There were many more black women abolitionist activists than will fit in this column. But there are some who should be mentioned for their outstanding courage and ability.

Elizabeth Freeman (1742–1829) was born into slavery in Claverack, New York in 1742. Upon suffering physical abuse from her master’s wife, Freeman escaped her home and refused to return. She found a sympathetic ear with attorney Theodore Sedgwick, the father of the writer Catherine Sedgwick. Apparently, as she served dinner to her masters, she had heard them speaking of freedom—in this case freedom from England—and she applied the concepts of equality and freedom for all to herself.

In 1781 Freeman, with the assistance of Sedgwick, initiated the case Brom and Bett v. Ashley that set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts. According to the Massachusetts Judicial Review, the 1781 Berkshire county case of Brom and Bett v. Ashley, often referred to as the “Mum Bett” or “Elizabeth Freeman” case, was unique because it occurred less than one year after the adoption of the Massachusetts Constitution and because, in contrast to prior freedom suits, there was no claim that John Ashley, the slave owner, had violated a specific law. This case was a direct challenge to the very existence of slavery in Massachusetts.

Once free, Freeman stayed with the Sedgwick family as a servant. Sedgwick, in arguing a later case, used the example of Freeman when he said in defense of the abolition of slavery, “If there could be a practical refutation of the imagined superiority of our race to hers, the life and character of this woman would afford that refutation.”

Sarah Parker Remond (1824–1894) was an African‐​American lecturer, abolitionist, and agent of the American Anti‐​Slavery Society. Born of free blacks, she made her first speech against slavery when she was only sixteen years old. As a young woman, Remond delivered antislavery speeches throughout the Northeast United States. She traveled to England to gather support for the abolitionist cause in the United States. When she was older, she became a physician in Italy where she stayed until her death.

Poet and orator Frances E.W. Harper (1825–1911), the child of two free black parents, advocated for abolition and education in her speeches and publications. Her first poem collection, Forest Leaves, was published around 1845. The delivery of her public speech, “Education and the Elevation of the Colored Race,” resulted in a two‐​year lecture tour for the Anti‐​Slavery Society.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823–1893) was the first female black newspaper editor, starting a publication titled The Provincial Freeman in Canada. Her abolitionist activities came naturally to her. Her father worked for the Liberator run by famed abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. After the war, Cary earned in 1883 a law degree from Howard University, making her the second African‐​American woman in the United States to earn this degree.

Ellen Craft (1826–1891) along with her husband William Craft (1824–1900) were slaves who escaped to the North in 1848 by traveling openly by train and steamboat, finally arriving in Philadelphia. She posed as a white male planter and he as her personal servant. The light‐​skinned daughter of a mulatto slave and her white master, Ellen Craft used her appearance to pass as a white man, dressing in appropriate clothing. Their daring escape was widely publicized, making them among the most famous of fugitive slaves. Abolitionists featured them in public lectures to gain support in the struggle to end the institution.

The Crafts lectured publicly about their escape. In 1860 they published a written account, Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom; Or, The Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery . One of the most compelling of the many slave narratives published before the American Civil War, their book reached wide audiences in Great Britain and the United States. After their return to the US in 1868, the Crafts opened an agricultural school for freedman’s children in Georgia and worked the farm until 1890.