Boston African American National Historic Site ⓘ

“The object of our Association is to extend a helping hand to all who may bid adieu to whips and chains, and by the welcome light of the North Star, reach a haven where they can be protected from the grasp of the man-stealer…”

Welcome to Boston: An Underground Railroad Hub , a digital exploration of Boston's long history as a center of Underground Railroad activity. Through an evolving array of interactive maps, videos, articles, and other features, we invite you to learn about the freedom seekers who escaped to Boston and the people here who assisted them. Discover incredible stories of how Bostonians organized to shelter and protect those who came looking for their freedom. Hear about amazing individuals and associations who not only protested the fugitive slave laws of the country, but also militantly responded to fugitive slave arrests in the city.

Be inspired by the bravery of those who fled slavery and the collective action of Bostonians that helped them along their way to freedom.

“Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S.; let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder, and bullets in his pocket, and there is no power on the earth or under the earth which can deny that he has earned the right of citizenship in the United States.”

- Frederick Douglass, “Address for the Promotion of Colored Enlistments, delivered at a mass meeting in Philadelphia, July 6, 1863.”

Following the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, President Abraham Lincoln called for the raising of Black regiments. Massachusetts Governor John Andrew quickly answered Lincoln's call and began forming the 54 th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, one of the first Black regiments to fight in the Civil War. Black men from across the city, state, country, and even other nations, traveled to Boston to join this historic regiment, some of them responding to recruitment efforts of such luminaries as Frederick Douglass. Through their heroic, yet tragic, assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina in July 1863, the 54 th helped inspire the enlistment of more than 180,000 Black men…a boost in morale and manpower that Lincoln recognized as essential to the victory of the United States and the destruction of slavery throughout the country.

"I was born on Beacon Hill, and from early childhood, have loved to visit the Eastern wing of the State House, and read the four stones taken from the monument that once towered from its summit. One contains the following inscription: 'Americans, while from this eminence scenes of luxuriant fertility, of flourishing commerce, and the abodes of social happiness, meet your view, forget not those who by their exertions have secured to you these blessings.'"

Perhaps no neighborhood has defined the history of Boston more than Beacon Hill. Its residents, their homes, and their gathering spaces played a transformational role in Boston's unique social, cultural, and political history. Long associated with the Massachusetts State House and lavish mansions, Beacon Hill is also the neighborhood of the Black Heritage Trail ® , the Museum of African American History, and Boston African American National Historic Site. Throughout its history, Beacon Hill has served as home for wealthy merchants and poor immigrants, industrialists and skilled artisans, social reformers and activists, political and religious leaders, writers, artists, and laborers.

This interactive digital map showcases the people and places associated with the Underground Railroad in Boston. While featuring notable safe houses and Underground Railroad operatives, this map also highlights sites of public protest and concerted action against the fugitive slave laws . Additionally, it captures places of heroic rescues as well as sites tied to harrowing arrests and rendition. By elevating these once covert places and stories, we hope to put the Underground Railroad "back on the map" and encourage further exploration and engagement with Boston's unique role in this inspiring movement.

Zoom in and click on various points to learn more about Underground Railroad history in Boston. Due to the close proximity of some sites, the map displays them in clusters and not necessarily at their exact geographical coordinates. Click on the clusters to explore more information about the specific points. Additionally, some sites are marked at approximate locations due to changes in the Boston landscape since the 1850s.

While much of this research project draws from scholarly books and articles, we consulted many primary sources, such as newspapers and transcripts of speeches, as well. The most helpful of these primary sources are the records of the various Boston Vigilance Committees. Dedicated to assisting freedom seekers in Boston, these committees kept detailed records which often cited who they helped and where they stayed in the city.

Most of these sites, particularly ones in Beacon Hill , remain private residences and we ask you to kindly respect our neighbors and their property. However, several stops including Faneuil Hall and the Museum of African American History’s African Meeting House are open to the public.

"... we do earnestly express the hope that the citizens of Boston will rally in Faneuil Hall...Their voice, uttered in the Cradle of Liberty, will assure us, as nothing else can, whether they are to be reckoned on the side of liberty or slavery – whether they will vouchsafe to us their aid, or will assist the man-thief in hurling us and our little ones into interminable bondage."

- Declaration of Sentiments of the Colored Citizens of Boston, on the Fugitive Slave Bill!!!, October 1850 at the African Meeting House

Answering the call set forth by the Black community at the African Meeting House earlier that month, Bostonians gathered in Faneuil Hall in October 1850 to form their third and final Vigilance Committee. Founded in the wake of the new federal Fugitive Slave Law , this committee dedicated itself to assisting freedom seekers escaping slavery on the Underground Railroad. Members provided integral support in the form of shelter, clothing, money, passage, and other aid to hundreds of freedom seekers throughout the 1850s.

