I am a 23 year old university student in my 5th year of a Women’s Studies/Religious Studies double major. I have a passion for history and books and learning. My plan at the moment is to gt my PhD and become a professor (we’ll see how well that works out).
William Still (1821-1902)
Still is one of the founding fathers of Black history in America. However, he is most commonly known as “The Father of the Underground Railroad.”
He earned this title because he was a major conductor on the Underground Railroad. But before I get into all that, I think his family’s story is so interesting. He was born last of eighteen children.
His father, Levin Still, had purchased his own freedom. His mother, Sidney, and his two brothers and two sisters, remained enslaved in Maryland, however. Sidney and the children managed to escape once but were captured and returned to Maryland.
Aware that all five could not escape together again, Sidney made one of the most difficult decisions any mother could make. In 1807, leaving the two older boys behind with their grandmother (who was also a slave), Sidney struck out for freedom again. This time, she took only the two younger girls. They succeeded, and she was reunited with her husband. To conceal their identities, they changed Sidney’s name to Charity and the family name to Still. Fourteen years later, William Still was born free in New Jersey.
Still moved to Philadelphia in 1844 where he was the first Black person to join the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (and he was appointed secretary).
He earned his title as “Father of the Underground Railroad,” because he became a major conductor on the Underground Railroad. He help as many as 60 people a month escape from slavery. Still even helped a man and soon realized that it was one of his long lost brothers! He also is considered one of the founding fathers of Black history because he would interview each person that he helped escape to freedom, keeping records of where they were from and where they were going, creating brief biographies.
Later he published The Underground Rail Road Records, which chronicles the stories of 649 slaves who escaped to freedom via the Underground Railroad.
It is because of him that we know so much about the Underground Railroad today.
(via ethiopienne)
