The Underground Railroad in Beacon Hill

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4/24/2020 The Underground Railroad in Beacon Hill

C. Cloutier, J. Decker, A. Oswald, H. Philbin, D. Rose, A. Svenson, Z. Ulrich April 21, 2020

Introduction

Boston’s history is full of juxtapositions about the meaning and application of independence. While the city is known for its revolutionary past, not all residents experienced the defining principles that are tied to the city’s reputation. During the nineteenth century, it was a place of refuge for many, yet formerly enslaved people who escaped and traveled north to the city were still at risk of re-enslavement. Because of this, Boston, particularly Beacon Hill, is tied to the Underground Railroad and the concealed movement of fugitive slaves. Beacon Hill was the center of African American life in Boston. More than half of the city’s black population lived on the northern slope, and they established a community of resistance by forming congregations, schools, mutual aid societies, and anti-slavery organizations (Kantrowitz).

The stories and experiences of fugitives and abolitionists are preserved in Beacon Hill and Boston at large. While some of these important elements of African American history may be familiar to

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9932ac744d8c423dade24be24b436263/print 1/16 4/24/2020 The Underground Railroad in Beacon Hill some, there are additional narratives that remain lesser known. This project seeks to highlight those stories of bravery and resistance.

Using studies performed for the National Park Service's Boston African American National Historic Site, this project includes a map of significant locations associated with the Underground Railroad in Beacon Hill. Each point on the visualization represents a story of community and survival. In addition, this project closely examines three key narratives that illustrate different participants of the network throughout Beacon Hill: community institutions such as the Twelfth Street Baptist Church, abolitionist families who created "stations" to shelter fugitive slaves such as George and Susan Hillard, and formerly enslaved persons who escaped the South and found safety in Boston, just as Ellen and William Craft did.

Beacon Hill In Context

The Underground Railroad was most active during the three decades before the Civil War. The social pressure and agitation for abolition, which began in Boston in the 1830s, was heightened in 1850 by the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law. In essence, this statute ensured that enslaved peoples who had escaped slavery in the South could legally be pursued in the North and forcibly returned into slavery.

Slave kidnap caution poster. Retrieved from the Library of Congress Shortly after, a network of “safe” houses for fugitive slaves sprang up on the North Slope of Beacon Hill. The community’s involvement in maritime trade facilitated the escape of many slaves who were stowaways, and it established Beacon Hill as an important “station” on the Underground Railroad route to Canada. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9932ac744d8c423dade24be24b436263/print 2/16 4/24/2020 The Underground Railroad in Beacon Hill Many residents of Beacon Hill, some former runaway slaves themselves, risked arrest and possible re-enslavement in order to aid desperate fugitives. Slave hunters who traveled north pursuing fugitives were openly denounced and harassed on the streets of Boston and were subsequently forced to operate under protection of city constables (National Park Service).

The North Slope of Beacon Hill neighborhood was home to many African Americans in the mid-nineteenth century who faced discrimination and were ostracized in much of the rest of the city. The North Slope was considered an unsuitable place to live by many Bostonians as the neighborhood was poor and housing was often cramped. It was also home to sailors and immigrants, making Beacon Hill one of the more diverse neighborhoods in Boston. Apart from housing a working-class community, this part of Beacon Hill was also the heart of Boston’s anti-slavery movement. Many famous abolitionists lived here or traveled to Beacon Hill to lecture at local meeting places and the community actively opposed the Fugitive Slave Act.

Photograph of Beacon Hill c. 1860s-1870s. Retrieved from the Boston Public Library.

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9932ac744d8c423dade24be24b436263/print 3/16 4/24/2020 The Underground Railroad in Beacon Hill However, within the larger Beacon Hill neighborhood there was a sharp divide. The population of the North Slope of Beacon Hill contrasted with wealthy so-called “Boston Brahmins” who lived on the Southern Slope near

That Mothers Might Live. 1940. Dean the State House and Boston Public Cornwell. Garden. These included wealthy Painting of an 1843 meeting of the politicians and business owners such Boston Society for Medical Improvement on Beacon Hill including as the Lowell, Appleton, Webster, and Boston Brahmin families Cabot, Lodge, Cabot families. Many of these and Jackson. From the Massachusetts Historical Society. families profited greatly from the textile industry they spearheaded in the Northeast. The textile industry was fundamentally dependent upon cotton imports from the South. It was southern plantations, fueled by enslaved labor, that supported these northern businesses and created the wealth of these prominent Boston families.

