William Still

William Still (1821–1902) was an American abolitionist and businessman, born in New Jersey to parents who had escaped from slavery in Maryland. He moved to Philadelphia in 1844, became a clerk and then secretary of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, and from 1852 to 1861 ran the Vigilance Committee that received fugitives arriving in the city, keeping careful records of their names and stories; among those who passed through was his own brother Peter, left behind when their mother fled. After the war he published those records as The Underground Railroad, led the campaign to desegregate Philadelphia's streetcars, and prospered in the coal business.