page_title: Peter Fossett
section_title: Career and community activism
hierarchical_section_title: Peter Fossett / Career and community activism
caption_attribution_description: English: Panoramic view of Cincinnati, 1866
context_page_description: Peter Fossett was an enslaved laborer at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's plantation, who after he attained his freedom in the mid-1800s, settled in Cincinnati where he established himself as a minister and caterer. He was a captain in the Black Brigade of Cincinnati during the Civil War. Fossett was an activist for education and prison reform. He was a conductor on the Underground Railroad. His remembrances, Once the slave of Thomas Jefferson, were published in 1898.
  His wife, Sarah M. Fossett, was active in the church and Underground Railroad as well, but she was also noteworthy in her own right. Trained by a French specialist in New Orleans, she was a hairdresser to the elite women of Cincinnati's society. She was brought to Cincinnati by Abraham Evan Gwynne, the father of Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt. In 1860, she filed a suit after being denied passage on a streetcar, which resulted in the segregation of streetcars in the city for African-American women. For twenty-five years, she was the manager of the Colored Orphans Asylum in Cincinnati.
context_section_description: After he was freed, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to be with his family. He held several jobs when he first arrived in Ohio, he worked as a waiter for a caterer and was a whitewasher. He became a caterer, working with his brother William and in the 1870s he opened his own catering business. His clients were among the elite of Cincinnati. Ohio History Center states: "There is reason to believe that he excelled at French cooking, as his mother received extensive training in this form of food preparation while a slave at Monticello."
  He was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, supporting the efforts of Levi Coffin, who commended him for his "zealous efforts" to aid people to freedom. Coffin was known as "president of the Underground Railroad" for his efforts. Although Ohio was not a slave state, the Underground Railroad led many to Canada to be safer from capture and some stayed in Ohio in African-American communities. Conductors risked their lives when they brought fugitive slaves into their homes and helped them to the next stop on the railroad. John Parker brought people across the Ohio River by boat.
  Fossett lobbied for prison reform and sat on the school system's board of directors. The school system was segregated at that time.
  When he arrived in Cincinnati, Fossett joined the Union Baptist Church and was a trustee and clerk. He was ordained as a minister in 1870 and formed his own church, the construction of which was paid in large part by Fossett. He was a pastor for 25 years of that church, which came to be called the First Baptist Church in Cumminsville, Ohio. He was a pastor in total for 32 years. He ministered to African-American people across the country.
  He is held in great regard by colored people and is loved by all the white ministers of Cincinnati, who know him well and esteem him highly.
  — New York World, January 30, 1898
  He wrote his remembrances in the book Once the slave of Thomas Jefferson in 1898.
caption: Panoramic view of Cincinnati, 1866
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