Explore this ongoing exhibition that looks at the lives and activism of the more than two hundred members of the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee.

"Long years before Boston [had] begun to think of subways and tunnels 'The Underground Railroad' ran its all but noiseless way through city and suburbs, for the benefit of such fugitive Southern slaves as came this way."

- "Old Passages of Boston's ‘Underground Railroad’ Uncovered," Boston Evening Transcript , March 31, 1926.

The mystique of the Underground Railroad has long captivated the imagination of our nation. While Americans recall with fondness the legendary figure of Harriet Tubman, they otherwise fail to recognize and remember the contributions of women to the Underground Railroad. In Boston, the Underground Railroad became inseparable from the community of free Black Bostonians who resided on the north slope of Beacon Hill. 1 At the heart of that community stood Boston's women. Although legally tied to their husbands and fathers in economic matters, Boston's women boldly aided freedom seekers entering their community, becoming critical contributors to the Underground Railroad. 2

We invite you to explore the many contributions of Boston's women to the Underground Railroad through the following resources.

The Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54 th Regiment Memorial commemorates one of the first Black regiments of the American Civil War. Although African Americans served in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, Northern racist sentiments kept African Americans from taking up arms for the United States in the early years of the Civil War. However, a clause in Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation allowed for the raising of Black regiments. Governor John Andrew soon created the Massachusetts 54 th Volunteer Infantry. He chose Robert Gould Shaw , the son of wealthy abolitionists, to serve as its colonel. Notable abolitionists including Frederick Douglass and local leaders such as Lewis Hayden recruited men for the 54 th Regiment. African Americans enlisted from every region of the north, and from as far away as Canada and the Caribbean.

Through their heroic, yet tragic, assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina on July 18, 1863, in which Shaw and many of his men died, the 54 th helped erode Northern public opposition to the use of Black soldiers and inspired the enlistment of more than 180,000 Black soldiers into the United States forces. Sergeant William H. Carney , severely injured in the battle, saved the regiment's flag. For this act of bravery, he became the first African American recipient of the Medal of Honor. The 54 th Regiment also fought in engagements on James Island, the Battle of Olustee, and at Honey Hill, South Carolina, before their return to Boston in September 1865.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens took nearly fourteen years to complete this high-relief bronze monument, which celebrates the valor and sacrifices of the Massachusetts 54 th . One of the premier artists of his day, Saint-Gaudens grew up in New York and Boston, but received formal training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts Paris. In his studio in New York, he hired forty men to serve as models for the soldiers' faces. Paid for by private donations and unveiled on May 31, 1897, this monument depicts the 54 th Regiment as they marched down Beacon Street off for war in 1863. The Memorial is located on Boston Common directly across from the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Street.

Dryfhout, John H. The Work of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1982.

Grover, Kathryn, and Janine V. Da Silva. " Historic Resource Study: Boston African American National Historic Site ." Boston African American National Historic Site, 2002.

Hope and Glory: Essays on the Legacy of the 54 th Massachusetts Regiment. Edited by Martin Blatt, Thomas Brown, and Donald Yacovone. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001.

These online, searchable data sets serve as a resource for finding soldiers and officers who served in the 54 th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment between February 1863 and August 1865. Data include the person’s age, enlistment and mustered out dates, place of enlistment, profession at enlistment, rank, and company. Over 1,500 men are listed in the data sets below.

Data sets have been divided according to whether an individual mustered in as an enlisted soldier or as a commissioned officer. Additional details will be added to the data sets as we continue to research and update information. Drawing from these data sets, the interactive map below showcases the national, even international, composition of the 54 th . As Massachusetts did not have a large enough Black population to fill the ranks of the 54 th , recruitment took place across the country as well as Canada and the West Indies. Please note, these points on the map indicate where the soldier enlisted, not their birthplace. Many formerly enslaved soldiers hid their origins and birthplaces from recruiters. Also note, some recruits who had fled enslavement to Canada or elsewhere enlisted once they returned to the United States.

If you're interested in seeing some of the faces behind the names, please visit the Massachusetts Historical Society's digital gallery on the 54 th Regiment .

Emilio, Luis F ., A Brave Black Regiment: History of The Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry 1863-1865 , New York, NY: Da Capo Press, 1995.

“National Gallery of Art.” The 54th Massachusetts Regiment, n.d. https://www.nga.gov/collection/sculpture/fifty-fourth-regiment.html.

George Middleton and Louis Glapion began constructing this two-family residence at 5 Pinckney Street in 1786. Finished in 1787, this building is now the oldest extant home on Beacon Hill. This wood structure is a typical example of late 1700s Boston homes built by African Americans.

