WILLIAM STILL.
The subject of this sketch is a native of the State of New Jersey, and was born in Burlington County, on the 7th of October, 1821. He was brought up on a farm owned by his father and mother, Levin and Charity Still. The immediate neighborhood of his birth-place afforded but little advantage for the education of the poorer class of whites, much less for colored children, who had to meet the negro-hating prejudice of those times; yet William’s thirst for knowledge and love of books created in his favor a good impression with the teacher of the common school, which obtained for the lad a quarter’s schooling, and some additional aid on rainy days.
The colored boy’s companions were all white, nevertheless his good behavior, earnest zeal, and rapid advancement gained him the friendship of both teacher and scholars, and did much to break down the prejudice against the colored race in that vicinity.
By assiduous study and outside aid he became proficient in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and, as age advanced, paid considerable attention to the classics.
The harsh prejudice of race which William Still was called upon to meet in his business intercourse with the whites, early made him deeply interested in the cause of freedom, then being advocated by the Abolitionists, and he became a subscriber to one of their weekly journals. At this time he was the only colored man in the town that took such a paper, and it was hard work, with his small wages, to meet its subscription and postage demands.
Seeing the bad effects of the use of intoxicating liquors in the community, Mr. Still early adopted the principles of temperance, to which he tenaciously clings to the present day.
Well-grounded in moral, religious, and temperance views, William Still, at the age of twenty-three years, went to the city of Philadelphia to reside.
Although the temptations of the great Babel were laid before him, his early convictions kept him from yielding.
The long connection of William Still with the anti-slavery office in Philadelphia, his intimate relationship with the Pennsylvania Abolitionists, a body of men and women of whom too much cannot be said in their praise, and the deep interest he felt in the fleeing bondmen passing through that city to Canada, has brought him very prominently before the American people.
Mr. Still is well educated, has good talents, and has cultivated them. He is an interesting and forcible writer, and some of the stories of escaped slaves, which he has recently put forth in his valuable work, “The Underground Railroad,” point him out as one of the best benefactors of his race. After the beginning of the war of the slaveholders had made it certain that slavery would be abolished, and the close of the anti-slavery office in Philadelphia, Mr. Still went into the coal trade, by which he has become independent.