1. Leonard Andrew Grimes was an African-American abolitionist and pastor.
15 Facts About Leonard Grimes
1. 2.
Leonard Grimes served as a conductor of the Underground Railroad, including his efforts to free fugitive slave Anthony Burns captured in accordance with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
3.
Leonard Grimes then recruited soldiers for the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.
4.
Leonard Grimes was fortunate to grow up a free man, but because he was of mixed race, he identified as African American; witnessing the horrors of slavery in the south, he devoted his life to assisting fugitive slaves and advocating for abolition.
5.
Leonard Grimes transported fugitive slaves from Virginia to Washington, DC, and then assisted in moving them North.
6.
In 1839, Leonard Grimes was caught attempting to rescue a family of slaves from Virginia, and he was sentenced to two years in jail in Richmond.
7.
In jail he found religion and after his release in 1840, Leonard Grimes was baptized in the Baptist faith and was licensed to preach by a panel chaired by the president of Columbian College, a Baptist institution in the District of Columbia.
8.
Leonard Grimes was pastor of the Twelfth Baptist Church for 27 years.
9.
Leonard Grimes was president of the American Baptist Missionary convention and the Consolidated Baptist conventions for several years.
10.
Leonard Grimes led a fierce effort to free Burns from jail, but the trial commenced, and the judge, in accordance with the Fugitive Slave Act, ruled that Burns was still property of his slaveholder.
11.
Leonard Grimes was able to raise enough funds to purchase Burns's freedom, and Burns was freed from his life of servitude.
12.
Leonard Grimes was a delegate to the Colored Conventions Movement, including the 1853 convention in Rochester, the Colored National Convention of 1855 in Philadelphia, and the 1859 convention in Boston.
13.
Leonard Grimes served as a member of the Massachusetts State Council, where he and other members advocated for opportunities for black Americans and for equal school rights.
14.
Many members of Leonard Grimes's church wanted to fight for the Union, and Leonard Grimes lobbied for the establishment of an African-American regiment.
15.
Leonard Grimes took ill just after a meeting of the Home Mission Society and died of apoplexy March 14,1873, at his home in East Somerville, Massachusetts, near Boston.