Louis Glapion worked as a hairdresser and may have been from the French West Indies. Glapion lived and ran his business out of 5 Pinckney Street until his death in 1813. His wife Lucy continued to live there until 1832.

During the American War for Independence, George Middleton led a Black militia company called the Bucks of America. While little evidence of the group has survived, they likely guarded the property of Boston merchants during the Revolution and may have also been known as the "Protectors." Near the close of the Revolution, Governor John Hancock presented the Bucks of America with a company flag. This flag is preserved in the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

A horse breaker and livery man by profession, Middleton also served in several Black community organizations. He became the third Grand Master of the African Lodge, later known as the Prince Hall Masons. In 1796, Middleton and others organized the African Society (also known as the Boston African Benevolent Society), a charitable organization dedicated to community service, uplift, and education.

George Middleton married Elsey Marsh on March 11, 1781 at Trinity Church. He died in 1815, apparently not survived by his wife or children.

As a leader concerned with education, the abolition of slavery, and the needs of his community, George Middleton helped build some of the early institutions and organizations in the long history of Black activism on Beacon Hill.

Chamberlain, Allen. Beacon Hill : Its Ancient Pastures and Early Mansions . Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1925.

Kaplan, Sidney, and Emma Nogrady Kaplan. The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution . Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989.

Nell, William C. The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution with Sketches of Several Distinguished Persons: To Which is Added a Brief Survey of the Conditions and Prospects of Colored Americans. Boston: Robert F. Wallcut, 1855. Reprint. New York: Arno Press, 1968.

Built in 1824, this former school building originally served as the Boston English High School. It became the Phillips Grammar School in 1844, named after Boston’s first mayor, John Phillips. 1

Until 1855, the Phillips Grammar School only educated White students. Black students attended segregated schools nearby, including one in the basement of the African Meeting House that moved to the Abiel Smith School on Joy Street in 1834.

Equal school rights activists such as William Cooper Nell , Lewis Hayden , Benjamin Roberts , and others led protests and petition drives that compelled the state legislature to finally outlaw segregated schools in Massachusetts in 1855. Following this landmark victory, the Phillips School become one of the first public schools in Boston with an interracial student body. The Boston Herald reported on the first day of school in 1855, “In the Phillips School fifteen colored children have been admitted…The colored pupils show a commendable neatness in their dress, as well as correctness of deportment.” 2 The Liberator , the radical abolitionist newspaper, also reported on the day:

The introduction of the colored youth in the schools, we are happy to say, was accomplished with general good feeling on the part of both teachers and white children. At the Phillips School, at the West End, one or two of the white boys were making a little merry sport at the colored pupils as they came up, but the principal, Mr. Hovey, stayed it at once by the quiet remark: “Is that your politeness to strangers?”… The appearance of the colored children in the heretofore by them unfrequented streets leading to the school houses created a “sensation” among the neighbors, who filled the windows, probably in anticipation of trouble. So far as we can hear, there was none, however, in any part of the city. 3

In 1863, the Phillips School moved to a new building on Phillips Street (formerly Southac Street) and became the Wendell Phillips School, named after the famed abolitionist and son of the school’s original namesake. In the early 1870s, Elizabeth Smith, daughter of abolitionist John J. Smith, started teaching at the Phillips School, likely becoming the first African American teacher in an integrated Boston public school. 4

John J. Smith – barber, abolitionist, and state legislator – lived at 86 Pinckney Street from 1878 to 1893. Born in Virginia, Smith moved to Boston in the 1840s. Except for a short time in California searching for gold, Smith spent his pre-Civil War years working as a barber. His shop played an important role in Boston's Black community of the 1800s; it served as a center for community organizing and abolitionist activities. United States Senator Charles Sumner , an ardent abolitionist and friend, frequently patronized Smith’s barbershop. When Sumner could not be found at his home or office, he could usually be located at Smith’s shop.

Smith, his wife Georgiana, and other leaders such as Benjamin F. Roberts worked in the 1840s and 1850s in the fight for equal school rights. Boston's public schools became integrated in 1855 and Smith's daughter Elizabeth, in the early 1870s, became the first person of African descent to teach in Boston's integrated schools. John Smith also worked to fight slavery and other injustices. He played a key role in the rescue of Shadrach Minkins , arrested under the Fugitive Slave Law in February 1851.

During the Civil War, Smith recruited for the Massachusetts African American regiments and for the Fifth Calvary, also an all-Black unit. Smith served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, as its third African American member, in 1868, 1869, and 1872. Georgiana, his wife, worked during that time for the Freedman's Bureau. In 1878, Smith became the first African American appointed to serve on the Boston Common Council where he successfully worked to have the first African American appointed to the Boston police force. John J. Smith's life, filled with service to his community through business, activism, and politics, ended on November 4, 1906 with family in Dorchester.

