Thomas Smallwood

For the French basketball player, see Thomas Smallwood (basketball).
Thomas Smallwood
Born1801 February 22
Prince George's County, Maryland
Died1883 May 10
Necropolis Cemetery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
SpouseElizabeth Smallwood

Thomas Smallwood (1801–1883) was a freedman," a daring activist and searing writer" who worked alongside fellow abolitionist Charles Turner Torrey on the Underground Railroad.[1][2] The two men created what some historians believe was the first branch of the underground railroad that ran through Washington, D.C., which they operated from 1842 to 1844. After their involvement ceased, the network continued to exist in Washington for another two decades. Smallwood also wrote for Torrey's Albany, New York antislavery newspaper, Tocsin of Liberty, as its Washington correspondent.[3]

  1. ^ Shane, Scott, Flee North A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery's Borderland, (Macmillan Publishers, London, 2023), p.5
  2. ^ Smallwood, Thomas (1851). "A Narrative of Thomas Smallwood, (Coloured Man:) Giving an Account of His Birth — The Period He Was Held in Slavery — His Release — and Removal to Canada, etc. Together With an Account of the Underground Railroad. Written by Himself". James Stephens.
  3. ^ Harrold, Stanley (2003). Subversives: Antislavery Community in Washington, D.C., 1828–1865. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. pp. 54–85. ISBN 0-8071-2838-4.