Samuel Ringgold Ward was born enslaved in 1817 on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. In 1820, Ward escaped with his family to New Jersey and, in 1826, they settled in New York. Ward attended the African Free School in New York City and, in 1833, became a clerk of Thomas L. Jennings, Esq., an African American attorney. In 1839, he was granted his license to preach and pastored several congregations, some of them all white. Between 1838 and 1850, Ward worked for the American and New York State Anti-Slavery societies. Rev. Ward joined the Liberty Party in 1840, helped organize the Free Soil Party in 1848 and was nominated as its candidate for Vice President of the United States.

In 1850, he sharply criticized Daniel Webster for supporting the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Ward became involved in the rescue of a fugitive slave in 1851, after which he and his family fled to Ontario, Canada to avoid arrest. While there, Ward established himself with the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada. In 1855, Ward published the Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro, settled in Kingston Jamaica, and served as pastor in a small Baptist church until 1860. On Quakers he said: “They will give us good advice. They will aid in giving us a partial education–but never in a Quaker school, beside their own children. Whatever they do for us savor of pity, and is done at arm’s length.” Rev. Ward died in Jamaica in 1866.