Map

Esri Community Maps Contributors, City of Boston, City of Cambridge, MassGIS, Esri, HERE, Garmin, SafeGrap… Powered by Esri

Yet within the same city that was profiting from southern slavery, https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9932ac744d8c423dade24be24b436263/print 4/16 4/24/2020 The Underground Railroad in Beacon Hill there were beacons of hope for formerly enslaved persons. As shown in the map to the right, there was a network of resistance throughout Beacon Hill in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. The following points on the map mark places of significance for the Underground Railroad in the Boston neighborhood. These locations were compiled from Wilbur H. Siebert’s “The Underground Railroad in Massachusetts” and the “Historic Resource Study” for the Boston African American National Historic Site by Katherine Grover and Janine V. da Silva. While these sources contain many additional narratives of black Bostonians, this project includes only those that hold a relevance to the escape of fugitive slaves or would have been significant community locations in black Beacon Hill. Geo-coordinates were located for the historic addresses found in the research sources to place the locations on the map. Research to supplement the original data, in addition to data cleanup, was required for creating an intelligible map of Beacon Hill’s Underground Railroad.

As many of the locations no longer exist, the base map shows Beacon Hill in 1874 when the structures were still standing. The basemap, a composite image of 1874 Suffolk County records, allows viewers to recognize the landscape of the Underground Railroad and the close proximity between community sites. Utilizing Photoshop, the map was stitched together using two plates from a G.M. Hopkins & Co. atlas from 1874. With QGIS, the historic map was then georectified. Geo-coordinates of the selected locations were plotted on the georectified map.

This completed map depicts a network that not all Bostonians realized was present within the city. Historical records on the Underground Railroad are not complete, as the locations were kept secret from mainstream society. Records of railroad places of hiding are therefore not comprehensive, but this map is inclusive of the documented instances. The points are divided into three kinds of sites.

1. Confirmed Fugitive Housing Sites

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9932ac744d8c423dade24be24b436263/print 5/16 4/24/2020 The Underground Railroad in Beacon Hill 2. Homes of Former Fugitive Slaves 3. Black Beacon Hill Community Spaces

Confirmed homes that were used to shelter fugitive slaves are shown in red. These formerly enslaved people often continued on farther north in Canada where there was less risk of re- enslavement.

Click to see known hiding places

However, some individuals decided to make Boston their home, and those addresses are marked in green.

Click to see known residences

The African American community was well established on the North Slope of Beacon Hill by the early nineteenth century (Grover, 6). Many centers of this community were recognized by the time the Underground Railroad was in operation. These cultural establishments were places of refuge for many residents of Beacon Hill or served as organizational hubs for activists. These locations often had strong fugitive slave connections, as well, and are labeled in blue.

Click to see community locations

To learn more about each site, click on the colored points for additional information. To expand the map, click on the arrows in the top right corner.

Twelfth Baptist Church

Twelfth Baptist Church was first established in 1840 when a group of https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9932ac744d8c423dade24be24b436263/print 6/16 4/24/2020 The Underground Railroad in Beacon Hill 36 dissenters broke with the First Independent Baptist Church. The First Independent Baptist Church Twelfth Baptist Church (highlighted in met in what is now known as the blue) on 1874 map. African Meeting House, while the Twelfth Baptist Church was established on Joy Street after the split.

Twelfth Baptist Church also became known as "The Fugitive Slave Church." Many self-emancipated enslaved peoples received aid from Twelfth Baptist Church, and many chose to remain members of this congregation. Lewis and Harriet Hayden, Shadrach Minkins, Anthony Burns, Thomas Sims, and John S. Rock were all notable members of Twelfth Baptist (National Park Service).

Twelfth Baptist struggled for many years until Reverand Leonard A. Grimes became minister in 1848. The church's original building was located on Joy Street, but was later moved to 43-47 Phillips Street between 1850 Twelfth Baptist Church location on Joy St. Retrieved from the Library of and 1855, where it remained until Congress 1906.

