Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, The Reputed President of the Underground Railroad, Being a Brief History of the Labors of a Lifetime in Behalf of the Slave, with the Stories of Numerous Fugitives, Who Gained their Freedom through his Instrumentality, and Many Other Incidents
Cincinnati: Robert Clarke Company, 1898.
Hardcover. Near fine. Third edition. viii, 732, with portraits of Levi and Catherine Coffin. 5" x 7.5", original green cloth, floral endpapers. Spine slightly sunned. A devout Quaker, Coffin (1789-1877) was vehemently opposed to slavery, despite having been raised in the South. He moved to Indiana in the 1820s, established a successful mercantile business, and was a founding member of the Indiana Anti-Slavery Society. After discovering they lived on an Underground Railroad Route, he and his wife helped hundreds of fugitive slaves on their way to Canada, providing them with food, clothing, and temporary housing while arranging for their passage north. In 1847, they continued this work in Cincinnati, where they also established a store selling only goods made by free labor. Mounted on the front flyleaf of this copy is an image of the Coffin house, captioned "Grand Central Depot, Underground Railroad." Howes C-540 (referring to the first edition of 1876).
Item #14882
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