"William Cooper Nell"(December 1816-May 25 1874).

Was an American abolitionist,journalist,author,and civil servant.As an historical author his books,Services of Colored Americans in the Wars of 1776 and 1812 (1851) and colored Patriots of the American Revolution (1855) became available to the public.These represented premier exhaustive studies of African Americans.William was born in Boston Massachusetts to William and Louise Cooper.He came by his abolitionist beliefs naturally,as his father was an important figure in the movement,having helped to create the Massachusetts General Colored Association in the 1820's.William led a fairly average life until racial injustice began to affect him in the same way it had his father.This began in 1829 because of his African American heritage,the academically deserving William did not receive the award normally given to excellent students upon graduation from the Smith School.Ironically enough,the award was financially supported by the estate of anti-slavery advocate Benjamin Franklin,so as  somewhat of a consolation prize,the committee gave William the famous,The Life of Ben Franklin.William did not take the insult sitting down and,spurred by this insult and inspired by the emergence of William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator,he decided to challenge race-based discrimination and segregation,much as his father had in the previous generation.William was particularly interested in encouraging the intellectual and social well-being of young  African-Americans.He never agreed with segregation on any terms especially the existence of separate abolitionist organizations for blacks and whites.This dedication to integration even prompted him to undo his father's abolitionist efforts by dismantling the Massachusetts General Colored Association.William studied law in the early 1830s;however he was never certified as a lawyer because he would not swear allegiance to the Constitution of the United States.He believed it advocated the enslavement of millions African Americans throughout the south and so he could claim no loyalty to it. Around this time,William also began his association with acclaimed white abolitionist William Garrison and with The Liberator.This connection would continue until the paper's termination in 1865.William fought for the ideas of Garrison unfaltering throughout the abolitionist campaign.Striving towards integration of education,William began working against the current system of segregated schools for black and white children in Massachusetts.It proved to be a long and frustrating task.but 1855 brought William and his colleagues a victory;African Americans students in Massachusetts were granted the right to study alongside their white classmates.William also worked to encourage young African Americans to educate themselves outside themselves outside of the public school system.William Lloyd Garrison was quoted as saying that,"Perhaps no one has done so much-certainly no one has done more-for the intellectual and moral improvement of our colored youth.In 1843,William continued his crusade against segregation within the abolitionist movement by denouncing  the Buffalo National Negro Convention.He claimed they served as,and promoted,exactly the type of separate abolitionist circles and even publicly in abolitionist papers that the Freedom Association was not merely advocating abolition,but was in fact actively breaking the law by helping runaway slaves.William worked with Frederick Douglass on his abolitionist publication,The North Star,from 1848 until 1851.He ended his work with Frederick during the feud with William Close friend Garrison,William ended all contact with Frederick when he threw his weight behind the Colored National Council and the Manual Labor School,both of which represented the sorts of segregated abolitionism that William detested.In 1850,William lost the Free-Soil candidacy for legislature in his home state.That same year,the Fugitive Slave Law gave William new inspiration to continue the fight against slavery.He was prompted to create the committee of Vigilance,which served a similar purpose to that of the Freedom Association of 1842,but was much more illegal at this point.He encouraged and engaged in the "Underground Railroad."In 1855,The Liberator employed William to journey around the Midwest and study African American anti-slavery efforts.After the publication of the devastating Dred Scott decision in 1858,William orchestrated a remembrance of black Revolutionary martyr Crispus Attucks to remind people of the civil status of African Americans at the time of American separation from England.That same year,William organized the Convention of Colored Citizens of New England.This action was decidedly in opposition to his earlier abhorrence of segregated abolitionism,but he argued that this new insult to blacks constituted sufficient reason to act separately.William spent time spent time between publications working for legislation to allow blacks into the Massachusetts military,one of the few struggles of his life in which he was not successful.The Civil War saw William involved in the fight to get blacks into the Union Army.In 1861,he became a postal clerk in Boston earning the distinction of becoming the first African American to be installed in a national office.After the Civil War and during Reconstruction,William continued to work to integrate common areas in his native city,an endeavor in which he was triumphant toward the end of his life.William career in abolitionism was ended when he died of a stroke in at the age of 58.