1. Moses Dickson was an abolitionist, soldier, minister, and founder of the Knights of Liberty, an anti-slavery organization that planned a slave uprising in the United States and helped African-American enslaved people to freedom through the Underground Railroad.
Moses Dickson founded the black self-help organization The International Order of Twelve Knights and Daughters of Tabor and was a co-founder of Lincoln University in Missouri.
Moses Dickson was born free in Cincinnati, Ohio, on April 5,1824.
Moses Dickson declared "it was determined to organize the slaves throughout the south, drill them, and in ten years from that time strike for freedom" during an interview with the Denver Post, reprinted in the Minneapolis Journal, on July 4,1901.
Moses Dickson raised funds for the Railroad and directly arranged individual escape plans.
Moses Dickson tells of watching a mother and daughter being sold on the auction block in New Orleans and then arranging for their escape by having them "stolen," dressing them as boys, and getting them hired onto a steamer upriver and finally to freedom in Canada.
Moses Dickson joined the African Methodist Episcopalian church in 1866 and became an ordained minister the following year.
In 1869, Moses Dickson became Grand Master of Grand Lodge of Missouri, Prince Hall Freemasonry.
Moses Dickson was highly involved in the Heroines of Jericho, an auxiliary group open to Black woman to the Holy Royal Arch Masons, publishing a ritual handbook for the Heroines in 1895.
Moses Dickson started schools for black children and lobbied to obtain black teachers for black children.
Moses Dickson married Mary Elizabeth Butcher Peters at Galena, Illinois on October 5,1848.
Moses Dickson was known as Mother Dickson, while her husband was referred to as Father Dickson.
The Revered Moses Dickson died of typhoid fever on November 28,1901.
Moses Dickson is buried at the Father Dickson Cemetery in Crestwood, Missouri.