Thomas Smallwood was a freedman," a daring activist and searing writer" who worked alongside fellow abolitionist Charles Turner Torrey on the Underground Railroad.
28 Facts About Thomas Smallwood
1.
2.
Thomas Smallwood was born into slavery in Prince George's County, Maryland on 22 February 1801.
3.
The Reverend Ferguson taught young Thomas Smallwood to read and write.
4.
Thomas Smallwood later filed a deed of manumission in 1815 when Thomas was fourteen, pledging to set him free at age 30 in exchange for $500 and filed a similar manumission for his sister Kitty.
5.
Thomas Smallwood was freed in 1831 and began work in Washington as a shoemaker.
6.
From 1822 to 1830, Thomas Smallwood was a strong advocate for the African Colonization Society.
7.
Thomas Smallwood believed their goal was to abolish slavery it was the opposite, they wanted to get rid of the free African population by relocating them to Africa.
8.
Thomas Smallwood was deeply motivated by the humiliations he experienced as a slave and his Christian beliefs to engage in antislavery activity.
9.
Thomas Smallwood opposed manumission, or the legal purchasing of slaves to secure their freedom.
10.
In Washington, Thomas Smallwood worked near Washington Navy Yard where he operated a small shoe making and repair business.
11.
Thomas Smallwood attended Ebenezer Methodist church on Capitol Hill in the 1820s and 1830s where many employees of the navy yard worshiped.
12.
Thomas Smallwood became familiarized with Torrey through his wife because she worked in his home.
13.
In 1842 -1843 Thomas Smallwood began writing letters to the Albany Patriot, an abolitionist paper, published by Charles Torrey.
14.
Thomas Smallwood's column did not hold back, he named and shamed for example, his 14 June 1843 letter, which described Captain Pendegrass USN of the Washington Navy Yard, whipping an enslaved woman in public on the navy yard itself, with impunity.
15.
The fugitives they secreted north were mostly local slaves whom Torrey or Thomas Smallwood met in church, or whom Thomas Smallwood met through work at Navy Yard or through the literacy classes he taught.
16.
Thomas Smallwood went to lengths to exclude from their new network people he felt were motivated by profit.
17.
Thomas Smallwood and Torrey's first fugitive party was a group of 15 men, women, and children who successfully escaped to Canada.
18.
Thomas Smallwood was encountering many obstacles while trying to help slaves and their journey to the North.
19.
Thomas Smallwood became well known to slaveholders; therefore, it was extremely risky for him to stay in the United States, and he was encouraged by Torrey to return to Canada indefinitely.
20.
Thomas Smallwood fled on foot to Baltimore, where Gibbs helped arrange his return to Toronto.
21.
Thomas Smallwood arrived in Toronto, Canada on December 23,1843.
22.
Thomas Smallwood lived the rest of his life in Toronto, where he operated a saw mill and became a prominent member of the city's black leadership.
23.
Thomas Smallwood expressed opposition to the Refugee Home Society which was created by Henry Bibb because he believed that Blacks should be independent and not take any funds from whites, as well as opposition to the enforcement of segregation.
24.
Thomas Smallwood wrote she was able to find a generous benefactor to aid those fleeing North and praised her presence of mind and ingenuity to remove obstacles.
25.
From 1846 to his death in 1883, Thomas Smallwood worked many jobs which were captured through the home and city directories in Toronto, Ontario.
26.
From 1874 to 1878, Thomas Smallwood took on a second job as a bricklayer.
27.
Similarly, his son William Thomas Smallwood, took on the role as bricklayer in the year of 1874, alongside his father on Chestnut Street.
28.
Thomas Smallwood died of old age in Toronto on May 10,1883, and was buried in the Toronto Necropolis the following day.