The Freedom Trail Lessons personal Testimony Library includes testimonies and interviews of people who escaped from slavery or who assisted others in their escape from slavery. They shared their experiences in the 1880s and 1890s in interviews, letters and autobiographies.

Levi Coffin, Reminiscences of Levi Coffin: Being a Brief History of the Labors of a Lifetime in Behalf of the Slave, with the Stories of Numerous Fugitives, Who Gained Their Freedom through His Instrumentality, and Many Other Incidents, Cincinnati, Robert Clark & Co., 1880.

Levi Coffin - Aunt Rachel
Levi Coffin - The Cunning Slave

Laura A. Haviland, A Woman's Life- Work, Walden & Stowe, Cincinnati, 1882.

Laura Haviland - Antislavery Experiences
Laura Haviland - Second Effort to Retake the Hamiltons

Notes from Wilbur Siebert. March 28, 1893.

Fitch Reed - Reply to W. H. Siebert

Nathan Thomas Collections. The Bentley Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Nathan Thomas - Memories of a Conductor
Pamela Thomas - Memories of a Conductor

You can find other personal testimonies in the Freedom Trail Lessons newspaper reading room.

Go to:

• Michigan Freedom Trail Lessons home page
• Michigan Freedom Trail Commission home page
• Michigan Historical Center home page

Contact the Michigan Historical Center.

Updated 08/31/2010