Laura S. (Laura Smith) Haviland

Born in 1808 in what is now Ontario and raised in a Quaker family, she grew up with strong beliefs about equality and service. After marrying Charles Haviland, she moved to Michigan, where the couple helped found the Raisin Institute, a school that welcomed poor students and, importantly for its time, admitted Black children alongside white children.

She became a leading antislavery activist in Michigan, helped organize early abolitionist work, and used her home as a station on the Underground Railroad. Her work was practical as well as brave: she sheltered freedom seekers, raised money, taught, and later aided formerly enslaved people during and after the Civil War. She was also active in women’s rights and other reform efforts.

Her reputation endured well beyond her lifetime, and she remains remembered as a determined community leader who put her faith into action. She also left behind her own account of that life in the memoir A Woman’s Life-Work: Labors and Experiences of Laura S. Haviland.