Rev. Grimes was born as a free man in Virginia, later working in Washington D.C. on the Underground Railroad. Before coming to Massachusetts, he served two years in a Virginia prison for helping seven enslaved people escape to Canada (Cultural Tourism DC).

In 1848, Grimes was ordained as the first pastor of the Twelfth Baptist Church. In addition to this role, Grimes was also an abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor. It was under his leadership that the church became known as "The Fugitive Slave Church."

When Anthony Burns was arrested https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9932ac744d8c423dade24be24b436263/print 7/16 4/24/2020 The Underground Railroad in Beacon Hill under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, Rev. Grimes took part in organizing the resistance that included large demonstrations and protests to halt his pending rendition to Virginia. After Burns was returned to the Virginia, Rev. Grimes also led the effort to buy him out of slavery. Rev. Grimes served as pastor of Twelfth Baptist Church until his death in 1873.

Photograph of Reverend Leonard Grimes. Retrieved from the Library of Churches served as the spiritual Congress centers of Boston's nineteenth century African American community, but they were also central to the political and social lives of black Bostonians. At these churches, faith directly informed action as men and women were sheltered from slave catchers, abolitionists fought to end slavery in the United States, and physical or material needs were satisfied (National Park Service). Along with churches, other institutions available included schools, lodges, literary societies, and burial societies.

George and Susan Hillard

George and Susan Hillard lived at No. 62 Pinckney Street from the early 1840s through the 1870s. Both of the Hillards were opposed to slavery, and George was a law partner with 62 Pinckney Street (highligted in red), Charles Sumner, an ardent home of George and Susan Hillard, 1874 map. abolitionist, until Sumner was elected to the U.S. Senate. By 1850, however, George began aligning with Daniel Webster’s politics and believed https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9932ac744d8c423dade24be24b436263/print 8/16 4/24/2020 The Underground Railroad in Beacon Hill that slavery should not come between the states. As a U.S. commissioner, George also had to uphold the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and issue arrest warrants to slave catchers (National Park Service).

Despite her husband’s politics, Susan Hillard remained staunchly anti-slavery and even hid runaway slaves in the family home.

In his writing about the Underground Railroad, educator Wilbur Henry Siebert described an area in the Hillard home where enslaved people could have hidden.

“In the ell, there was a closet, in the ceiling of which was a trap-door opening into an unfinished space under a slanting roof large enough to hold several persons” (Siebert, 45).

Siebert also cites an account from Reverend James Freeman Clarke, the Hillards' neighbor, who wrote in Anti- Slavery Days that he believed Mr. Hillard knew about his wife's concealment of slaves but did not stop her (45).

According to Philadelphia Vigilance Committee secretary William Still, at Illustration of George Hillard. Proceedings of the Massachusetts least five fugitive slaves stayed at the Historical Society 19 (1881) Hillards' home between 1855 and 1858 (Historic Resource Study). One of those slaves was Phillis Gault, who had escaped from Norfolk, Virginia in 1855 aboard a schooner heading to Philadelphia. Louisa F. Jones, who disguised herself as a man and escaped aboard a steamboat that was headed to Philadelphia, is also believed to have made her way to Boston and the Hillards' home.

Abolitionists in Boston gathered in groups to discuss the Fugitive Slave Law's passage and determine ways to help enslaved people https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9932ac744d8c423dade24be24b436263/print 9/16 4/24/2020 The Underground Railroad in Beacon Hill who came through Boston. One of those groups was the Boston Vigilance Committee which first consisted of 50 men and grew to over 200 activists. Members of the committee spread the word if slave catchers came to town and some members even participated in the Underground Railroad, hiding and rescuing refugees from slave catchers. Other anti-slavery groups consisted of the Massachusetts Abolition Society and the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. These concerted efforts from abolitionists — black and white, men and women — made Boston a sought-after stop on the Underground Railroad.

Ellen and William Craft

“...we felt perfectly justified in undertaking the dangerous and exciting task of ‘running a thousand miles’ in order to obtain those rights which are so vividly set forth in the Declaration.”

