John Anthony Copeland, Jr. (1834–1859) was born a free black in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1843 when he was a child, his family moved north to Oberlin, Ohio, where he later attended Oberlin College. He became involved in abolitionist and antislavery activities, and participated in the successful Oberlin-Wellington Rescue. Copeland joined John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, was captured, convicted of treason, and hanged on December 16, 1859.