Heir to vast wealth in upstate New York, Gerrit Smith bankrolled many reform movements in the pre-Civil War era. Abolition, however, was his greatest cause. He was the closest white friend of McCune Smith, Garnet, Douglass, and other black leaders in New York.

Gerrit Smith gave land in northern New York to blacks, aiming to relieve urban poverty and endow beneficiaries with enough property to qualify as voters. Smith helped launch political abolitionism in the 1840s, served in Congress, and ran for president as the Radical Abolitionist Party's candidate three times. His growing despair over politics led him to support more violent tactics, including John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry. His complicity in Brown's failure provoked Smith's mental breakdown and his retreat from support for black causes.