38 Facts About William Still

William Still was an African-American abolitionist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

William Still was a conductor of the Underground Railroad and was responsible for aiding and assisting at least 649 slaves to freedom.

William Still directly aided fugitive slaves and kept records of the people served in order to help families reunite.

William Still used his meticulous records to write an account of the underground system and the experiences of many escaped slaves, entitled The Underground Railroad Records.

William Still was born in Shamong Township, Burlington County, New Jersey, to former slaves Charity and Levin Still.

Later Peter William Still sought help at the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, seeking to find his parents or other members of his birth family.

William Still met William Still there, but initially had no idea they were related.

William Still became known as the "Black Doctor of the Pines", as he lived and practiced in the Medford Township, New Jersey.

James's son, James Thomas William Still, was the third African-American to graduate from Harvard Medical School in 1871.

In 1844, William Still moved from New Jersey to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In 1847, the same year he was hired as a clerk for the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery, William Still married Letitia George.

William Still had an extensive private medical practice in Philadelphia and was a community activist, teacher and leader.

William Wilberforce Still graduated from Lincoln University and subsequently practiced law in Philadelphia.

Robert George William Still became a journalist and owned a print shop on Pine at 11th Street in central Philadelphia.

Frances Ellen William Still became a kindergarten teacher.

In 1847, three years after settling in Philadelphia, William Still began working as a clerk for the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.

When Philadelphia abolitionists organized a Vigilance Committee to directly aid escaped slaves who had reached the city, William Still became its chairman.

William Still's master sued him and five other African-Americans for assault and kidnapping in a high-profile case in August 1855.

In 1859, William Still challenged the segregation of the city's public transit system, which had separate seating for whites and blacks.

William Still kept lobbying and, in 1865, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a law to integrate streetcars across the state.

William Still interviewed each person and kept careful records, including a brief biography and the destination for each, along with any alias adopted.

William Still kept his records carefully hidden but knew the accounts would be critical in aiding the future reunion of family members who became separated under slavery, which he had learned when he aided his own brother Peter, whom he had never met before.

William Still worked with other Underground Railroad agents operating in the South, including in Virginia ports, nearby Delaware and Maryland, and in many counties in southern Pennsylvania.

William Still provided material support and encouragement for Harriet Tubman to begin her work as a conductor of the Underground Railroad.

William Still traveled through his office with fellow passengers on several occasions during the 1850s.

William Still forged a connection with the family of John Brown, and sheltered several of Brown's associates fleeing the 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry.

William Still opened a stove store and in 1861 bought a coal yard and operated a coal delivery business, which he continued to operate after the war.

In 1867, William Still published A Brief Narrative of the Struggle for the Rights of Colored People of Philadelphia in the City Railway Cars.

In 1872, William Still published an account of the Underground Railroad, The Underground Railroad Records, based on the carefully recorded secret notes he had kept in diaries during those years.

William Still's book includes his impressions of station masters such as Thomas Garrett, Daniel Gibbons and Abigail Goodwin.

William Still owned stock in the journal the Nation, was a member of Philadelphia's Board of Trade, and financed and was officer of the Social and Civil Statistical Association of Philadelphia.

William Still remained active in the Colored Conventions Movement, having attended national conventions including the New England Colored Citizens' Convention of 1859, where he advocated for equal educational opportunities for all African Americans.

William Still advocated for temperance which motivated him to organize a mission Sabbath School for the Presbyterian Church.

William Still was a member of the Freedmen's Aid Union and Commission, an officer of the Philadelphia Home for the Aged and Infirm Colored Persons, and an elder in the Presbyterian church.

William Still had a strong interest in the welfare of black youth.

William Still helped to establish an orphanage and the first YMCA for African Americans in Philadelphia.

William Still died July 14,1902, at his home on 726 South 19th Street in Philadelphia.

William Still was buried in Eden Cemetery in Collingdale, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, as would later be his wife and daughter.