54 Facts About Levi Coffin

Levi Coffin was an American Quaker, Republican, abolitionist, farmer, businessman and humanitarian.

The Levi Coffin home in Fountain City, Wayne County, Indiana, is a museum, sometimes called the Underground Railroad's "Grand Central Station".

Levi Coffin's family immigrated to Indiana in 1826, avoiding slaveholders' increasing persecution of Quakers, whose faith did not permit them to own slaves and who assisted fugitives.

In Indiana, Levi Coffin settled near the National Road with other Quakers in Wayne County, Indiana, near the Ohio border.

Levi Coffin farmed, as well as became a local merchant and business leader.

Levi Coffin grew wealthy from his various businesses assisting neighbors and travelers in the important transit corridor.

Levi 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.

At the urging of friends in the anti-slavery movement, Levi 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.

Meanwhile, during this 1847 through 1857 period, Levi 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, both of which remained slave states until slavery was abolished after the American Civil War.

Coffin retired from public life in the 1870s, and wrote an autobiography, Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, published in 1876, a year before his death.

Levi 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.

Levi Coffin related how he became an abolitionist at the age of seven when he asked a slave who was in a chain gang why he was bound.

The event disturbed Levi Coffin, who understood the consequences of a father being taken away from his family.

Levi Coffin stayed with the Whites for about a year.

On returning to North Carolina, Levi Coffin reported of the prosperity in Indiana.

On October 28,1824, Levi Coffin married his long-time friend, Catherine White at the Hopewell Friends Meetinghouse in North Carolina.

Levi Coffin continued to farm after moving to Indiana and within a year of his arrival he opened the first dry-goods store in Newport.

In later years Levi 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.

Levi Coffin made contact with the local black community and made them aware of his willingness to hide runaways in his home to better protect them.

Levi Coffin referred to the system as the "mysterious road" and as time progressed the number of escaping slaves increased.

Levi Coffin estimated that, on average, he helped one hundred escape annually.

The Levi Coffin home became the convergent point of three major escape routes from Madison and New Albany, Indiana, and Cincinnati, Ohio.

Levi Coffin moved the escaping slaves to the next stops along the route during the night.

Levi Coffin, who was deeply moved by his religious convictions, later explained his rationale for continuing the effort:.

When neighbors who were opposed to his activity boycotted his store, Levi Coffin's business experienced a period of poor performance; however, as the local population grew, the majority of the new arrivals supported the anti-slavery movement and Levi Coffin's business prospered.

Levi Coffin made a substantial investment in the Second State Bank of Indiana, established in 1833, and became a director of the bank's Richmond, Indiana, branch.

Levi Coffin established a hog-butchering operation, opened a paint shop, and eventually acquired 250 acres of land.

In 1838 Levi Coffin built a two-story, Federal-style brick home as his family's residence in Newport.

The Levi Coffin house had several modifications made to create better hiding places for the runaway slaves.

Levi Coffin continued to take an active role in assisting escaping slaves, and the following year the Quaker society expelled him from membership.

Levi Coffin provided meals and shelter to runaway slaves in the Coffin home.

Levi Coffin began to purchase stock from these organizations and marketed free-labor goods to his fellow abolitionists, though the products provided him with little profit.

Different groups continued to pressure Levi Coffin to accept a position as the new business's director, claiming there were no other western abolitionists qualified to manage the enterprise.

Levi Coffin moved to the Cincinnati area in 1847, where he took over the management of a wholesale warehouse of free-labor goods.

Levi Coffin had difficulty procuring free goods, such as cotton, sugar, and spices, whose quality was competitive with the goods produced by slave labor.

Levi Coffin located a cotton plantation in Mississippi, where the owner had freed all his slaves and hired them as free laborers.

Levi Coffin helped the owner purchase a cotton gin that greatly increased the plantation's productivity and provided a steady supply of cotton for Levi Coffin's association.

Levi Coffin remained in business primarily through the financial support of wealthy benefactors.

Levi Coffin sold the business in 1857, after deciding it would be impossible to maintain a profitable business.

Cincinnati already had a large anti-slavery movement who had violent conflicts with slavery proponents in the years before Levi Coffin moved to the city.

Levi Coffin purchased a new home at the corner of Elm and Sixth Streets and continued to be active in the Underground Railroad.

Levi Coffin set up a new safe house in the city and helped organize a larger network in the area.

Levi Coffin's role began to change as the American Civil War approached.

Levi Coffin helped found a Cincinnati orphanage for Black children.

In 1863 Levi Coffin became an agent for the Western Freedman's Aid Society, which offered assistance to the slaves who were freed during the war.

Levi Coffin petitioned the US government to create the Freedmen's Bureau to assist the freed slaves.

Levi Coffin did not enjoy being in the public eye and considered his job soliciting financial aid as begging for money, which he thought to be demeaning.

Levi Coffin stated in his autobiography that he gladly gave up the position once a new leader for the organization was selected.

Levi Coffin became concerned about giving money freely to all blacks, some of whom he believed would never be able to care for themselves unless adequate education and farms were provided.

Levi Coffin believed the Society should give their limited resources only to those who were best able to benefit from them.

Levi Coffin spent his final years in retirement from public life.

Levi Coffin spent his final year writing about his experiences and activities of the Underground Railroad.

Levi Coffin's funeral was held at the Friends Meeting House of Cincinnati.

Levi Coffin was interred in Cincinnati's Spring Grove Cemetery in an unmarked grave.