-William Craft, Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom: The Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery

Illustration of Ellen and William Craft (The Granger Collection, New York)

Enslaved on neighboring plantations in Georgia, Ellen and William Craft had a partnership beyond their marriage. Given a few days off

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9932ac744d8c423dade24be24b436263/print 10/16 4/24/2020 The Underground Railroad in Beacon Hill for Christmas in 1848, the Crafts devised a plan to runaway and escape to freedom.

The daughter of her enslaver and an enslaved woman, Ellen was light-skinned. With her hair cut short and dressed in a wealthy man’s wardrobe, Ellen was disguised as the master while her husband was her slave on their journey north.

While her disguise was convincing from afar, Ellen Craft had to frequently think on her feet to sell her role and save her husband. Illiterate, Ellen mimicked an injury and put her arm in a sling to avoid being asked to write or sign her name.

Husband and wife separated to different rail cars on their first train ride to Savannah, Georgia.Traveling by steamer and train to Charleston, Wilmington, and Baltimore by Ellen Craft (The Granger Collection, New York) Christmas Eve, the Crafts arrived in Philadelphia before the New Year.

Hearing about the work of abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and Theodore Parker in Boston, the Crafts decided to settle in Massachusetts.The Crafts moved to Boston shortly after arriving in Philadelphia, where they would live for two years.

Initially, Ellen stayed at Ellis Gray Loring’s home in Brookline while William stayed in Lewis Hayden’s home in Beacon Hill. William later wrote about how Hayden kept two kegs of gunpowder in his basement as 66 Phillips Street (red), Home of Lewis and Harriet Hayden, 1874 Map. a booby-trap for slavecatchers. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9932ac744d8c423dade24be24b436263/print 11/16 4/24/2020 The Underground Railroad in Beacon Hill Ellen worked as a seamstress and William worked as a cabinet-maker. Abolitionist Theodore Parker had performed a Christian wedding ceremony for the couple and gifted William a knife and pistol to protect his family. The Crafts were encouraged to speak about their journey at abolitionist events around Boston. Although the support of the Boston Vigilance Committee had been influential, the passing of the Fugitive Slave Law in September of 1850 threatened the safety of every individual who had run to the North to escape slavery. Ellen Craft may have been hidden at the Hillards' while slave catchers were in search of her and her husband after its passing.

While many fugitive slaves had traveled through Boston on the Underground Railroad, they did not always settle in the New England city. Although there was an abolitionist community that was dedicated to hiding and supporting fugitive slaves, the city was still threatened by the slave catchers who hoped to reclaim enslaved people with the rhetoric of the Fugitive Slave Law. Many individuals traveled to Canada or the United Kingdom from New England to build a life outside of the United States.

The Crafts decided it would be safer for them to start a family in London. Raising five children in their new city, the Crafts wrote about their terrifying trip to freedom in their memoir Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom: The Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery. After almost two decades in London, the Crafts returned to the United States.

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9932ac744d8c423dade24be24b436263/print 12/16 4/24/2020 The Underground Railroad in Beacon Hill

(Boston Public Library, Internet Archive)

Conclusion

As a northern port city, Boston received countless escaped slaves who made their way north on the Underground Railroad. The city was a stopping point for some, but for others it was their journey's end. Boston abolitionists formed groups to protect fugitive slaves, and many of the refugees passed through the Beacon Hill neighborhood with their assistance. As depicted in the map above, a network of railroad sites and important community locations were essential to this system. Identifying this geography reveals the close proximity of sites of resistance. Many of these sites are still located along the Black Heritage Trail in Beacon Hill today. These narratives demonstrate Beacon Hill's complex relationship with the

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9932ac744d8c423dade24be24b436263/print 13/16 4/24/2020 The Underground Railroad in Beacon Hill abolitionist movement and the actors that worked to challenge the institution of slavery.

Credits

This project was created by students from Northeastern University’s Graduate-level Digital Space and Place class: Cassandra Cloutier, Jillian Decker, Anjelica Oswald, Hailey Philbin, Danielle Rose, Alicia Svenson, and Zachary Ulrich. The class was taught by Dr. Cameron Blevins in Spring 2020 as part of the requirements for a Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities.

The purpose of creating this digital exhibit project was to practice using skills developed in this class and create a meaningful project that will be used as an educational resource.