached the Coffin home with her infant by crossing the broken ice on the Ohio River with bloodhounds in pursuit. Author Harriet Beecher Stowe later gave the woman the name Eliza Harris and included her escape story in the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852).

The Coffin family lived in several homes in Newport. Their third home, an eight-room house, later became a National Historic Landmark. The brick home, built in 1839, contains many features that helped the family conceal fugitive slaves. Most rooms had at least two entrances. A spring-fed well in the basement provided fresh water year-round. The large attic and storage garrets were used to hide fugitives. Because the house was located in the center of the Quaker community, the Coffins’ neighbors could serve as lookouts and warn them when bounty hunters were approaching. Although most Quakers opposed slavery, few risked their lives to directly help slaves to reach freedom. Many, however, were willing to aid the Coffins and other abolitionists with financial support, protection, and goods such as food and clothing.

Coffin was called the president of the Underground Railroad because of his dedication to the effort. He also was a member of the Committee on Concerns of People of Color to Consider Their Education, and worked to aid the poor by raising funds for their care.

Coffin realized that many goods he sold in his store relied on slave labor. In 1847, the Coffin family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Coffin established the Western Free Produce Association, a store that exclusively sold goods made without slave labor. As before, his home in Cincinnati was a stop on the Underground Railroad. When the American Civil War (1861–1865) began, Coffin continued to help people escape slavery and visited contraband camps to help as well.

Many former slaves lived in refugee camps after the war, and they had little food or supplies. After the war ended, Coffin raised funds to help newly freed people with food and clothing. He traveled to Great Britain, where he helped organize the English Freedmen’s Aid Society. The organization provided financial support and goods to the United States. His support helped the Western Freedman’s Aid Society provide more than $100,000 in assistance. He attended the International Anti-Slavery Society in Paris in 1867 as a delegate.

With the fight for abolition won, and the Fifteenth Amendment giving African Americans the right to vote in 1870, Coffin felt his life’s work was achieved. He largely retired and devoted his remaining years to writing his memoirs, though he continued to seek funding to help former slaves. His autobiography, Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, was published in 1876.

Coffin died in Ohio on September 16, 1877.

Impact

Every person who escaped slavery through the home of Levi and Catharine Coffin was successful in reaching freedom in the north. The couple is credited with helping more than three thousand fugitive slaves escape from the American South. Coffin also raised awareness of the plight of freedmen following the American Civil War, and he solicited funding and supplies to aid them.

Personal Life

Levi Coffin married Catharine White at Hopewell Friends Meetinghouse in North Carolina on October 28, 1824. They had a son, Jesse, in 1825. Five other children followed.

Bibliography

Coffin, Levi. Reminiscences of Levi Coffin. 2nd ed., Cincinnati, Robert Clarke & Co., 1880. Documenting the American South, 2001, docsouth.unc.edu/nc/coffin/coffin.html. Accessed 16 Sept. 2018.

Hoskins, Mary Katherine. “Coffin, Levi.” NCpedia, 1 Jan. 1979, www.ncpedia.org/biography/coffin-levi. Accessed 16 Sept. 2018.

“Levi and Catharine Coffin.” Indiana State Museum, www.indianamuseum.org/levi-and-catharine-coffin-state-historic-site. Accessed 16 Sept. 2018.

“Levi Coffin.” Hege Library Academic Commons, Guilford College, 24 July 2018, library.guilford.edu/c.php?g=142981&p=1036238. Accessed 16 Sept. 2018.

“Levi Coffin.” National Park Service, www.nps.gov/people/levi-coffin.htm. Accessed 16 Sept. 2018.

“North Carolina Quakers, Anti-Slavery, and the Underground Railroad: Levi Coffin.” Hege Library Academic Commons, Guilford College, 24 July 2018, library.guilford.edu/c.php?g=142981&p=1036238. Accessed 16 Sept. 2018.

Swain, Gwenyth. President of the Underground Railroad. Millbrook Press, 2011.