William Dawes and John Keep

John Keep

Rev. John Keep was a trustee of Oberlin College from 1834 to 1870. Keep and William Dawes toured England in 1839 and 1840 gathering funds for Oberlin College in Ohio...

 toured England in 1839 and 1840 gathering funds for Oberlin College

Oberlin College

Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...

 in Ohio. They both attended the 1840 anti-slavery convention in London.

John Keep and William Dawes both undertook a fund raising mission in England in 1839 and 1840 to raise funds from sympathetic abolitionists. Oberlin College was one of the few mult-racial and co-educational colleges in America at that time.

Both John Keep and Dawes are credited with helping to start the collection of African Americana at Oberlin College which inspired other writers.

A house occupied by someone of the same name was in Hudson

Hudson, Ohio

Hudson is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States. The population was 22,262 at the 2010 census. It is an affluent exurban community and is part of the Akron, Ohio Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, Ohio in the 1830s supporting the route for escaping slaves.