Complex sentence: James William Charles Pennington (1807--1870) was an African-American orator, minister, and abolitionist active in Brooklyn, New York who had escaped at the age of 19 from slavery in western Maryland.
Split into simpler sentences: James William Charles Pennington (1807--1870) was an African-American orator, minister, and abolitionist active in Brooklyn, New York. He escaped at the age of 19 from slavery in western Maryland.