Laura Smith Haviland was born on December 20, 1808, and passed away on April 20, 1898. She was an American abolitionist, a woman who worked to end slavery, and a social reformer who helped improve society. She was a member of the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, and played a key role in the history of the Underground Railroad, a network that helped enslaved people escape to freedom.

Early years and family

Laura Smith Haviland was born on December 20, 1808, in Kitley Township, Ontario, Canada, to American parents Daniel Smith and Asenath "Sene" Blancher, who moved to Canada shortly before her birth. Haviland wrote that her father, Daniel, was "a man of ability and influence, of clear perceptions, and strong reasoning powers," while her mother, Sene, was "of a gentler turn, …a quiet spirit, benevolent and kind to all, and much beloved by all who knew her." The Smiths were farmers who did not have much money, and they were members of the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers. Haviland’s father was a minister in the Society, and her mother was an Elder.

Although Quakers dressed simply and did not allow dancing, singing, or other activities they considered unimportant, many of their beliefs were ahead of their time. Quakers supported the equal education of men and women, which was very unusual in an era when most people could not read or write, and giving women a full education was often seen as unnecessary. Both men and women in the Quaker community served as ministers. While most Quakers did not speak out loudly against slavery, many believed it was cruel and unfair. Haviland was raised in this environment.

In 1815, her family moved back to the United States and settled in Cambria, a remote and sparsely populated town in western New York. At that time, there was no school near their home, and for the next six years, Haviland’s education consisted mostly of a daily spelling lesson given by her mother. Haviland described herself as a curious child who was deeply interested in the world around her and who asked her parents questions about topics such as scripture and Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation from an early age. After mastering spelling, Haviland expanded her learning by reading as many books as she could borrow from friends, relatives, and neighbors, including religious texts and serious historical works.

At sixteen, Laura met Charles Haviland, Jr., a young Quaker whose parents were both respected ministers. They married on November 11, 1825, in Lockport, New York. According to Laura, Charles was a devoted husband, and their marriage was happy. They had eight children together.

The Havilands lived in Royalton Township, near Lockport, New York, for the first four years of their marriage. In September 1829, they moved to Raisin, Lenawee County, in the Michigan Territory, settling three miles (5 km) from the homestead her parents had acquired four years earlier. At that time, Michigan was mostly wild and not developed, but land was inexpensive, and there were several other Quakers nearby.

Anti-slavery work and the Raisin Institute

Haviland remembered clearly seeing African Americans being spoken to harshly and even attacked physically in Lockport, New York, when she was a child. These experiences, along with the terrible details in John Woolman’s account of the slave trade, left a lasting memory on her.

Haviland and others in the Raisin community helped Elizabeth Margaret Chandler start the Logan Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1832. This was the first group in Michigan dedicated to ending slavery. In 1837, Haviland and her husband created a "manual labor school… for poor children," later called the Raisin Institute. Haviland taught the girls household skills, while her husband and her brother, Harvey Smith, taught the boys farming tasks. The Havilands insisted the school accept all children, "regardless of race, creed, or sex." This made it the first school in Michigan to allow students of all races to attend together. Some white students wanted to leave when they learned they would study with African Americans, but most stayed. Laura wrote that once students were together in class, their unfair beliefs "soon melted away."

In 1838, Harvey Smith sold his farm, and the money was used to build homes for fifty students. The Havilands expanded the school’s lessons, making it more like traditional elementary and secondary schools. They hired a graduate from Oberlin College to be the school’s leader. Because of their hard work, the Raisin Institute became known as one of the best schools in the Territory.

As Haviland and others became more active in anti-slavery efforts, disagreements grew within the Quaker community. Some Quakers, like the Havilands, wanted slavery to end immediately, while most Orthodox Quakers did not support joining abolitionist groups. Although Quakers opposed slavery, many avoided direct involvement in anti-slavery societies. In 1839, to continue their work, Haviland, her parents, and fourteen others left the Quakers and joined a group of Methodists called the Wesleyans, who also supported ending slavery.

In the spring of 1845, an outbreak of erysipelas killed six members of Haviland’s family, including both her parents, her husband, and her youngest child. Haviland became very ill but survived. At thirty-six, she was a widow with seven children to care for, a farm to manage, the Raisin Institute to run, and debts to pay. Two years later, her eldest son died. A lack of money forced the Raisin Institute to close in 1849.

Despite these losses, Haviland kept working to end slavery. In 1851, she helped start the Refugee Home Society in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, which helped escaped slaves settle in new homes. A church and school were built, and each family received twenty-five acres of land to farm. Laura stayed for several months as the settlement’s teacher. She then went to Ohio, where she and her daughter Anna taught at schools for African-American children in Cincinnati and Toledo.

By 1856, Haviland had raised enough money to reopen the Raisin Institute. The new lessons included talks by former slaves about life on plantations. In 1864, the Institute closed again because many staff members and students joined the military during the Civil War.

Work for the Underground Railroad

During the 1830s, the Haviland family helped runaway enslaved people find safety on their farm. Their home became the first Underground Railroad station in Michigan. After her husband died, Laura Haviland continued to shelter runaway enslaved people in her home. In some cases, she personally helped them travel to Canada. She played an important role in the Detroit branch of the Underground Railroad, where she was called a "superintendent," with George DeBaptiste as "president" and William Lambert as "vice president" or "secretary."

