Elisha Tyson

Description

Oil on canvas portrait painting of "Elisha Tyson" (1750-1824), ca. 1810-1820, possibly by Robert Street. Tyson was born into a Quaker family in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1772, he got into the milling business with his brother and purchased Bond's Water Mill in Harford County. By 1781, he moved to Baltimore and built another mill on what is today Druid Hill Park. Tyson was a staunch abolitionist and was one of the founders of the early Maryland Society for the Abolition of Slavery and later supported the African Academy, a school for free African Americans. He established numerous safe houses along the "Underground Railroad" and used his great wealth to support African Americans win their freedom in court. His contributions helped thousands of African Americans escape slavery. Upon his death in 1824, thousands of African Americans joined the funeral procession as his casket was carried to Friends Burial Ground, a Quaker cemetery in Baltimore, and his final resting place. In this portrait, several books sit on a shelf in the background. One of them is "Abolition of Slavery".