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The Guilfordian

The student news site of Guilford College

The Guilfordian

The student news site of Guilford College

The Guilfordian

History of Guilford: Levi Coffin and his ‘earthen vessels’

“I was sick and cold and tired and hungry, but I wouldn’t go back. My baby was crying and we were wet, but I couldn’t let him take me from my family. Finally, I began to fear for my baby’s health and I approached the house. I was cautious, constantly looking for Mr. Caldwell or his slave hunters. The house was dark, but when I knocked a light quickly appeared in the upstairs window. I heard steps on the stairs and saw the glow of a candle approach the door.” The Coffin farm was located near the South edge of campus. In the early 1800s, when this passage was written, Guilford’s campus was fields and woods. The woods contained ravines and thick undergrowth – ideal hiding spots for runaway slaves.

“A young boy opened the door and saw me to the fire. He wrapped my baby in a blanket and gave her warm milk. He listened to me. He grew upset at my master’s treatment toward me. He was angry when he learned that Mr. Caldwell wanted to move me a hundred miles away and separate me from my husband and three boys. He told me he would take care of it and he gave me a warm bed. Then, he did something I have never seen before. He asked my name and said, ‘good night Ede.'”

Levi Coffin was born in 1798 in New Garden, North Carolina. He was raised in The New Garden Society of Friends, a Quaker meeting which still stands across the street from Guilford. He was deeply spiritual and strongly opposed slavery. Not one member of Coffin’s family ever owned a slave. Coffin’s first law was his conscience and the law of Jesus Christ.

“The next day, I heard the boy talking to his parents. I heard the righteousness in his voice and saw his confidence as he walked out of the house. I grew worried when he began in the direction of Mr. Caldwell’s plantation, but his parents said it would be okay.

“When he returned, Mr. Caldwell followed him. Mr. Caldwell came into the house and took me back home, but he didn’t beat me. He didn’t send me away. I never saw the young boy again, but I owe him my life. He kept my family together and he treated me like a human.”

That’s how Coffin’s role as savior to runaway slaves began. At 15 years old, he had the conviction to approach clergyman, physician, and respected aristocrat Dr. David Caldwell to tell him that his treatment of slaves was wrong.

In his book Reminiscences, Coffin recalls such atrocities as seeing a slave being beaten in the head with a burning log. There was one episode in his life, however, that stood out as a turning point in how he viewed slavery.

At age seven, a large group of slaves, chained together, were being lead by and Coffin’s father asked the men why they were chained instead of being allowed to walk freely. One of the men told them that they were chained so that they could not escape to their wives and children. Coffin imagined his father being abducted, and the evils of slavery became clear to him.

Quakers were openly opposed to slavery. Knowing this, runaways sought the woods near the New Garden Society of Friends.

Coffin was helping runaways by age 15. He hatched a clever plan to help them – using his hogs as a guise. As was a common practice at the time, the Coffins let their hogs roam in the woods. The trips to the woods, ostensibly to feed the hogs, soon became trips to feed runaway slaves.

Coffin brought cornbread and bacon for the slaves in the sack of hog feed. While they ate, Coffin would talk with the slaves. He listened to stories about how their masters beat them and how they escaped. He learned how they traveled and the routes they took. Much of what Coffin learned about the Underground Railroad, he learned while sitting in the woods that are now the Guilford College campus.

Coffin estimated that, throughout his lifetime, he helped between two and three thousand slaves to freedom. However, few records about the Underground Railroad were kept because it was illegal to help a runaway slave.

In Reminiscences, Coffin recalls one way in which he and other Quakers avoided the law. A runaway that had passed through his house was caught a few days later and Coffin was summoned to court to face charges. When asked if he knew that the man was a runaway slave, Coffin told the court that the only evidence he had that the man was a slave was the man’s testimony. At the time, the testimony of a black man was inadmissible in court, so no charges were pressed.

Another time, Coffin was transporting escaped slaves in a false-bottom wagon under some straw and vases. Knowing that Quakers can’t tell a lie, a police officer hoping to catch Coffin asked him what he was transporting. Coffin looked at the man and replied, “Earthen vessels my friend, earthen vessels.” Because the bible states that we’re all made of clay, Coffin was telling the truth.

Quakerism practices the teachings of Jesus Christ, especially that all men are created equal. Many Quakers couldn’t handle the brutal violations of this belief that occurred in the antebellum south and moved to the free North. According to the Ohio and Indiana Ordinance of 1787, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment of crime, were allowed in these states. Because of this ordinance, many Quakers and runaways headed to these states.

In 1822, Coffin visited Newport, Indiana with his brother-in-law Benjamin White. Several families of free blacks lived in Newport, and Coffin felt that his work with the Underground Railroad would be much safer there. With many Quakers leaving for the north, Coffin saw the change in his near future.

In 1824, after traveling the west for a couple years, Coffin returned to New Garden to find many of his friends wanting to move to Indiana. On his birthday, Oct. 24, Coffin married his lifelong friend Catherine White. The couple moved to Newport shortly afterwards.

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