Question:

Did the freemasons help slaves escape from the south?

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I know this has already been addressed, if rather indefinitely. The clearest example of Freemasons active in clandestine ways to help enslaved persons escape bondage is

William Still (1821-1902) of Philadelphia. a Prince Hall Mason and "Director-General" of the Underground Railroad for the Mid-Atlantic States.

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  1. John Brown

    May 9, 1800 - December 2,1859  

    Militant American abolitionist, John Brown’s raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Va., in 1859 made him a martyr to the anti-slavery cause and was instrumental in heightening sectional animosities that led to the American Civil War.  

    He joined a local Masonic lodge, though he later quit the Masons after he became embroiled in the scandal surrounding the disappearance of William Morgan.

    --------------------------------------...

    March 6, 1775

    Prince Hall and fourteen other free black men were initiated to the Irish Army Lodge No. 441 of the Constitution of the Irish Grand Lodge.

    January 13, 1777

    Hall and eight other blacks sign a petition requesting the Massachusetts state legislature to abolish slavery, being that it is incompatible to any patriotic cause.

    March 2 and June 30, 1784

    African Lodge No. 1 applied to the Grand Lodge of England for a charter.

    September 29, 1784

    A charter was granted for African Lodge No. 459. This order was executed by the authority of the Duke of Cumberland, the Grand Master of the Mother Grand Lodge in England.

    January 4, 1787

    Hall, as grand master, and eleven other members of his lodge, petitioned the House of Representatives proposing legislature which gave Negroes, who found themselves in very intolerable circumstances of nonequality as American citizens, a separate state abroad with its own ***** pastors and bishops. With the assistance of money from congregations or direct passage assistance to Africa, money to purchase land, etc., these colonized them to a more civilized way of life. The House defeated this request.

    October 17, 1787

    Once again, Hall petitioned the Massachusetts legislature for a means to be provided for the education of colored children, since their parents (as free people of color) were taxed as were white people. The request was denied.

    1807

    Prince Hall dies.


  2. Not all Freemasons were abolitionists. I'm sure many of them were.

  3. Some yes, some no...

    Another respondent mentioned Prince Hall, even today there are Lodges that do not recognize Prince Hall Freemasonry - sad but true.

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