Due to weather, the Easter Egg Roll events for Saturday, April 19, have been moved into the museum. - Levi Coffin: the “President of the Underground Railroad”
Later in this series of posts, we will be exploring Hayes’s relationship to freedom seekers during his time as a lawyer in Cincinnati. An individual who would have an important influence on Hayes in this moment was Levi Coffin, an operator of the Underground Railroad. Hayes remarks that he “never went to bed [during the 1850s] without expecting to be called out by Levi Coffin,” to help defend a fugitive slave. Brittany Von Kamp, Master’s student at Bowling Green State University, brings us this entry on Coffin.
Levi Coffin was exposed to anti-slavery beliefs at a young age long before he became known as “the President of the Underground Railroad.” Levi was born to a Quaker family from North Carolina in 1798, and neither his parents nor grandparents had ever owned slaves. In his autobiography, Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, he describes his first encounters helping escaped slaves by bringing food to those who hid on his family’s farm. At this time, Levi was only 15 years old. This influenced him for the rest of his life. Image: Levi Coffin, c. 1850
Levi eventually married his wife Catherine not long before moving to Indiana, where the couple worked on the Underground Railroad, aiding runaway slaves for over 20 years. Following the lead of organizations in the Eastern United States, Levi sold only free-labor goods. Because of this, when a free-labor wholesale store was opened in Cincinnati, his abolitionist peers believed he was the only one qualified to run the business. Though Levi initially opposed the idea, the Coffins moved to Cincinnati in 1847 to run the store, though they did not want to stay in Ohio and hoped to return to their home in Indiana after five years. Unfortunately, Levi found that it was difficult to find free-labor goods that were as high-quality as those produced by slave labor, making the business venture ultimately unprofitable. Because of this, Levi was unable to sell the store for nearly ten years, and the Coffins remained in the Cincinnati area for the rest of their lives.
Although it is unclear why the Coffins remained in Cincinnati, even after they sold the store, it may have been due to their increasing efforts with the Underground Railroad. When they first moved to Cincinnati, Levi and Catherine didn’t initially intend to continue their work helping fugitive slaves. Since Cincinnati had already been a significant place in the anti-slavery movement, the couple had hoped that there would be enough workers and their help wouldn’t be needed. But by the time the couple came to live in the city, most of the workers on the Underground Railroad were free African Americans or people who were easily bribed by the slave hunters; many fugitive slaves were captured and returned to the south. Levi and Catherine decided that they couldn’t stand by and decided that their work must continue. Levi later wrote in his autobiography “I had already risked every thing in the work-life, property and reputation – and did not feel bound to respect human laws that came in direct contrast with the law of God.” Though they knew the risks involved, particularly after Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the Coffins continued to aid runaway slaves through the Civil War.
I had already risked every thing in the work-life, property and reputation – and did not feel bound to respect human laws that came in direct contrast with the law of God.
Levi describes how his assistance to the fugitive slaves changed after the Civil War broke out in 1861. Because there was no longer the same stigma to abolitionists that there was when Levi first began his work on the Underground Railroad, he said his aid was “now done boldly and above board, I might say, above ground.” With the war, many slaves began to escape to Union lines seeking their freedom. Because these slaves were considered ‘property’ in the south, and their labor could aid the Confederate cause, once they reached Union lines they would be considered free. As these “contraband slaves” began to make their way north, Levi joined the Western Freedman’s Aid Society and worked to collect bedding, clothing, and money among other supplies for them. He also was involved in the movement to establish the Freedman’s Bureau by the national government, which assisted former slaves and southern white people who were displaced after the war, providing them food, shelter, clothing, and other necessities.
After the war, Levi Coffin continued his work with the Freedman’s Aid Society, travelling to England to seek aid, and attending the International Anti-Slavery Conference in Paris in 1867. After celebrating the passage of the 15th Amendment that officially granted African Americans the right to vote, Levi resigned his adopted title as the “President of the Underground Railroad” seven years before he died in 1877 – living just long enough to see Rutherford B. Hayes sworn in as the President of the United States.