Editing Samuel Gridley Howe (section)

==Antislavery activities==
Howe entered publicly into the antislavery struggle for the first time in 1846 when, as a "[[Conscience Whigs|Conscience Whig]]", he was an unsuccessful candidate for [[United States Congress|Congress]] against [[Robert Charles Winthrop|Robert C. Winthrop]].<ref name="NIE" /> Howe was one of the founders of an antislavery newspaper, the Boston ''Daily Commonwealth'', which he edited (1851–1853) with the assistance of his wife [[Julia Ward Howe]].<ref>Hall, Emily M. ''Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe'', Graduate Student, Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. http://learningtogive.org/papers/paper105.html Accessed January 24, 2008.</ref>  He was a prominent member of the [[Bleeding Kansas|Kansas Committee]] in Massachusetts.

With [[Franklin Benjamin Sanborn]], [[George Luther Stearns]], [[Theodore Parker]], and [[Gerrit Smith]], he was interested in the plans of abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]]. Although he disapproved of the attack upon [[Harper's Ferry, West Virginia|Harpers Ferry]], Howe had funded [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown's]] work as a member of the [[Secret Six]].<ref name="law.umkc.edu">Linder, Douglas. ''The Trial of John Brown: The Secret Six'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20060830180227/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/johnbrown/secretsixdetails.html] Accessed January 24, 2009.</ref> After Brown's arrest, Howe temporarily fled to Canada to escape prosecution.<ref name="law.umkc.edu"/>

According to later accounts by Howe's daughter, Florence Hall, the Howes' South Boston home was a stop on the [[Underground Railroad]].<ref>Silber, Irwin. ''Songs of the Civil War'', Page 10. New York: Courier Dover Publications, 1995</ref> This is uncertain, but it is known that Howe vehemently opposed the [[Fugitive Slave Law of 1850]], which required law enforcement even in free states to support efforts to catch fugitive slaves. Two incidents clearly demonstrate this. In May 1854, Howe, along with [[Thomas Wentworth Higginson]], [[Theodore Parker]], and other abolitionists, stormed [[Faneuil Hall]] in order to try to free a captured refugee slave, [[Anthony Burns]]. Burns was going to be shipped back to his slave owner in Virginia in accordance with the Fugitive Slave Law.<ref name="Walther, Eric H. Page 47-48">Walther, Eric H. ''The Shattering of the Union'', Page 47-48 Rowman & Littlefield, 2004</ref> The abolitionists hoped to rescue Burns from that fate. Howe declared outside the hall that "No man's freedom is safe until all men are free."<ref name="Walther, Eric H. Page 47-48"/> Shortly afterward the abolitionists stormed the hall, breaking through the door with a battering ram. A deputy officer was murdered in the ensuing fracas.<ref name="Walther, Eric H. Page 47-48"/> Federal troops suppressed the attempted takeover, and Burns was returned to Virginia.<ref name="Walther, Eric H. Page 47-48"/> The men did not abandon Burns, however. Within a year of his capture, they had raised enough money to purchase Burns's freedom from his slave owner.<ref name="Walther, Eric H. Page 47-48"/>

In October 1854, with the help of Capt. [[Austin Bearse]] and his brother, Howe rescued an escaped slave<ref>[[Irving H. Bartlett|Bartlett, Irving H.]] ''Wendell Phillips, Brahmin Radical'', Page 184. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1973</ref> who had entered Boston Harbor from [[Jacksonville, Florida]], as a stowaway aboard the brig ''Cameo''.<ref name="Siebert, Wilbur H. Page 81">[[Wilbur H. Siebert|Siebert, Wilbur H.]] ''The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom'', Page 81. London: MacMillan & Co., 1898</ref> Violating the Fugitive Slave Act, the [[Boston Vigilance Committee]] helped the man evade slave-catchers and reach freedom.<ref name="Siebert, Wilbur H. Page 81"/><!-- Did he get to Canada or go into hiding in New England? -->

In 1863 during the [[American Civil War]], Howe was appointed to the [[American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission]], and traveled both to the [[Deep South]] and to Canada to investigate the condition of emancipated slaves. Freedmen in Canada had often reached it via the Underground Railroad.<ref name="Calarco, Tom Page 121">Calarco, Tom. ''The Underground Railroad in the Adirondack Region'', Page 121. New York: McFarland, 2004</ref> Life in Canada wasn't free from the bigotry that [[Freedman|Freedmen]] and women rewrote for the northern states as well as the South,{{explain|date=March 2024}} but Howe found that their lives as free people were much improved. He noted that they were enfranchised and their rights protected by the government.<ref name="Calarco, Tom Page 121"/> They could earn a living, marry, and attend school and church out of reach of slave-catchers.<ref name="Calarco, Tom Page 121"/> He published an account of his interviews and experiences, ''The Refugees from Slavery in Canada West'' (1864).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/refugeesfromslav00howe ''The Refugees from Slavery in Canada West.'']</ref> He submitted his report to the Secretary of War, and it became part of the commission's material for Congress. It contributed to passage of the law establishing the [[Freedmen's Bureau]], considered needed to aid the Southern freedmen in transition.