Levi Coffin

AKA Levi Coffin, Jr.

Born: 28-Oct–1798
Birthplace: Greensboro, NC
Died: 16-Sep–1877
Race or Ethnicity: White

Levi Coffin was an American Quaker, abolitionist, businessman, and humanitarian. He was an active leader in the Underground Railroad in Indiana and Ohio and was given the unofficial title of “President of the Underground Railroad.” An estimated three thousand fugitive slaves are believed to have reported to have passed through his care. The Coffin home in Fountain City, Indiana, is often called the “Grand Central Station” of the Underground Railroad.

Levi Coffin was only about 15 years of age when he began his work with the Underground Railroad, the network of clandestine activists across America who offered their homes and churches as safe respite for runaway slaves.

Known for his fearlessness in assisting runaway slaves, Coffin served as a role model who encouraged his neighbors to help contribute to the effort, although many were wary of providing them with a safe haven in their homes as he and his wife did. Best known for his leadership in aiding fugitive slaves, Coffin was first referred to as the unofficial “President of the Underground Railroad” by a slave catcher who said, “There’s an underground railroad going on here, and Levi’s the president of it.” The informal title became commonly used among other abolitionists and some ex-slaves. Throughout his adult life he funneled much of his income toward the cause, and his home was among the busiest of the Underground Railroad’s “stations”, where Coffin and his wife provided food and lodging for an endless stream of self-emancipated blacks, then took them to their next safe hiding places in his carriage — equipped with a man-sized hidden compartment.

Historians have estimated that the Coffins helped approximately 2,000 escaping slaves during their twenty years in Indiana and an estimated 1,300 more after their move to Cincinnati. (Coffin didn’t keep records, but estimated the number to be around 3,000.)

When questioned about his motives for aided fugitive slaves, Coffin once replied: “The Bible, in bidding us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, said nothing about color, and I should try to follow out the teachings of that good book.” He also said, “I thought it was always safe to do right.”

On July 11, 1902, African Americans erected a 6-foot (1.8 m) tall monument at Coffin’s previously unmarked gravesite in Cincinnati.