Cynthia Catlin Miller (1791–1883) was an American

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...

active in the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, helping freedom seekers escape to Canada.

Biography

Miller was an early settler of Sugar Grove, Warren County,

, near the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

state border. She was married to Richard Bishop Miller, a prosperous physician and farmer, and had eight children. The entire family and many of their neighbors were abolitionists. Her daughter and son-in-law, Mary Miller McLain and the Rev. William W. McLain, ran the Monongahela House,

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

's first hotel and a haven for freedmen and abolitionists. Miller organized Sugar Grove's Female Assisting Society and the Ladies Fugitive Aid Society, sewing clothes for freedom seekers and sheltering freedom seekers at the family home, a colonial farmhouse known as Miller Mansion and an important stop on the Underground Railroad. Miller hosted

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 14, 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He was the most impor ...

for tea at her home on June 18, 1854, ahead of a speech he gave at the Sugar Grove anti-slavery convention. She and her husband kept detailed diaries of their anti-slavery activities, writing candidly of sheltering freedom seekers and praising ''

Uncle Tom's Cabin ''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two Volume (bibliography), volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans ...

''.

Death and acknowledgement

Miller died in 1883 at the age of 91 and was buried at Cherry Hill Cemetery in Sugar Grove. In 2019, the

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, responsible for the collection, conservation, and interpretation of Pennsylvania's heritage. The commission cares for hist ...

commemorated her activism with a roadside historical marker placed outside the Miller Mansion in Sugar Grove.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Cynthia Caitlin 1791 births 1883 deaths 19th-century American women Abolitionists from Pennsylvania Activists from Pennsylvania People from Warren County, Pennsylvania Underground Railroad people