Charles Calistus Burleigh (November 3, 1810 – June 13, 1878) was an American journalist and abolitionist who fought against Connecticut's "Black Law" and enlisted participants in the Underground Railroad.

[1][2] Burleigh was drawn into abolitionist work because of the racist persecution and harassment of Prudence Crandall when she tried to open a school for educating young Black women in Canterbury, Connecticut.

[3] At the American Anti-Slavery Society convention in 1837 he promoted a resolution which called for allowing alleged fugitive slaves the right of trial by jury, he denounced the sin of slaveholding, and specifically highlighted contributions that women were making to the antislavery cause.

[1] He was known as an effective and colorful orator, with very long hair and beard that he had vowed not to cut until slavery had ended in the United States.

[3] He married Gertrude Kimber, a Quaker from Chester County, Pennsylvania, on October 24, 1842, and they had three children, including the artist Charles Calistus Burleigh, Jr.