Grade Unit 1 Student Early Statehood

In the early 1800s, North Carolina and other Southern states continued to depend on slavery to grow cash crops. Slavery is the practice of holding people and forcing them to work against their will. By 1840, there were about 250,000 enslaved African Americans in the state.

Some enslaved people tried to escape to Northern states, where slavery had already been ended. Some people helped enslaved people escape. These people, known as abolitionists, wanted to abolish, or end, slavery.

Levi Coffin was a Quaker abolitionist from Guilford County. In the 1820s, Coffin and his wife moved to Indiana. They helped set up a system of escape routes and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. Runaway slaves found shelter at safe houses. In North Carolina, safe houses were located in towns such as Greensboro and Goldsboro.

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Harriet Ann Jacobs (February 11, 1813 – March 7, 1897) was an American writer born in slavery in Edenton, North Carolina. In 1834, Jacobs escaped to Philadelphia and later moved to New York. She wrote a book in 1861 about her life as an enslave person. Her book made many people aware of how badly some enslaved people were treated. Jacobs later set up a school in Virginia for African American.