William Green: Springfield

William Green published a 24-page narrative of his life, detailing his experiences in slavery on Maryland's eastern shore and his subsequent liberation. With help along the way from Quakers, other whites, and some enslaved African Americans, he escaped first to Philadelphia, then continued on to New York, and eventually settled in Springfield, Massachusetts. There he married at the First Church and continued to defy the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 by protecting others who had escaped slavery.

It was during his time in Springfield that Green published A Narrative of Events in the Life of William Green, Formerly a Slave, Written by Himself. The Lyman & Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History holds a copy of this important Narrative, available to the public.