He helped found anti-slavery organizations, participated in the "free-produce movement", and operated an Underground Railroad depot with their family.

James was born in Cow Neck (now North Hempstead) on Long Island, New York to a Quaker family.

[2] Adam was a miller, farmer,[2] and superintendent of the Quaker Nine Partners School in Poughkeepsie,[3] Dutchess County, New York.

[1] Mott and his wife shared anti-slavery interests, supported women's rights, and helped found Swarthmore College.

[1] Mott died of pneumonia on January 26, 1868, while he and Lucretia visited their daughter and son-in-law George W. Lord in Brooklyn, New York.

[11] In 1840, Mott and his wife were delegates of the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London, which decided they would not admit women to the proceedings.

[13] Judge Robert C. Grier stated, "The guilt of this foul murder rests not alone on the deluded individuals who were its immediate perpetrators, but the blood taints with even deeper dye the skirts of those who promulgated doctrines subversive of all morality and all government," which implicated James Mott and Thaddeus Stevens, a defense attorney.

[13] Lucretia attended the trial, during which she knitted in red, white, and blue yarn, "display[ing] cool abolitionist sentiment.

His grandparents helped people who arrived at Hempstead Harbor, Long Island, near a boat landing site near their home and provided transportation to New Rochelle, New York.

[12] James Mott, operated an Underground Railroad depot at their house at 338 Arch Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with the help of his family members.

[13] Passmore Williamson, an attorney, helped Jane Johnson attain her freedom from her slaveholder, John Hill Wheeler of North Carolina.