Lunsford Lane

Lunsford Lane. Abolitionist, Author, and Businessman. , Lunsford Lane was a successful businessman who purchased his freedom and then had to flee the South the escape the anger of resentful whites., Lane, who was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, grew up as the slave of a prominent citizen of the city. He learned to read and write at an early age. With money earned by serving his master's guests and curing tobacco, he was able to purchase his freedom around 1835. He began to keep a store, and in 1839 bought a house in Raleigh. He then reached an agreement with his wife's master to purchase freedom for her and their six children for $2,500., Lane's prosperity began to attract unfavorable attention as the mood of the South toward successful free blacks turned hostile with the spread of the abolition movement. In 1840, he was forced to leave the state by whites who feared that his example might incite a slave rebellion., After lecturing for a year for the American Anti-Slavery Society in Boston, Lane returned to Raleigh to complete the purchase of his wife and children. Although he was tarred and feathered by an angry mob, sympathetic whites helped them escape., Back in Boston, Lane once again lectured for the Anti-Slavery Society. The book he wrote about his experiences, The Narrative Life of Lunsford Lane, was published in 1842 and sold widely in America and England., Lane lived at several locations in Cambridge and owned this house at 44 Webster Avenue from 1848 to 1860. During that period he worked as a storekeeper and carpenter., Around 1857, Lane moved with his family to Oberlin, Ohio, but returned to New England after the Civil War. He lived on Washington Street in Cambridgeport for three years while he engaged in various business pursuits, dealing in wood and coal and making medicines as he learned to do while a slave. A deeply religious man, he was a member of the First Institutional Baptist Church on Joy Street in Boston., Lane left Cambridge in 1873, apparently for Rhode Island, and never came back., Related Cambridge African American Trail Markers , J. Milton Clarke and Lewis Clarke, 2 Florence Place , William Wells Brown, 29 Webster Avenue , Harriet A. Jacobs, 17 Story Street, Sources , William G. Hawkins, Lunsford Lane, or, Another Helper from Northern Carolina, 1863; reprinted 1969 (photo) , Lunsford Lane, The Narrative Life of Lunsford Lane, 1842