Wanted dead or alive.

[major bill]

The abolitionist Laura Haviland Smith was considered a very dangerous woman. She was one of only two white female abolitionist who traveled to slave state to help free slaves and at times passed herself off as a light-skin black woman. One Tennessean offered a $3,000 reward for Haviland, dead or alive. This is a photograph of her and shows her with slave iron she had taken from a Louisiana plantation. Today the leg iron is a top draw for young students when they visit the Michigan Historical Museum and as a docent I am often asked to explain its use.