page_title: Cuban Anti-Slavery Committee
section_title: Prominent Members
hierarchical_section_title: Cuban Anti-Slavery Committee / Prominent Members
caption_attribution_description: Henry Highland Garnet, Albumen silver print, c.1881,
context_page_description: In the 1870s, many activists in the United States were frustrated by the decision of President Ulysses S. Grant to take a neutral approach towards the ongoing revolution in Cuba that sought to overthrow slavery in the Spanish territory. Many prominent individuals wanted to see the end of Cuban slavery and the triumph of the insurgents along with official recognition from the United States that the insurgents were legitimate belligerents. Motivated by this desire, the Cuban Anti-Slavery Committee, occasionally referred to as the Cuban Anti-Slavery Society, first convened in December 1872 at the Cooper Institute in New York. Samuel R. Scottron led the Committee and organized the event, while the Reverend Henry Highland Garnet served as the Committee's secretary and keynote speaker.
context_section_description: Samuel Raymond Scottron was a founding member and leader of the Committee. Scottron, born around 1843, was a prominent member of the African American community in New York City and is most well-known for inventing the curtain rod. He was heavily involved in civil rights causes throughout his life up until his death on October 14, 1908.
  Henry Highland Garnet was the secretary of the Committee and one of its founding members. A former slave, he was born on December 23, 1815 and grew up in New York City after obtaining his freedom with his family. Garnet graduated from the Oneida Institute in 1840 and became a Presbyterian minister. He passed away on February 12, 1882 while serving as the United States Minister and Counsel General to Liberia. His entire life was filled with action towards overcoming racial inequalities, both in the United States and abroad.
  P.B.S. Pinchback was another important leader of the Committee. He served for the Union Army during the Civil War and became the United States' first African American governor when he served as the governor of Louisiana.
caption: Henry Highland Garnet, Secretary of the Cuban Anti-Slavery Committee
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