Early 19th-century African American opera singers and performers were crossover artists. Barred from all major American stages, they transgressed the boundaries between high and low culture by playing the marginal American concert stages and opera houses that permitted them. They also performed in minstrel and vaudeville shows. Careers were short-lived, usually lasting only two or three years-the length of time it typically took for the novelty of seeing a black singer to wear off for white audiences. Europe often proved a more hospitable climate for African American artists. Nonetheless, a number of black performers rose to prominence in the American opera scene. Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, known as the Black Swan, toured North America and England with an African American troupe in the 1850s and 1860s.

Born in Wilmington, Delaware to Abraham and Harriet Shadd, Mary was the first of 13 children. Since it was against the law to educate Blacks in Delaware, her parents took her to Pennsylvania and placed her in a Quaker boarding school when she was 10. Six years later, she returned to Wilmington and opened a private school for blacks. Mary and her brother, Issac, fled to Windsor, Canada after the Fugitive Slave Law was passed. Later her father transferred the entire family to Windsor. Because there was a vigorous campaign to deter runaway slaves from seeking refuge in Canada, Mary wrote a 44-page pamphlet, "Notes On Canada," listing opportunities offered blacks. The pamphlet is said to have been widely read in the United States. At this time, Mary recognized the need for a newspaper directed to blacks, particularly, to fugitive slaves. She established a weekly, The Provincial Freemen. The newspaper became very popular, and Mary frequently returned to the United States to obtain first-hand accounts for her editorials. Mary felt the need to keep blacks in the United States informed about the true conditions in Canada and to further refute the lies being spread that blacks in Canada were starving. She also wanted to make her voice heard in both the United States and in Canada to "acquaint the white citizens with the noble deeds and heroism of the colored American," and thereby justify blacks' claim for "equal and exact justice."

The book the Price of a Child is based on the story of Jane Johnson. In July,1855, John Hill Wheeler, a federal bureaucrat and plantation owner who was a staunch defender of the entire system of slavery sailed into Philadelphia with his slave, Jane Johnson and her two sons. Jane Johnson sent a message to William Still, saying she wished to escape enslavement. Still and Passmore Williamson, a white abolitionist, met Johnson and her sons on the boat. When Wheeler tried to stop Johnson's escape, a minor scuffle ensued, and Williamson and the others assisting him were all charged with riot, forcible abduction, and assault. Wheeler also filed a civil and a criminal complaint against the men who, he contended, violated the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act by "stealing" Johnson, his "property." The trial was a cause célèbre - especially when Jane Johnson made a daring appearance in court. In the end, Johnson stayed free, and Still was acquitted, though Williamson spent a much-publicized three months in jail. Perhaps most important, Wheeler failed spectacularly in his claim that, even in Philadelphia, the slaves were his property.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, July 11, 2002
Byline: Jane Eisner

Born into slavery in Delaware, Absalom Jones was sold to a shopkeeper in Philadelphia. As a youth, Jones taught himself to read. Later, he attended a Quaker school in the evenings and eventually bought his freedom. He and Richard Allen helped form the Free African Society, which was dedicated to serving the needs of the black community in Philadelphia. Although Allen later withdrew from the Society, he supported Jones' plan for building the black community's first church. Absalom Jones became head of the St. Thomas' Episcopal Church, and frequently preached against slavery. Absalom Jones also joined Richard Allen and James Forten in marshalling two thousand five hundred volunteers to fortify the city of Philadelphia against the approaching British army
http://www.whyy.org/aina/people.html

Solomon Northrup was a free black who was kidnapped in New York and sold into slavery for twelve years. He was finally returned to freedom through the efforts of New York's governor.

Born into slavery in Paxton Township, Dauphin County in 1795, Stephen Smith was purchased by General Thomas Boude in 1802. General Boude brought Smith to Columbia where he owned a lumber yard. Boude had him manage his lumber business by the time he was nineteen. Stephen Smith bought his freedom for $100. For another $50, he bought a little lumber and began a very profitable business of his own. By the 1830s he owned one of the largest lumber yards in Columbia. In August and September of 1834, racial tensions in Columbia increased and riots erupted. Stephen Smith sold his business in Columbia and relocated to Philadelphia. At this time, Smith was one of the wealthiest African-Americans in Pennsylvania. He owned several homes in Columbia, Lancaster, and Philadelphia. Smith was also an active abolitionist and took part in many meetings of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. He also contributed and helped found many charitable organizations including the House for Aged and Infirmed Colored People and the Zion Mission in Philadelphia. At the time of his death in 1873, he was one of the wealthiest African-American men in America.

