Frederick Douglass became America's leading black abolitionist. A young Douglass hired out to work in a Baltimore shipyard as a sailor. With the assistance of the Underground Railroad operatives and carrying forged papers, he escaped to New York on the train. He soon became a star lecturer and in 1845 he published his remarkable autobiography. His home in Rochester, New York, served as a station.
Quaker Levi Coffin was known as the 'President' and his home as the 'Grand Central Station' of the Underground Railroad. Coffin and his wife, Catherine, aided thousands of runaways in Indiana and Ohio.
Josiah Henson liberated himself from slavery in the 1820's. As a Methodist preacher, he lectured widely against the evils of slavery. He published his autobiography in 1849, which reportedly served as the major source of information for Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. He helped more than 100 individuals escape to freedom. Along with other abolitionists, he purchased land in Dresden, Ontario, and created a vocational school called the British American Institute for Fugitive Slaves.
David Ruggles was an important conductor on the Underground Railroad. He was reported to have helped more than 600 people, including Frederick Douglass, find their way to freedom.
John and Jean Rankin and their neighbors in Ripley, Ohio, helped thousands of people escaping to freedom. A Presbyterian minister, John Rankin organized antislavery groups on a local and state level. Their home, sitting above the Ohio River, was known as Liberty Hill.