Nathaniel Colver was born in Orwell on this day in 1794. Colver would become a preacher organizing the Tremont Temple in Boston. He would be best remembered for his role as an abolitionist.

His Baptist sermons decried the evils of slavery well before the Civil War. In 1867, he became president of the first school for freed slaves, Colver Institute of Richmond, Virginia.

The history of the school boasts associations with both Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, although both attended after Colver’s tenure. Colver’s school still flourishes today, but is now known as Virginia Union University.

Image courtesy Through Three Centuries: Colver & Rosenberger Life And Times 1620-1922 by Jesse Leonard Rosenberger.