Collison, Gary. Shadrach Minkins: From Fugitive Slave to Citizen. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.

Daniels, John. In Freedom’s Birthplace: A Study of the Boston Negroes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1914. Reprint. New York: Arno Press and the New York Times , 1969.

A pillar in Boston's Black community, Charles Street Meeting House once occupied the building on the corner of today's Charles Street and Mt. Vernon Street. Built in 1807, this building originally housed the Third Baptist Church. 1 The segregationist tradition of New England church seating patterns prevailed here. In April 1836, member Timothy Gilbert , later an active financial supporter of the Boston Vigilance Committee , tested the church's racial segregation policy by inviting several African Americans to join him in his pew. The church immediately expelled Gilbert for this violation. He soon set out with several other members to form the First Free Baptist Church. Officially recognized in 1839, this church eventually became Tremont Temple , the first church in Boston to abolish pew rental fees. Considered "the first integrated church in America," Tremont Temple declared that "'all who practice slavery or justify it shall be excluded from the church and its communion.'" 2

Though a 1937 article in the Boston Globe reported that Frederick Douglass , Sojourner Truth , and other abolitionist luminaries spoke from the pulpit of Third Baptist Church, further research is needed and ongoing to verify these claims. 3

In 1876, the First African Methodist Episcopal (AME) congregation, previously located on today's Anderson Street, purchased the Charles Street Meetinghouse for forty thousand dollars. 4 In 1916, AME historian Richard R. Wright wrote:

In addition to religious services, the Charles Street Meeting House served as a forum and gathering place for local activists. For example, on the final day of the 1895 First National Conference of Colored Women of America , Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and other local Black clubwomen organized a special session at Charles Street A.M.E. Church. Here, delegates from across the United States agreed to form the National Federation of Afro-American Women, one of the precursors to the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs. 6

The AME congregation held services in this location until 1939, even after many of its members had moved to the South End of Boston. It became the last Black institution to leave Beacon Hill. Still called the Charles Street AME Church, it is now located at 551 Warren Street.

The Lewis and Harriet Hayden House at 66 Phillips (formerly Southac) Street served as the preeminent Underground Railroad safe house in Boston during the 1850s. In the 1840s, the Haydens escaped slavery in Kentucky and eventually settled in Boston. They lived in this house by 1850, operated it as a boardinghouse, and turned it into one of the most documented safe houses in the area.

Following the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law , Bostonians created their third and final Vigilance Committee , an organization dedicated to fugitive assistance. As one of the most active members of this committee, Lewis and Harriet Hayden sheltered and assisted many freedom seekers. The Treasurer's Account Book of the Vigilance Committee documents many of Lewis Hayden's Underground Railroad activities. For example, an entry from November 1850 recorded Hayden "boarding Fugitives John Simmons, W. Miller, Ja. Jackson, Solomon Bander, Geo. Reason, Issac Mason & Wife." 1 A September 16, 1852 entry records reimbursement to "Lewis Hayden for Taylor and Coopers fare to Canada also boarding W. Brown, Cooper, Mary Brown & children." 2 In November 1855, he provided "clothes for Henry Demby and board of J. Holmes." 3 Numerous entries throughout the account book, such as these, indicate that Hayden sheltered or otherwise assisted scores of freedom seekers throughout the Fugitive Slave Law years. He provided shelter, clothing, carriages and fare to get people out of the city and further North to freedom.

While Lewis's name appears throughout the Vigilance Committee records, historian Steven Kantrowitz reminds us to remember the essential contributions of Harriet. In his book More Than Freedom , Kantrowitz states:

A fellow Vigilance Committee member, Austin Bearse , recalled bringing Harriet Beecher Stowe to visit the Haydens and encountering many freedom seekers at their home:

In 1850, the Haydens sheltered the famous couple William and Ellen Craft . The Crafts escaped from slavery in Georgia with an elaborate disguise and story. The light-skinned Ellen dressed in men's clothing and "passed" as a White male slaveholder traveling North by train and ship with her trusted "slave" William. The federal census taken in August 1850 lists the Crafts residing at the Hayden House. In October 1850, slave catchers came looking for the couple in Boston's first test of the new Fugitive Slave Law. According to William Craft, "Lewis Hayden and I had a keg of gunpowder under his house in Phillips Street, with a fuse attached ready to light it should any attempt be made to capture us." 6 Given all of the abolitionist hostility and threats to their safety, the slave catchers abandoned their pursuit of the Crafts. A correspondent for The Liberator , Boston's major abolitionist newspaper, later wrote that the U.S. Marshal, acting as a slave catcher, called off his arrest of the Crafts because "He knew that the road to hell lay over Lewis Hayden’s threshold; and the cost to him would be rather more than the Slave Power would be ready to make up to him." 7

In addition to protecting the Crafts, Lewis Hayden also played a crucial role in other high-profile Fugitive Slave Law cases in the city. On February 15, 1851, slave catchers arrested Shadrach Minkins , who had escaped from Virginia months earlier. Within three hours of Minkins' arrest, Hayden led a group of Black men in a daring courthouse rescue, freed Minkins from his captors, and successfully got him out of the city and further on the Underground Railroad network to Canada. In 1854, Hayden and others attempted to rescue Anthony Burns from federal custody at the same courthouse. Unfortunately, they failed, and authorities soon returned Burns to the South under heavy martial guard.