He war born near Medford, in Burlington County, N.J. His father, Levin Steel, was a former slave who had purchased his own freedom and changed his name to Still to protect his wife Sidney, who had escaped from slavery in Maryland. After her first escape attempt had failed she ran to her husband with two of their four children and changed her name to Charity. Their son William was the youngest of eighteen children. From early boyhood he worked on his father's farm and as a woodcutter. He had little formal schooling, but read what was available and studied grammar on his own. In 1844 he went to Philadelphia, where he worked at various jobs, including handyman in several households.In 1847 Still found employment in the office of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery. His duties were janitorial and clerical, but he soon became involved with aiding fugitives from slavery. He was in a unique position to provide board and room for many of the fugitives who rested in Philadelphia before resuming their journey to Canada. One of those former slaves turned out to he his own brother, Peter Still, left in bondage by his mother when she had escaped forty years earlier. William Still later reported that finding his brother led him to preserve the careful records concerning former slaves which provided valuable source material for his book The Underground Railroad (1872). When Philadelphia abolitionists organized a vigilance committee to assist the large numbers of fugitives going through the city after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, they named William Still chairman. Still worked in other ways to improve the status of Negroes. In 1859, he started a campaign to end racial discrimination on Philadelphia railroad cars by exposing the injustice in a letter to the press. Eight years later the campaign ended successfully when the Pennsylvania legislature passed a law forbidding such discrimination.
http://www.undergroundrr.com/stillbiofr.html

He was the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. When Jane Johnson's Southern owner brought her through Philadelphia on a journey, Passmore Williamson advised the young black woman of a Pennsylvania law that prohibited the transportation of slaves through the state by their owners. Jane left her master for freedom, but a pro-slavery judge sent Williamson to prison for his part in the rescue. He served 100 days before being released.
http://www.chestercohistorical.org/ugrr/wwyoudo.htm

Originally the dream of Richard Allen, the African Church of Philadelphia grew out of the Free African Society established by Allen and Absalom Jones. Because of religious differences, Allen had left the FAS in 1789, and Jones had become its leader. On January 1, 1791, the FAS began holding religious services, and this gradually led to the formation of the African Church. The church opened its doors on July 17, 1794, as the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, making it the first black church in Philadelphia and one of the first in the country. The congregation had already ensured that control of their church would rest in the hands of the black members, with Absalom Jones qualified by the Episcopal Church to act as St. Thomas's minister.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3h471.html

In 1833 the American Anti-Slavery Society was founded in Philadelphia. Its ladies auxiliary, necessitated by the pre-women's liberation climate, was the Female Anti-Slavery Society which Lucretia Mott personally organized. The Anti-Slavery Societies took a radical stand, seeking not only the abolition of slavery, but equality for all Negroes, Northern as well as Southern. During the 1830s, 40s, and 50s, antislavery societies sprang up in cities across the North. In 1837, Philadelphia was home to three such organizations: the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, the Philadelphia Young Men's Anti-Slavery Society, and the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society. Philadelphians were also involved with the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h1544.html

Philadelphia abolitionists organized a vigilance committee to assist the large numbers of fugitives going through the city after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.William Still was the chairman of this committee.

It started with a question asked by a sixteen-year-old free black named Hezekiel Grice. Grice, troubled by "the hopelessness of contending against oppression in the United States," wondered if blacks should be encouraged to emigrate, en mass, to Canada. Such a question, he thought, should be carefully considered, so he proposed that a convention be held where the matter could be discussed. He wrote to several black leaders, who approved of the proposal, and on September 15, 1830, the ten-day National Negro Convention began in Philadelphia. Forty blacks from nine states attended the meeting, including Bishop Richard Allen. From the meeting emerged a new organization, the "American Society of Free5 People of Colour for improving their condition in the United States; for purchasing lands; and for the establishment of a settlement in the Province of Canada," of which Allen was named president. As can be gleened from the society's descriptive title, the answer to Grice's original question was not clear cut. Yes, moving to Canada was encouraged, especially for blacks with children, but the society also acknowledged the need to improve the lives of those who remained in the U.S. This first meeting of the National Negro Convention would initiate a trend that would continue for the next three decades. The number of conventions, held at local, state, and national levels, blossomed to such a level that, in 1859, one paper would report that "colored conventions are almost as frequent as churchmeetings."

The Underground Railroad saw an explosion of activity in the 1840s. In 1842, the Supreme Court ruled in Prigg v. Pennsylvania that states did not have to aid in the return of runaway slaves. In an attempt to appease the South, Congress passed the Compromise of 1850, which revised the Fugitive Slave Bill. The law gave slaveowners the right to organize a posse at any point in the United States to aid in recapturing runaway slaves. Private citizens, courts and police were also obligated to assist in the recapture of runaways. Furthermore, people who were caught helping slaves served jail time as well as pay fines and restitution to the slaveowner. The legislation, demanded that if an escaped slave was sighted, he or she should be apprehended and turned in to the authorities for deportation back to the "rightful" owner down south. It was thought that the Fugitive Slave Act would diminish the incentive for slaves to attempt escape. The rationale behind this was the slaves' realization that even if they managed to escape from their plantation, they could still be caught and returned by any citizen in the United States. In fact, the Fugitive Slave Act was so severe that at the behest of Senator Henry Clay, it was legislated that any United States Marshall who refused to return a runaway slave would pay a hefty penalty of $1,000.
http://education.ucdavis.edu/NEW/STC/lesson/socstud/railroad/SlaveLaw.htm
http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/ugrr/hor2.html