Maria Stewart
One of the first American women of any race to give a public address in the nineteenth century, Stewart was one of Boston’s prominent Black abolitionists who lived on the north slope of Beacon Hill in the 1830s.
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Topic: Abolition
Abolition, abolitionists, anti-slavery, The Liberator, the colonial movement
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and George Ruffin
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and George Ruffin were eminent African-American residents of the West End in the late nineteenth-century. Josephine’s newspaper, The Woman’s Era, was published from her home and instrumental to the founding of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) in 1896. She was its first vice president.
John Rock
John S. Rock was an accomplished Black dentist, doctor, lawyer, and abolitionist lecturer who resided on the north slope of Beacon Hill shortly before and during the Civil War.
William Cooper Nell
William Cooper Nell, the United States’ first Black historian, was an intellectual and abolitionist who became an integral part of The Liberator’s staff and advocate for Black rights. He was also the first Black person to serve in the federal civil service, and was deeply involved in desegregating Boston schools.
Colonel George Middleton
Col. George Middleton was an African American Revolutionary War soldier, a “Prince Hall Freemason,” and civil rights activist, who’s home is now part of the Black Heritage Trail. He was born in 1735 and died in 1815.
Lewis Hayden
Lewis Hayden was an escaped slave who became an active abolitionist and assisted many other escaping slaves through the underground railroad.
Prince Hall
Prince Hall was a leader in Boston’s free black community on the North Slope and Copp’s Hill. He was one of the United States’ most vocal early abolitionist voices and a founder of Prince Hall Freemasonry. Hall advocated for black education and equality, running a school and making a wide array of arguments in service of bringing the fundamental promises of the Revolution to all Americans.
Primus Hall
Primus Hall was an abolitionist, soldier, school master, and leader in Boston’s post-colonial period.