A long-time colleague of Lewis Hayden, Henry Ingersoll Bowditch recalled that Haydens' house served as "the temple of refuge for any hunted refugee from Southern slavery." 8

The Lewis & Harriet Hayden House is listed as a site on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. To learn more about the Network to Freedom, please visit their website .

Born in Boston between 1809 and 1813, clothes dealer and community activist John P. Coburn and his family lived at this home beginning in 1844. This house may have been the last commission of renowned architect Asher Benjamin. Coburn ran a successful clothing shop on Brattle Street. Limited evidence suggests that Coburn may have run a gaming house for wealthy Bostonians in his house. However, his community activism is far better documented.

Coburn served as the treasurer of the New England Freedom Association, an organization dedicated to assisting freedom seekers who escaped slavery and came to Boston on the Underground Railroad . Formed in the early 1840s, this group sought "to extend a helping hand to all who may bid adieu to whips and chains, and by the welcome light of the North Star, reach a haven where they can be protected from the grasp of the man-stealer." 1

In 1851, authorities arrested, though later acquitted, Coburn for his alleged role in aiding in the courthouse rescue of Shadrach Minkins , the first person apprehended in Boston under the provisions of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law . Witnesses reported seeing him at the courthouse "'making inflammatory remarks shortly before the rescue began.'" 2

Along with other community leaders in the 1850s, Coburn founded the Massasoit Guards, an unsanctioned Black militia. Though state officials ignored their requests for official recognition and support, the Massasoit Guards continued to operate as a force for community self-defense. In their book Black Bostonians: Community Life and Struggle in the Antebellum North , historians James and Lois Horton state:

Militia groups such the Massasoit Guards can be considered precursors to the Black Civil War regiments, including the famous 54 th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment .

Coburn died in 1873 and his home passed to his son Wendell, whose widow, Mary, lived in the house until the turn of the twentieth century.

As home to the African Meeting House and the Abiel Smith School , Smith Court served as a vital center of Black life and culture for much of 1800s and early 1900s Boston. The residences along Smith Court also provide a valuable window into the lives of those who called this neighborhood home. Today, the historic homes on Smith Court, along with the African Meeting House and the Abiel Smith School, are the best preserved physical locales available for understanding the history of African Americans in 1800s Boston.

3 Smith Court , likely built in 1799, has a long association with African American occupants as well as significant activists in Boston. Starting in 1830, African Americans began renting here. George Washington, a bootblack and waiter, rented one side of the house from 1830 until 1845, while Andrew Telford and his wife Rachel Turner rented the other side. James Scott, the longest resident of 3 Smith Court, lived at this home for nearly 50 years. He rented from 1839 to 1865 then purchased the property and lived here until his death in 1888. Born in Virginia, Scott worked as a clothing dealer in Boston. In 1851, local authorities arrested, though later acquitted, Scott for his alleged role in the rescue of freedom seeker Shadrach Minkins from the Boston courthouse . Though his involvement in the Minkins rescue is unclear, Scott assisted other freedom seekers at his home. For example, on July 18, 1856, he boarded Henry Jackson and his family as they made their way to freedom on the Underground Railroad. From 1850 to 1857, William Cooper Nell also resided at 3 Smith Court. One of the most prominent community activists, Nell provided crucial leadership in the abolition movement, the Underground Railroad, and the struggle for equal rights and education. With the publication of his book Colored Patriots of the American Revolution , Nell became one of the first published African American historians. Like Scott, he also sheltered freedom seekers at his home on Smith Court. 1

5 Smith Court , built in the early 1800s, passed through the hands of several owners, both Black and White, prior to 1849. Peter Wilcox, his wife Chloe, and their five children lived here between 1813 and 1815. The Wilcox family joined with others that migrated with mariner Paul Cuffe to Sierra Leone. In 1849, George Washington, who previously resided at 3 Smith Court, purchased the home. Born in Massachusetts in 1795, Washington worked as a bootblack and waiter. He also served as a deacon at the First Independent Baptist Church at the African Meeting House. Washington and his wife Rachel had ten children between 1832 and 1848. They also took in boarders, including an Irish-born laborer named Patrick Barnes. Although George Washington died in 1871, this house remained in his family until 1917. 2

