Among the many apartments located on Boston’s historic Beacon Hill, there is a plaque on Grove Street commemorating the residence of a prominent figure in mid-19th century Boston and the abolitionist movement. Leonard Andrew Grimes was born on November 9, 1815, in Leesburg, Virginia to free Black parents. He was orphaned around age 10 and sent to live with his uncle but being unhappy there he eventually moved to Washington, D.C. and worked as a hackney carriage driver. Witnessing the horrors of slavery firsthand, he became a conductor for the…
