Catharine White Coffin (1803-1881)

Catharine Coffin focused her time and efforts on ending slavery and gaining rights for women. Raised an anti-slavery Quaker in North Carolina, and then moving to Ohio and Indiana, she and her husband Levi Coffin managed one of the most successful Underground Railroad depots in the United States. Coffin was one of the Underground Railroad persons honored on a forever stamp by the U.S. Postal Service in March 2024.

Levi Coffin (1798-1877)

Levi Coffin, an anti-slavery Quaker, committed his life to the eradication of slavery. With his wife Catharine Coffin, Levi assisted hundreds of freedom seekers in Indiana and Ohio as part of the Underground Railroad. Coffin was also a noted abolitionist in both states, with involvement in many anti-slavery activities and societies. Due to his tireless support, he gained the title of “President of the Underground Railroad.” 

Leonard Andrew Grimes (Born between 1812 and 1815-Died in 1873)

Leonard Andrew Grimes assisted at least four hundred freedom seekers in escaping bondage.  Grimes was imprisoned for helping an enslaved mother and her six children escape to freedom. He became a minister and his family restarted Underground Railroad activities at their new home in Boston.  He played a leading role in a widely publicized case involving the capture of three members of his congregation following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850. 

James McCune Smith (1813-1865)

James McCune Smith was born into slavery in 1813 in New York City where his mother emancipated herself at the time of his birth. Smith earned a medical degree in Scotland, returning to the USA in 1837 as the first black credentialed doctor. He challenged pseudoscientific justifications for the oppression of African Americans and false data presented by pro-slavery advocates. Smith was a prolific writer for the abolitionist movement, including being a regular columnist in "Frederick Douglass' Paper".