William Still

William Still (October 7, 1821 – July 14, 1902) was an African-American abolitionist, conductor on the Underground Railroad, writer, historian and civil rights activist.

The date of William Still's birth is given as October 7, 1821, by most sources, but he gave the date of November 1819 in the 1900 Census. He was born in Burlington County, New Jersey, to Charity and Levin Still. His parents had come to New Jersey from the Eastern Shore of Maryland as ex-slaves. He was the youngest of eighteen siblings, who included James Still, known as "the Doctor of the Pines," Peter Still, Mary Still, and Kitturah Still, who moved to Philadelphia.

William's father was the first of the family to move to New Jersey. A free man, he had been manumitted in 1798 in Caroline County, Maryland. Levin eventually settled in Evesham near Medford and later Charity joined the family with their four children, when she escaped. Charity was recaptured and returned to slavery, but she escaped a second time and, with her two daughters, found her way to Burlington County, to join her husband. The two sons she left behind, Levin and Peter, were sold to slaveowners in Lexington, Kentucky, and then later, sent to Alabama in the Deep South.