"William Cooper Nell"(December 16,1816-May 25,1874)

Was an African American abolitionist journalist,publisher,author,and civil servant of Boston,Massachusetts,who worked for integration of schools and public facilities in the state.Writing for abolitionist newspapers The Liberator and The North Star,he helped published the North Star.


He also helped found the New England Freedom Association in the early 1840s,and later the Committee of Vigilance,to aid refugee slaves.The Committee of Virilance supported resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850,which increased penalities even against citizens in free states who aided refugee slaves.


William's short stories,Services of Colored in the Wars of 1776 and 1812 (1851) and Colored Patriots of the American Revolution (1855),were the first studies published about African Americans.He is noted as the first African American to serve in the federal civic service in the post office.


He was born in Boston,Massachusetts to Louise Cooper,from Brookline,and William Guion Nell,from Charleston,South Carolina.His daddy was an important in the abolitionist movement,having helped to create Massachusetts General Colored Association in the 1820s.William encountered racial discrimination as a student.In 1829 he was passed over for an award given to excellent students upon graduating from the Smith School,apprently because of his race and excluded from a celebratory dinner.The award was financially supported by the estate of anti-slavery advocate Benjamin Franklin.The school committee instead gave him The Life of Ben Franklin,an autobiography.


Inspired by the founding of William Lloyd Garrison's newspaper,The Liberator,William decided to challenge race-based discrimination and segregation,as as his daddy had. William was particulary interested in encouraging the intellectual and social well-being of young African Americans.William was dedicated to integration and opposed the separate abolitionist organizations for African Americans and whites.In this devotion  to integration,he dismantled the abolitionist Massachusetts General Colored Association,which had been organized by his daddy.


William studied law in the early 1830s.He was never admitted to the bar he was never admitted to the bar because he would not swear allegiance to Constitution of the United States,as he believed it was a pro-slavery document.He was influenced by the opinions of William and Wendell Phillips.Around this time,William also began his association with William and The Liberator.This connection would continue until the paper closed in 1865.He fought for the ideas of William throughout the abolitionist campaign.


William Nell began working against the existing system of segregated schools for African American and white children in Massachusetts,gathering 2,000 signatures from the African American community on a petition to the state legislature.In 1855 William Nell and colleagues gained a victory,segregation was ended in Boston schools.William Nell also encouraged young African Americans to learn outside of the public school system.William Garrison said of him,"Perhaps no one has done so much-certain no one has done more- for the intellectual and moral improvement of our colored youth.


In 1843,William Nell 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 he was fighting against.


On the other hand,he was influential in beginning the New England Freedom Association,an all African-American organization which helped fugitive slaves in the North.In this case,William Nell supported an African American group since the he believed its cause was closer to the hearts of African Americans than whites.William publicized the Freedom Association's direct aid to fugitive slaves as well as the abolitionist cause.He also fought for higher education and encouraged the improvement of young African Americans;with John T.Hilton,he founded the Adelphia Union and the Young Men's Literary Society of Boston.


William Nell was a leader in campaigns to desegregate public facilities in Boston:the Boston railroad (1843) and Boston performance halls (1853).


William served as publisher to Frederick Douglass' The North Star,from late 1847 until 1851,moving temporarily to Rochester,New York,during this period.He also joined New York anti-slavery societies and founded a literary society.He ended his work with Frederick during the latter's feud with his close friend William Garrison.William Nell ended all contact with Douglass finally in 1853 when the leader advocated the Colored National Council and the Manual Labor School,which represented the types of segregated institutions which William Nell detested.Fredrick attacked William Nell and other leading African American activists who supported William Garrison,including Robert Purvis of Philadelphia and Charles Lenox Redmond.


In 1850,William Nell and other petiitoners requested money from the state legislature to commission a monument to Crispus Attucks,one of the first martyrs of the American Revolution.When Boston commissioned a major monument to the Boston Massacre to be installed on the Common in 1888,the fallen Crispus was featured in it prominently.


A few years later,in 1855,William Nell achieved another success when the legislature finally abolished segregation in public schools.In regognition of his efforts on this issue,a commemorative dinner was held to honor him.During 1855,William Garrison The Liberator employed William Nell to journey around the Midwest and study African American anti-slavery efforts.He attended graduation at Oberlin College,appreciating the easy relations among the integrated students.


William Nell was outraged by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dreadscott v.Sandford ruling in 1857,which said that ethnic Africans had no legal standing in the United States as they were not considered citizens under the Constitution.In 1858 he organized a memorial celebration of Crispus Attucks at Faneuil Hall,a traditional site of commemoration and worked with others to have "Crispus Attucks Day"designated in Boston.He reminded people of the participation of African Americans in the fight for Independence from Great Britain,and helped have Crispus recognized in the commemoration of the Boston Massacre.That same year,William organized the Convention of Colored Citizens of New England.While it was contrary to his earlier dislike of segregated abolitionist efforts,he argued that the Scott decision was such an insult to African Americans that they needed to act separately.


In his time apart from the newspaper,William worked for legislation to allow African Americans into the Massachusetts militia.He could not succeed in this but lived to see African Americans served in the United States forces during the Civil War.


With the outbreak of the Civil War,William worked to have African Americans accepted as soldiers in the Union Army.In 1861,he was hired as a postal clerk in Boston,the first African American to served in the federal civil service.


On April April 14,1869,William married Frances Ann Ames,the twenty-six-year-old daughter of Philip Osgood Ames,a barber from Nashua,New Hampshire and his wife Lucy B.(Drake) Ames.The Nells had two sons,William Cooper,Jr.(1870-92)and Frank Ames (1872-81).


William died of a stroke.His wife survived him by by over twenty years dying in Nashua,New Hampshire,on September 13,1895.