7 Smith Court , constructed in the early 1800s, had a series of owners, including African American mariner Peter Guss and later the White merchant Elihu Bates, who began renting to Black tenants in 1822. In 1857, Bates’ children sold the property to Joseph E. Scarlett, an African American chimneysweep and later a clothing dealer. Though he never lived here, Scarlett owned this building from 1857 until his death in 1898. He lived across the street at 2 Smith Court and mostly rented 7 Smith Court to other African Americans. Tenants of this property included laborer Phillip Johnson and mariners Warner Hicks and Robert Osborn. Few residents stayed longer than three years at this property. 3

7A Smith Court , built in 1799, is the only surviving example of the early homes that lined the eight-foot wide Holmes Alley . Throughout the 1800s, many African Americans lived in the residences along Holmes Alley, including at 7A Smith Court. Though earlier held by a succession of White owners, 7A became another rental property for Joseph Scarlett in 1858. Both Scarlett and the other landlords rented the property out to a variety of individuals and families, though most seem to have been short-term occupants. 4

2 Smith Court (or 10 Smith Court) , constructed in 1853, served as a home and investment property for Joseph Scarlett. Prior to construction of the Scarlett home, an earlier house stood on this site owned by William Henry, an African American tailor. Henry, his family, as well as some tenants lived here. Joseph Scarlett purchased the property in 1852 from the Henry family and soon constructed this new building. He lived here from 1860 until 1868 and eventually sold the building in 1878. By the time of his death in 1898, Scarlett owned 15 different properties in Boston, Cambridge, and Charlestown. In his will, Scarlett left bequests to the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Zion Church and to the Home for Aged Colored Women on Myrtle Street. 5

Smith Court Stories : a collaborative project of the Museum of African American History and Boston African American National Historic Site - a unit of the National Parks of Boston.

Grover, Kathryn. Make a Way Somehow: African Americans in a Northern Community. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1994.

Horton, James Oliver. “Generations of Protest: Black Families and Social Reform in Antebellum Boson.” New England Quarterly 49, 2 (June 1976).

Horton, James Oliver and Horton, Lois E. Black Bostonians; Family Life and Community Struggle in the Antebellum North, Revised Edition. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1999.

Jacobs, Donald M. ed. Courage and Conscience: Black and White Abolitionists in Boston . Bloomington: Indian University Press for the Boston Athenauem, 1993.

Kaplan, Sidney and Kaplan, Emma Nogrady. The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution . Rev. ed. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989.

Rosebrock, Ellen Fletcher. “A Historical Account of the Joy Street Block between Myrtle and Cambridge Streets.” Manuscript Prepared for the Museum if Afro- American History, Boston, 22 December 1978.

Wesley, Dorothy Porter, and Constance Porter Uzelac, eds. William Cooper Nell, Nineteenth-Century African American Abolitionist Historian, Integrationits: Selected Writings, 1832-1874. Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 2002.

Opened in 1835, the Abiel Smith School served as a segregated public school for African American students in Boston.

In 1787, Black Bostonians, including Prince Hall, petitioned the state legislature advocating for greater access to the public school system. In 1798, Black parents organized the African School to educate their children though some Black students did attend the public schools. The African School first met in the home of Primus Hall . It moved into the first floor room of the African Meeting House in 1808. At this date, African American children enrolled in Boston public schools moved to the African School. In 1812, the Boston School Committee officially recognized the African School and started providing partial funding at $200 annually. However, the condition of the school remained poor and the Boston School Commission received many complaints from the community about deteriorating conditions and overcrowding. A study undertaken by the Commission confirmed these critiques.

In 1815, White businessman Abiel Smith died and bequeathed $4,000 for the education of African American children in Boston. The school committee used interest from this money to fund the African School and they later used a portion of it to construct the Abiel Smith School. The Abiel Smith School opened on March 3, 1835, but the conditions in this school proved inferior to those of the White schools in the city and the Black community continued to fight for equal opportunities in education. 1

Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, William Cooper Nell , once a student at the African School, spearheaded the movement for equal schools. He vowed at an early age that he would do his “best to hasten the day when the color of the skin would be no barrier to equal school rights.” 2 Nell and others in the Equal Schools movement led petition drives, protests, and eventually a boycott of the Smith School.

Benjamin Roberts , another activist, filed suit on behalf of his daughter Sarah, against the Boston School Committee in 1849. Roberts wanted his daughter to be able to attend the school closest to their home, rather than the Smith School, and sought to challenge Boston’s segregated system. Attorneys Robert Morris and Charles Sumner argued the case but did not win the lawsuit.

