Levi Coffin
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Levi Coffin (Born: October 28, 1798 in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States-September 16, 1877 in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States) was an American educator and abolitionist.
In 1821, he wanted to start a school for slaves, however, their owners refused to allow them to attend. In 1826, he moved to Fountain City, Indiana (then called Newport), where he helped thousands of slaves escape to Canada. In 1847, he moved to Cincinnati where he opened a store which sold goods made by freed slaves. He also visited the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to raise funds and in 1867 he was a delegate to the International Anti-Slavery Conference in Paris.
Levi Coffin was also a prominent member of the Underground Railroad that secretly helped tens of thousands of slaves to escape from the South to the North in the years of slavery, using a number of safe houses, called Stations. One of these was Coffin's house in Newport (now known as Fountain City), Indiana, where he and his wife, both Quakers and both opposed to slavery, lived for twenty years. The house became known as Grand Central Station, and Coffin's prominence in the organization is reflected by the fact, that he is often referred to as the "President of the Underground Railroad".
He is interred at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.