Biography
Passmore Williamson was a Philadelphia abolitionist, secretary of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, and Underground Railroad organizer. On July 18, 1855, Williamson and William Still told Jane Johnson that Pennsylvania law allowed her and her two sons to leave John Hill Wheeler, who claimed them as property while traveling through Philadelphia. Johnson chose freedom and Still took the family to safety. Federal judge John K. Kane ordered Williamson to produce them even though he did not know their location, then jailed him for contempt. Williamson spent one hundred days in Moyamensing Prison, where his cell became a nationally publicized center of abolitionist organizing, before his release on November 3, 1855.
