
Family tree of Levi COFFIN
Industrialist, Businessman
Born Levi COFFIN
American Quaker, abolitionist, and businessman
Born on October 28, 1798 in Guilford County, North Carolina, USA , United States
Died on September 16, 1877 in Avondale, Ohio, USA
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Coffin grew up working on his father's farm and received little, if any, formal education. He was frequently exposed to slaves throughout his childhood and sympathized with their condition. According to his own account, he became an abolitionist at age seven when he asked a slave who was in a chain gang why he was bound. The man replied that it was to prevent him from escaping and returning to his wife and children. The event disturbed Coffin who often considered the possibility of his own father being taken from him in a similar fashion. By age fifteen, Coffin was helping his family assist escaping slaves by taking food to those hiding on his farm. As the repressive Fugitive Slave Act became more rigorously enforced, the family began conducting their assistance to slaves with greater secrecy and doing most of their illegal activities at night. Scrutiny of the abolitionists only worsened with the passage of the 1804 Black Laws. By the early 1820s, Quakers in North Carolina were being openly persecuted for the assistance they were suspected of providing to runaway slaves.
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Geographical origins
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