User:Erikaj412/Abigail Goodwin

Abigail Goodwin (1 December 1793 - 2 November 1867) was a Quaker abolitionist and humanitarian who is best known for helping found the Female Benevolent Society of Salem as well as her work with Underground Railroad in Salem, New Jersey. She dedicated her life to working on the Underground Railroad and opened her house as a safe haven for runaway enslaved people who were seeking freedom in the North.

Biography
Abigail Goodwin was born on December 1st, 1793 to farmers William Goodwin and Elizabeth Woodnutt Goodwin in Salem, New Jersey. She grew up the fifth of the six Goodwin daughters. Little is known about her early life, however, it is believed that she received some form of elementary education, as she was noted to have mathematics and literacy skills as an adult. She most likely received this education through the Society of Friends, with which father was associated during the Revolutionary War.

Not much is known about Abigail Goodwin's personal life as an adult. She spent her entire life living in Salem, New Jersey, with her sister Elizabeth. She never married or had children. The only sources we have from her life directly are correspondences between her colleagues regarding her work.

Female Benevolent Society of Salem
The earliest record of Abigail Goodwin’s humanitarian work is from 1814, where she is accredited as one of the main founders of the Female Benevolent Society of Salem. The society was a charitable relief organization that served the widowed, orphaned, unemployed, elderly, sick, and disabled members of the community. Goodwin is specifically noted as having been a member of the Committee to Visit the Sick. She committed fifty-three years of her life to working as a part of the society.

Underground Railroad
Goodwin’s abolitionist work began in 1837, when she wrote a letter to Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society member Mary Grew, declaring her interest in joining the Underground Railroad. By the next year, 1838 Goodwin began to run what would become one of the most influential stops on the New Jersey Underground Railroad out of her house located at 47 Market Street, Salem New Jersey. South Jersey, where her stop was located, was a particularly popular stop for runaway slaves fleeing Delaware, Virginia and Washington DC. With the help of her sister Elizabeth, Abigail Goodwin was able to house, clothe, and feed runaway slaves on their way to freedom in the Northern States. When clothes were not readily available, Goodwin organized some of the women in town into a committee that would collect clothes from around town that could be given to travelers in need, or she would sew new clothes to give away.

In addition to her work running an Underground Railroad station, Goodwin raised funds to purchase slaves and free them. She would often send the money she raised to William Still, an abolitionist based in Philadelphia. In her correspondence with Still, Goodwin documented her troubled efforts to raise funds for the Underground Railroad. In one letter she sent to Still she wrote, “I have tried to beg something for them, but have not got much; one of our neighbors, S.W. Acton gave me three dollars for them; I added enough to make ten, which thee will find inside.” Other correspondences from Goodwin document her donating some of the money she raised directly to fugitive slaves who passed through her station.

Throughout her career working with the Underground Railroad, she maintained close ties to the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society and the General Vigilance Committee of Philadelphia. She had many associates in the Underground railroad and worked alongside famous abolitionists Lucretia Mott, Angelina and Sarah Grimke and Esther Moore.

It is not known how many slaves she helped throughout her years working on the Underground Railroad as a result of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. If Goodwin and her associates were discovered to have been helping runaway enslaved people, they could have been issued fines or been sent to jail, so most existing records were destroyed, and future records were not kept.

Goodwin would continue her abolition work throughout and beyond the Civil War. Correspondents between her and her associates reveal her negative opinions of the war and of President Lincoln and his cabinet. She is noted as believing that those in political power in the Union did not care truly about the slaves, and had the country been able to thrive in peace with slavery, the president would never be bothered to remove it. Goodwin ultimately felt unsatisfied with The Emancipation Proclamation, and stated that "slavery, I fear will be a long time in dying after receiving the fatal stroke."

Reputation
During her life, Abigail Goodwin was well respected and revered by her compatriots in the Underground Railroad. She gained a reputation for her selflessness and dedication to the cause. William Still is noted as once having said of her, “It was so characteristic of her to take an interest in everything that pertained to the Underground Railroad, that even the deliverance of a little nameless boy was not beneath her notice.” A friend of the Goodwin's once noted that the reason why Abigail was so much more well known than her sister Elizabeth was due to the fact that while "dear Betsy's interest in the subject was quite equal in earnestness, it was not quite as absorbingly exclusive." Abigail was also cited as one to “deny herself even necessary apparel,” in order to give everything she could to the Underground Railroad. Elizabeth Goodwin had once remarked that some of the impoverished who came to Abigail’s door looking for help wore clothes of similar quality to her sister.

Death
Abigail Goodwin died in her home on November 2nd, 1867 due to complications from her old age. Goodwin continued her abolition work tirelessly until her death. In her will, she instructed others to distribute her clothes and goods to the poor. Upon her death, her nephew William Woodnutt wrote “the poor have lost a friend.” She is buried in her hometown of Salem, NJ in the Salem Friend’s Cemetery.

Legacy
The Abigail Goodwin House is a historical landmark located at 47 Market Street, in Salem New Jersey. The house is currently owned by a descendant of Goodwin and is not open to the public. The Goodwin house has been included as a part of the New Jersey Women’s Heritage Tour and is one of the most well-documented locations on the New Jersey Underground Railroad.