Volume 3, No. 3 (Winter 2000) -- Black History Month Issue

How often we teach only about the most well-known figures in history. Using books, the internet and other media center resources, we can help students dig deeper to find new role models with fascinating stories. Thousands of people devoted their lives to ending slavery. Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and William Lloyd Garrison were not the only leaders. Others made contributions to the crusade.

Maria Stewart (1803-1879)
Maria Stewart, a free-born African American woman fired by political and religious zeal, began lecturing and writing pamphlets in 1831. She lectured on abolition, equal rights, colonization, educational opportunities, and racial pride and unity.

One of the most radical writers of her time, she advocated black self-determination and independence from whites. Her career as a public speaker was cut short due to strong opposition to women lecturing in public, even from members of the black community. Stewart launched a distinguished career as an educator in New York and eventually opened two schools for free African American children in Washington, D.C.

Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880)
Lydia Maria Child was a Massachusetts-born white woman who was an anti-slavery writer and activist. She published essays, articles, letters and novels, and edited The Anti-Slavery Standard and a children's magazine. She advocated racial and gender equality, as well as the abolition of slavery. Child promoted the purchase of items produced by free labor instead of by slave labor. She also edited Harriet Jacobs' narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

Child promoted interracial marriage as a solution to racial inequality and advocated on behalf of Native Americans. During Reconstruction she worked for equality, suffrage, women's rights and land reform for freed people.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893)
Mary Ann Shadd was born to free African American parents who were active abolitionists. She began teaching at the age of 16, but when the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 passed, she joined the wave of blacks moving to Canada.

There she established the Provincial Freeman in 1853, the first newspaper founded by a black woman in North America. Shadd wrote about the anti-slavery movement, denouncing racist white abolitionists.

In 1854 Shadd returned to the United States for a lecture tour. She applied to the National Negro Convention which did not accept women. Frederick Douglass argued she should be allowed to participate and she was admitted. Shadd married, attended Howard University law school, and in 1870 became the first black woman lawyer in the United States. She fought for women's rights until her death in 1893.

William Still (1821-1902)
William Still was born in New Jersey, the son of former slaves. In 1847 he married Letitia George and began working for the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery. He was soon assisting fugitive slaves on their flight north. When Philadelphia abolitionists organized a vigilance committee in response to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, they named Still as its chair. In addition to harboring countless fugitives, Still also wrote a chronicle entitled The Underground Railroad. In it he countered the image of the helpless, dependent runaway by providing examples of courageous, self-reliant fugitives making their own way toward freedom.

In 1859 Still led an effort to end discrimination in Philadelphia railroad cars. Eight years later the campaign was successful. He also participated in organizations advancing black causes.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911)
Frances Ellen Watkins was the best-known and respected 19th century African American poet and novelist. She was also a powerful abolitionist and tireless community activist. Watkins was born into a free black family in Baltimore, but was orphaned and raised by relatives. In 1850 she became the first female faculty member of Union Seminary in Ohio.

In 1853 Watkins moved to Philadelphia to work as an abolitionist, working with the Underground Railroad. She then became an anti-slavery lecturer, in New England, Canada, Michigan and Ohio. In 1854 she published Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects, which sold more than 10,000 copies.

Watkins was committed to non-violent political action. In 1860 she married Fenton Harper. After his death in 1864, she returned to the lecture circuit. During Reconstruction, she continued to work for social equality for African Americans and women. She was a founder of the American Woman Suffrage Association and the National Association of Colored Women.