Lunsford Lane

Lunsford Lane (May 30, 1803 – June 27, 1879) was an entrepreneur tobacconist from North Carolina who bought freedom for himself and his family.

He also made a pipe with reeds, a hot wire and clay, which he sold in the early part of the night, and produced in the latter.

He also sold firewood, worked as a handyman and as a messenger in governor Edward B. Dudley's office.

[3][6] In Baltimore, Lane and a companion were arrested when a slave trader claimed they were runaways.

They were freed after the trader refused to show documents of the runaways, and a passionate speech by the young lawyer who defended Lane and his companion.

[9] Census records and Cambridge city directories during that period list a number of occupations for Lane including book agent, physician and manufacturer of patent medicines.

[10][11] In 1863 Lane was working as a steward at Wellington's Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts[3][6] [12] After the death of his youngest daughter in April 1872,[13] Lunsford Lane moved to Greenwich Village in New York City; he died sometime during the month of June 1879 in a multi-family tenement at 15 Cornelia Street in the West Village of dropsy and old age.

[14] Shortly before his death he helped found a school in New Bern, North Carolina.

Embracing an Account of His Early Life, the Redemption by Purchase of Himself and Family from Slavery, and His Banishment from the Place of His Birth for the Crime of Wearing a Colored Skin.

[1] He is also given a chapter in John Spencer Bassett's Anti-Slavery Leaders of North Carolina of 1898.