Many runaways were forced to trust people they did not know. You couldn’t know everyone on the Underground Railroad. It was a very large and secret system. Still, some people with the railroad became quite well known. One such man was Levi Coffin.
Levi Coffin grew up in the South but hated slavery. He had been brought up as a Quaker. Quakers were against both slavery and violence.
As Coffin grew older, he wanted to change things. In 1826, he and his wife moved to Indiana, where he became a merchant. But his most important work was being an agent with the Underground Railroad.
The 1891 painting on this envelope shows Levi and Catherine Coffin helping fugitive slaves to safety. Painted by Charles Webber, a friend of the Coffins, it shows the Underground Railroad and the work of abolitionists. Catharine Coffin is standing in the center with the elderly gentleman using a walking stick, and her husband Levi Coffin is up high on the cart at the right.
Levi Coffin, shown with his wife, Catherine, also opened a store selling goods made by freed slaves.
For over twenty years Coffin turned his eight-room home into an Underground Railroad station. It became known as a safe place for runaways. Passengers on many different Underground Railroad routes used it.
Levi Coffin helped so many slaves that he became known as the president of the Underground Railroad. His house was later nicknamed Grand Central Station. That was the name of a very busy real railroad station in New York City.
Runaway slaves knew they could go there at any hour of the day or night. They’d tap on the window and Coffin would whisper for them to come in. Everyone spoke in hushed tones. No one ever knew who could be watching or listening outside. Slave catchers often told people they were leaving. Then from a distance, they’d closely watch the house.
Later on, the Coffin family moved to Ohio. Levi still remained active on the Underground Railroad. In 1854, Coffin went to Canada for a meeting. Hundreds of former slaves came out to thank him. Coffin had sheltered and fed many of these people as far back as twenty years earlier.