Charity Still

Charity Still (c. 1775 – 1857) was a matriarch of the American abolition movement and witness to the development of the Underground Railroad.

Charity Still, from a 1912 publication.

Early life

Sidney (later renamed Charity) was born in slavery in the eighteenth century, on a plantation in the Chesapeake Bay. When she was a child, her father was killed by the plantation's master.[1]

Sidney met Levin Still (or Steele) while they were both enslaved in Maryland. They had four children together before Levin was able to buy his own freedom and move to Lawnside, New Jersey.[2] She escaped with her four children, all very young, and reunited with Levin Still in New Jersey. A few months later, Charity and all the children were captured and returned to Maryland. On her next escape, she left her two sons, Levin Jr. and Peter, in the care of their grandmother, and reached New Jersey again with her two daughters, Mahalia and Kiturah. The older sons remained in slavery; one died from cruel treatment, the other, Peter, eventually gained his freedom and reunited with Charity Still in 1850.[3][1]

Life in the North

To prevent another recapture, Levin and Charity Still moved into a secluded cabin in Burlington County, New Jersey, where their younger fourteen children were born. Their youngest son was William Still (c1820-1902), a Philadelphia businessman who worked with the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery. He coined the term "Underground Railroad" for the network of people, vehicles, and buildings used to aid people escaping slavery. He personally assisted hundreds of people seeking freedom. Another son, James Still, was denied formal medical training, worked as a healer in the African-American community.[4] Charity Still died in 1857, aged about 82 years. One of Charity Still's granddaughters was William's daughter, Caroline Still Anderson (1848-1919), who became a medical doctor.[2]

The descendants of Charity and Levin Still continue to hold regular reunions in New Jersey, more than two hundred years after the couple met.[5][6]

References
  1. Gloria Tuggle Still, "Charity Still" in Joan N. Burstyn, ed., Past and Promise: Lives of New Jersey Women (Syracuse University Press 1996): 86-87. ISBN 9780815604181
  2. Gloria T. Still, "Charity Sidney Still" in Maxine N. Lurie and Marc Mappen, eds., Encyclopedia of New Jersey (Rutgers University Press 2004): 780. ISBN 9780813533254
  3. John William Gibson, William Henry Croghman, Booker T. Washington, and Fannie Barrier Williams, Progress of a race; or, The remarkable advancement of the colored American. From the bondage of slavery, ignorance and poverty to the freedom of citizenship, intelligence, affluence, honor and trust (J. L. Nichols 1912): 497-505.
  4. African American Contributions to the History of New Jersey: The Still Family Campbell Library, Rowan University.
  5. Robert Strauss, "Still Bloodlines Run Deep" New Jersey Monthly (November 10, 2009).
  6. Toni Ford, "The Still Family Draws Together and Prospers in South Jersey" Courier-Post (February 22, 1999): 1, 5. via Newspapers.com
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