Despite this setback, Nell and others took their cause to the state legislature which finally outlawed public school segregation in Massachusetts in 1855. On the first day of school that year, Nell, then living at 3 Smith Court , recalled watching a young Black student walking past the Smith School. “Good bye forever colored school!,” the student said, “Tomorrow we are like the other Boston boys.” 3

Following the integration of the schools in 1855, the Abiel Smith School briefly closed then later reopened for a time as an integrated primary school. It also served as a city storage facility. From 1887 to 1941 it served as a Grand Army of the Republic chapter and following that the James E. Welch Post #56 of the American Legion. 4 It now houses the Museum Store and exhibition galleries of the Museum of African American History .

Bower, Beth Ann. "The African Meeting House, Massachusetts: Summary Report of Archaeological Excavation, 1975- 1986." Museum of African American History, Boston, MA.

Jacobs, Donald M. ed. Courage and Conscience: Black and White Abolitionists in Boston. Bloomington: Indiana University Press for the Boston Anthenaeum, 1993

Kendrick, Stephen and Kendrick, Paul. Sarah’s Long Walk: The Free Blacks of Boston and How Their Struggle for Equality Changes America . Boston: Beacon Hill Press, 2004.

Wesley, Dorothy Porter, and Constance Porter Uzelac, eds. William Cooper Nell, Nineteenth-Century African American Abolitionist, Historian, Integrationist: Selected Writings, 1832-1874. Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 2002.

Built in 1806, the African Meeting House served as the African Baptist Church of Boston (a.k.a. First Independent Baptist Church) and it is considered the oldest extant Black church building in America. The Reverend Thomas Paul, a native of New Hampshire, spearheaded the founding of this church and served as its minister until 1829. Officially constituted on 8 August 1805 with twenty-four members, including fifteen women, the African Baptist Church soon began plans to construct this new meeting house. Cato Gardner, a native African, led the fundraising effort by personally raising $1,500. African American craftsmen provided most of the labor. 1

In addition to serving as a spiritual and religious center for the community, the African Meeting House provided an integral gathering space for the cultural, educational, and political life of Boston’s Black community. The African School held classes in a room on the first floor of the meeting house from 1808 until 1835, when it moved into the new Abiel Smith School . Classes returned to the meeting house in 1849 when many African Americans chose to withdraw their children from the Smith School to protest segregated education. Adult education classes and public lectures also took place here. Abolitionists including William Lloyd Garrison , Maria Stewart , Wendell Phillips , Sarah Grimke, and Frederick Douglass all spoke at the meeting house. The Massachusetts General Colored Association, dedicated to ending the dual forces of slavery and discrimination across the country, met at the African Meeting House. In 1832 William Lloyd Garrison founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society here. 2 The New England Freedom Association, dedicated to assisting freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad also met here. Community celebrations often occurred at the meeting house as well, including annual commemorations of Haitian Independence and the end of the international slave trade. In 1863, the meeting house also served as a recruitment post for the Massachusetts 54th Volunteer Regiment , one of the first African American regiments to fight in the Civil War.

In 1898, the Baptist congregation sold their meeting house and moved to a new location in the South End. The meeting house became the Jewish Congregation Anshi Libavitz in 1904. The Museum of African American History purchased the meeting house in 1972. The African Meeting House is a National Historic Landmark and is owned and operated by the Museum of African American History .

The African Meeting House is listed as a site on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Learn more about the Network to Freedom .

Bower, Beth Ann; Rushing, Byron. “The African Meeting House: The Center for the 19 th Century Afro-American Community in Boston.” in Archeological Perspectives on Ethnicity in America . Vol. 1. New York, 1980.

Hayden, Robert C. Faith, Culture, and Leadership: A History of the Black Church in Boston . Boston: Boston Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 1983.

Horton, James Oliver and Horton, Lois E. Black Bostonians; Family Life and Community Struggle in the Antebellum North, Revised Edition. New York:Holmes & Meier, 1999.

Levesque, George A. Black Boston: African American Life and Culture in Urban America, 1750-1860. New York: Garland Publishing, 1994.

Yocum, Barbara A. The African Meeting House Historic Structure Report. Lowell, MA: Building Conservation Branch, National Park Service, 1994.

Between 1805 and 1840, the Black community of Boston organized five churches on the north slope of Beacon Hill. These churches served as spiritual centers and played a central role in the political and cultural lives of Black Bostonians. As historians James Horton and Lois Horton wrote in their groundbreaking work, Black Bostonians: Family Life and Community Struggle in the Antebellum North , the Black church provided:

Though Black Bostonians, both free and enslaved, attended White churches prior to the 1800s, they often faced discrimination there. Some churches required Black worshippers to sit in the “Negro Pew,” or in the least desirable galleries. [2] They also could not hold leadership positions and had to worship in the style and manner dictated by the White church leadership. The desire to be rid of these discriminatory practices, in part, influenced the establishment of the first independent Black churches in Boston.