Laura also traveled to the South several times to help escaped enslaved people. Her first trip happened in 1846, when she tried to rescue the children of runaway enslaved people named Willis and Elsie Hamilton. The children were still with their mother’s former enslaver, John P. Chester, who owned a tavern in Washington County, Tennessee.

Chester learned where the Hamiltons were and sent slave-catchers to find them. When that failed, he tried to trick the Hamiltons into returning to his plantation by promising they would be treated as freed people and reunited with their children. Suspecting a trap, Haviland went to Tennessee instead, accompanied by her son Daniel and a student from the Raisin Institute named James Martin, who pretended to be Willis Hamilton. When Chester realized Willis was not with Haviland, he became angry and held the group at gunpoint, threatening to kill them, kidnap James Martin, and make him a slave in Willis’s place. They escaped, but Chester continued to trouble Haviland for 15 years, using the courts and sending slave-catchers to find her. He also sent her many harsh letters. One letter from Chester’s son, Thomas K. Chester, written in February 1847, showed the tone of his messages:

Haviland replied sarcastically, thanking Thomas for naming the child after her family and saying she hoped the child "like Moses, may he become instrumental in leading his people away from a worse bondage than that of Egypt." Thomas Chester became angry and placed a reward on Haviland’s head. He spread "hand-bills" (fliers) across the South describing Haviland, explaining her work to free enslaved people, and offering $3,000 to anyone who would kidnap or kill her.

Three years later, after the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, the Chester family tried to have Haviland arrested for "stealing" their slaves. If found guilty, Haviland could have been hurt, fined, or imprisoned. However, she refused to stop helping enslaved people.

Fortunately, Haviland’s case was handled by Judge Ross Wilkins, who supported abolitionists. The Chesters tried to take the Hamiltons by force, but Haviland and her neighbors stopped them. Judge Wilkins delayed the case, giving Haviland time to help the Hamiltons escape to Canada. In the end, Haviland avoided punishment.

In addition to a failed rescue attempt described in her autobiography, Haviland later made other trips to the South that she did not write about. She disguised herself as a white cook and once as a light-skinned free person of color to visit plantations and help enslaved people escape north.

Civil War and Reconstruction

During the Civil War, Laura visited many refugee camps and hospitals, and even went to the frontlines to give supplies to people who had been displaced, freed slaves, and soldiers.

In the spring of 1865, General Oliver O. Howard, the commissioner of the newly created Freedmen's Bureau, appointed Haviland as Inspector of Hospitals. Her job included many tasks beyond just inspecting hospitals. For the next two years, she traveled through Virginia, Tennessee, Kansas, and Washington, D.C., to give supplies, report on the living conditions of freedmen and poor white people, organize refugee camps, set up schools, teach, volunteer as a nurse at hospitals for freedmen, and give public talks. To help white people understand the suffering of freedmen under slavery, she visited abandoned plantations and collected chains, irons, restraints, and other tools that had been used on enslaved people. Haviland took these items to the North and showed them during her lectures. She also met directly with President Andrew Johnson to ask for the release of former slaves who were still being held in Southern prisons because they had tried to escape slavery years earlier.

While working at the Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D.C., Haviland met and became friends with Sojourner Truth. Truth later described an event that happened one day when they went into town to get supplies. Haviland suggested they take a streetcar back to the hospital. Truth described what happened next as follows:

The Haviland Home orphanage

After the Civil War, the Freedmen's Aid Commission took over the former Raisin Institute, renamed it the Haviland Home, and changed it into an orphanage for African-American children. The first children living there were seventy-five homeless children brought by Haviland from Kansas. As more children joined, the number of residents grew, and some white people in Michigan became worried. They said Haviland was putting a strain on white taxpayers and wanted the orphanage closed. In 1867, the American Missionary Association bought the orphanage and forced the children out into the street.

Haviland left her work in Washington, D.C., to return to Michigan and help the children. She gathered enough money to buy the orphanage and began managing it herself. By 1870, money was very limited. Because Haviland asked, the state took control of the orphanage, and it became the Michigan Orphan Asylum.

Later years

When Reconstruction ended in 1877, many African Americans left the South because they faced attacks from racist people and groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Thousands of African-American men, women, and children moved to temporary camps in Kansas. Haviland decided to help by traveling with her daughter Anna to Washington, D.C., where she shared information about the terrible conditions in the camps. She then went to Kansas with supplies for the refugees. Using her own money, Haviland bought 240 acres (0.97 km²) of land in Kansas for the freedmen at one of the camps to live on and farm.

Death

Laura Haviland worked to end slavery and improve the lives of people who had been freed from slavery. She also helped with other important issues, such as supporting women's right to vote and helping to start the Women's Christian Temperance Union in Michigan.

Laura Haviland died on April 20, 1898, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She passed away at the home of her brother, Samuel Smith. She is buried next to her husband in the Raisin Valley Cemetery in Adrian, Michigan.

At her funeral, a choir of white and African-American singers performed hymns. Then, a group of white and African-American pall-bearers carried her casket to the grave.

Legacy

• The town of Haviland, Kansas, is named after her.
• A statue of Laura Haviland is located outside the Lenawee County Historical Museum in Adrian, Michigan. The statue has a message that says: "A Tribute to a Life Consecrated to the Betterment of Humanity."
• Laura Smith Haviland Elementary School in Waterford, Michigan, is named after her.
• Laura Smith Haviland was added to the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro, New York, in 2018.