Finding Moses

MOSES DICKSON (1824-1901)

The Finding Moses Initiative is named for radical Black abolitionist Moses Dickson (1824-1901). Dickson was the leader of the secretive organizations Knights of Liberty and Order of Twelve, whose members led countless formerly enslaved individuals to freedom via the Underground Railroad. Dickson was also the mastermind behind a halted nationwide slave uprising according to lore. Later in the nineteenth century, Dickson started numerous Black fraternal organizations, helped launch Black Masonic temples, dabbled in Reconstruction Era politics, was one of the founders of the HBCU Lincoln University, and aided Exodusters moving West.

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Dickson is no stranger to historians of Black history. But until recently, he was thought to have operated farther down the Mississippi River. A recent discovery by historian Karen Sieber in Minnesota locates Dickson in St. Paul in the territorial years leading up to statehood. These previously missing years in Dickson’s life in the early to mid-1850s are generally thought to have been his most active, in which he was helping freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad, and orchestrating the planned insurrection.

This new discovery has sparked renewed interest in the radical leader and in Minnesota’s potentially larger role in the Underground Railroad than previously known. Dickson’s connections to religious, political, fraternal, and abolitionist groups make him an important person to study to better understand the freedom movement in the region.