Read Part One HERE
In this story I will focus on a woman named Mary Meachum. She lived from 1801 - 1869. Mary and her husband John Berry Meachum were American abolitionists who dedicated their lives to education and freeing enslaved people. Missouri banned all education for black people in 1847. As for of Rev Meachum's church he established a school for free and enslaved black students called "The Candle Tallow School" because classes were held by candlelight in a secret room in the church basement that had no windows to avoid being discovered by the sheriff.
In 1847, the Meachums moved their classes to a steamboat in the middle of the Mississippi River, which was beyond the Missouri law, He provided the school with a library, desks and chairs, and called it "The Floating Freedom School."
The Meachum's home on Fourth Street in St Louis was a safe house on the Underground Railroad.
Read Part Eighty-Five HERE
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