More importantly, however, members of Boston’s Black community established their own churches to create their own welcoming religious environment as well as meet the needs of their community. Free from the control of White leadership, Black congregations could choose their own ministers, worship in the style they wanted, and use their buildings as gathering spaces for the community. As historian Roy Finkenbine wrote, the Black churches:

The first Black church in Boston formed in 1805. Founded under the leadership of Reverend Thomas Paul, the First African Baptist Church built its meeting house on Smith Court and met there from 1806 to 1898. This church became a major center of Black life and culture in 1800s Boston, housing a school room and serving as a gathering space for numerous community and abolitionist meetings. Read more about this church, and the important political and social events that occurred there, in the African Meeting House webpage.

The Methodist Episcopal Church became the second Black church founded in Boston. In the early 1800s, many African Americans attended the Bromfield Street Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1818, this church helped to establish a separate Black Methodist church by hiring the Rev. Samuel Snowden . This church became known as the Revere Street Methodist Episcopal Church . [4] They met at various locations until the New England Methodist Conference purchased a building on Revere (originally May) Street in 1823. This church moved in 1835 to a larger building on Revere Street. The Rev. Snowden, like the ministers who followed him, actively participated in antislavery activities, such as the Underground Railroad . Influential members of the church included David Walker , an antislavery advocate and author of the Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World and Expressly to the Coloured Citizens of the United States . [5] After the Bromfield Street Church, which owned the Revere Street Church building, sold the building in 1903, the Revere Street Church no longer had a place to meet in Beacon Hill. They moved into a church in the South End in 1911 and again into another building in 1949. This church remains today on Columbus Avenue and is known as the Union United Methodist Church.

The First African Methodist Episcopal Bethel Society of Boston, later known as the Charles Street AME Church , organized in November 1833. Itinerant minister Noah Caldwell Cannon organized this church and served as its first minister. The church grew slowly in its early years. By 1844, they purchased a building on Anderson Street. The church remained there until 1876 when they purchased Charles Street Meeting House . In the later 1800s and early 1900s, the church hosted numerous community meetings as well as the First National Conference of Colored Women in America in 1895. In 1939, it became the last Black institution to leave Beacon Hill. The congregation is now located on Warren Street in Roxbury.

The Columbus Avenue AME Zion Church , as it is known today, began in 1838 when seventeen people withdrew from the Revere Street Methodist Church. They left to associate themselves with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion denomination, an organization led by African Americans. Appointed at the Annual Conference in 1838, the Rev. Jehiel C. Beman served as the church’s first minister. Like other Black religious leaders, Beman also played a major role in the antislavery movement. By October 1840, the church had over 140 members and in 1841 they moved into a small chapel, sometimes known as Rush Chapel, on West Center (now Anderson) Street. [6] Eliza A. Gardner , a prominent abolitionist and women’s rights leader, went to this church for over 75 years and held leadership positions there. The church moved to North Russell Street in 1866 and to Columbus Avenue in the South End in 1902.

Formed in 1840, Twelfth Baptist Church began when forty-six people left the First African Baptist Church (African Meeting House) along with the Rev. George H. Black. The reasons for this church schism are not clear. [7] Twelfth Baptist struggled for many years until the Rev. Leonard A. Grimes became minister in 1848. Born free in Virginia, Grimes had worked in Washington D.C. and became involved in the Underground Railroad. Grimes continued his Underground Railroad activity while serving as minister of Twelfth Baptist, also known as "The Fugitive Slave Church." Scores of self-emancipated freedom seekers received aid from Twelfth Baptist Church, and many chose to remain with this congregation. Lewis and Harriet Hayden , Shadrach Minkins , Anthony Burns , and Thomas Sims all worshipped at Twelfth Baptist. Twelfth Baptist Church constructed a building at 43-47 Phillips Street between 1850 and 1855, remaining there until 1906. Grimes continued as pastor until his death in 1874. Twelfth Baptist Church relocated to Warren Street in Roxbury in 1906 where it remains to this day.

The five Black churches of Beacon Hill played crucial roles in the lives of Black Bostonians and those who came to the city, including freedom seekers. They served as powerful agencies of community organization, education, and resistance. In addition to meeting the day to day spiritual and physical needs of their members, the Black churches of Beacon Hill helped lead the charge against slavery and discrimination in the city. As historian Roy Finkenbine wrote, these churches:

[1] James O. Horton and Lois E. Horton, Black Bostonians: Family Life and Community Struggle in the Antebellum North (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1999, originally 1979), 41.

[2] Roy E. Finkenbine, "Boston’s Black Churches: Institutional Centers of the Antislavery Movement," Courage and Conscience: Black and White Abolitionists in Boston, Edited by Donald M. Jacobs, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993), 170.