William Still was an African-American
abolitionist in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, conductor on the
Underground Railroad, writer, historian and
civil rights activist. He was chairman of the
Vigilance Committee of the
Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society who directly aided fugitive slaves and wrote an account of their experiences,
The Underground Railroad Records, published in 1872. William Still, (his) father bought his freedom in 1798 from his master in
Caroline County, Maryland on the
Eastern Shore. Charity (his mother) escaped twice from Maryland. The first time, she escaped with their 4 children. They were all recaptured and returned to slavery. The 2nd time, she took only her two younger daughters north and reached her husband in New Jersey. (The two older sons Charity had left behind, Levin, Jr. and Peter, were sold from Maryland to slave-owners in
Lexington, Kentucky. Later they were resold to planters in
Alabama in the
Deep South. Levin, Jr. died while enslaved). In 1847, three years after settling in Philadelphia, Still began working as a clerk for the
Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. When Philadelphia abolitionists organized a
Vigilance Committee to directly aid escaped slaves who had reached the city, Still became its chairman. By the 1850s, Still was one of the leaders of Philadelphia's African-American community. In 1855 he participated in the nationally covered rescue of
Jane Johnson, a slave who sought help from the Society in gaining freedom while passing through Philadelphia with her master
John Hill Wheeler, newly appointed US Minister to Nicaragua. In 1859, Still challenged the segregation of the city's public transit system, which had separate seating for whites and blacks. He kept lobbying and, in 1865, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a law to integrate streetcars across the state. Part 2 tomorrow...
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