Born: 13 May 1801, United States
Died: 8 November 1882
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Mother Baltimore
Abolitionist and social worker Priscilla “Mother” Baltimore is best known for adopting orphaned children, helping former slaves and founding Brooklyn, Illinois, the only known African-American town founded in the 1800s that survives as a living community. It was also the first majority-African-American community to vote to incorporate, in 1873.
Born into slavery in Kentucky in 1801 the daughter of a white slaveowner and an enslaved woman, her father sold her when she was 10. She was later able to buy her freedom, sought out her father, who had moved to Missouri, and bought her mother from him. She also purchased the freedom of her husband, John, though they would later divorce in 1856. She was well-regarded in St Louis as a skilled nurse, earning up to $150 for a visit.
In 1829, she left Missouri (a slave state), corrsing the Mississippi River with 11 African-American families, founding a “freedom village” that would develop into Brooklyn on the opposite bank in Illinois. It became a hub of Underground Railroad activity, though it is unclear how much Baltimore was directly involved in these activities. She was a known abolitionist, and the Quinn Chapel, which she helped to found and was very involved with, was part of a network of African Methodist Episcopal Churches that helped escapees. She was also involved wih social and religious organisations that helped formerly enslaved people who came north after the Civil War.