Levi Coffin Jr. (October 28, 1798 – September 16, 1877) was an American Quaker, Republican, abolitionist, farmer, businessman and humanitarian. An active leader of the Underground Railroad in Indiana and Ohio, some unofficially called Coffin the "President of the Underground Railroad", estimating that three thousand fugitive slaves passed through his care. The Coffin home in Fountain City, Wayne County, Indiana, is a museum, sometimes called the Underground Railroad's "Grand Central Station".
Born near what became Greensboro, North Carolina, Coffin was exposed to and came to oppose slavery as a child. His family immigrated to Indiana in 1826, avoiding slaveholders' increasing persecution of Quakers, whose faith did not permit them to own slaves and who assisted freedom seekers. In Indiana, Coffin settled near the National Road with other Quakers in Wayne County, Indiana, near the Ohio border. He farmed, as well as became a local merchant and business leader. Coffin became a major investor in and director of the local Richmond branch of the Second State Bank of Indiana in the 1830s, Richmond being the Wayne County seat. His financial position at the bank and standing in the community also helped supply food, clothing and transportation for Underground Railroad operations in the region.
At the urging of friends in the anti-slavery movement, Coffin moved southward to the important Ohio River port city of Cincinnati in 1847, where he ran a warehouse that sold only free-labor goods. Despite making considerable progress with the business, the free-labor venture proved unprofitable; Coffin abandoned the enterprise after a decade. Meanwhile, during this 1847 through 1857 period, Coffin assisted hundreds of runaway slaves, often by lodging them in his Ohio home across the river from Kentucky and not far downriver from Virginia. Kentucky and Virginia remained slave states until slavery was abolished after the American Civil War.
In his final decade, Coffin traveled around the Midwest, as well as overseas to France and Great Britain, where he helped form aid societies to provide food, clothing, funds and education to former slaves. Coffin retired from public life in the 1870s, and wrote an autobiography, Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, published in 1876, a year before his death.
Early life and education
Coffin was born on a farm in Guilford County, North Carolina, on October 28, 1798. The only son of Prudence (Williams) and Levi Coffin Sr., he had six sisters. Both of his parents were devout Quakers and attended the historic New Garden Friends Meeting. Coffin's father was born in Massachusetts during the 1760s and migrated from Nantucket to North Carolina, where he farmed with other Quakers in the New Garden community.
As Coffin later explained in his autobiography, Reminiscences of Levi Coffin (1876), he inherited his anti-slavery views from his parent and grandparents, who had never owned slaves. The teachings of John Woolman (who believed that slaveholding was not fair) influenced the Coffin family. Coffin's parents probably met Woolman in 1767 during religious meetings held near their New Garden home with other non-slaveholding Quaker families. His cousin, Vestal Coffin, probably attended the meeting and beginning as early as 1819, became one of the earliest Quakers to help slaves escape from North Carolina.
Educated at his rural home, Coffin received little, if any, formal schooling.
By the time he reached the age of 15, Coffin was helping his family assist escaping slaves by bringing food to escapees hiding on his family's farm. As the repressive Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 became more rigorously enforced, the Coffin family needed to increase the secrecy under which they assisted escaping slaves, doing most of their illegal activities at night. Local scrutiny of known abolitionists worsened as North Carolina passed the 1804 Black Laws. By the early 1820s, Quakers in North Carolina were being openly persecuted by those who suspected them of helping runaway slaves. Nonetheless, in 1821 Coffin and his cousin, Vestal, established a Sunday School to teach slaves to read the Bible. The plan proved short-lived; slaveholders soon forced the school to close.
Marriage and family
thumb|right|Catherine White Coffin, 1879
On October 28, 1824, Coffin married his long-time friend Catherine White at the Hopewell Friends Meetinghouse in North Carolina. Members of Catherine's family were also anti-slavery activists and abolitionists and it is likely she met Coffin because of these activities. In 1826, they settled in Newport (now Fountain City) in Wayne County, Indiana.
Like her husband, Catherine actively assisted fugitive slaves, including providing food, clothing, and a safe haven in the Coffin home. As Levi commented on his wife's humanitarian work, "Her sympathy for those in distress never tired, and her effort in their behalf never abated. Catherine White became known as Aunt Katie to slaves on the run." In later years Coffin credited the success of his business, which he expanded in the 1830s, with providing him the ability to become heavily involved in the costly enterprise of the Underground Railroad, a risky enterprise that provided a network of stopover sites for fugitive slaves as they traveled north into Canada.
Although the term "Underground Railroad" did not come into use until the 1830s, the network was operating in Indiana by the early 1820s. According to Coffin, not long after moving to Newport his home became one of the Underground Railroad stops. Coffin had numerous collaborators. In Madison, George DeBaptiste's barber shop was a key nerve center in the 1830s and 1840s.
Slave hunters frequently threatened Coffin's life. Many of his friends who feared for his safety tried to dissuade him from his covert activities by warning him of the danger to his family and business. Coffin, who was deeply moved by his religious convictions, later explained his rationale for continuing the effort: