Currently, there are two ways of accessing the database:

• Browse through the database, or
• Search for a specific name or occupation group

This database, now being compiled, will link names from the Boston City Directories in and around 1850 with the 1850 federal census. William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper that existed from 1831 to 1865, will be examined for evidence of these African Americans and their membership in voluntary associations.

The database includes 1569 names from Boston's wards 2, 4, 5, and 6.

We are concentrating on this time period in part to find out the impact of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 on these neighborhoods, particularly to see if any fugitive slaves had been living as free blacks in and around 1850.

Our group project grew in five phases, each being a layer of information added to the database:

Phase I: 1848-49 Boston City Directory

The 1848-9 City Directory for Boston was the last directory that listed colored citizens separately from whites. This act of segregation became useful for our project as it provided a foundation from which we could build a database of names. Using this list, we could determine gender, occupation, and address for the adult population. Click here to see these names.

Phase II: 1850 Federal Census

Once we had our list of colored citizens from the 1848-9 directory, we turned to the 1850 federal census, which contains expanded demographic categories, such as race (whether black or mulatto), place of birth, occupation, place of origin, literacy, property, and education.

The 1850 census is the first census that listed all people by name. Previously, only heads of household were listed by name. In addition to expanding our knowledge of our existing list, we now were able to add names because women and children were listed, along with many other names that weren't in the 1848-49 Directory.

The process of transcribing names from the original handwriting of the various census enumerators could be very difficult. We used blank 1850 census forms to help transcribe the information from the original handwritten census.

Phase III: Boston City Directories, 1850, 1851, 1852, 1853

The combined list of names from the 1850 federal census along with the 1848-49 directory is the foundation from which we proceeded to incorporate these other Boston City Directories: 1850, 1851, 1852, 1853. We used these City Directories for the following reasons. We wanted to see the impact of the Fugitive Slave Act on these neighborhoods. Were fugitive slaves living as free in these neighborhoods? Were they forced to move out after the legislation? Secondly, we wanted to recreate the neighborhood by name and address by determining who lived where. The 1850 Federal Census does not list street addresses (this does not appear until the Federal Census of 1880); rather, census enumerators used arbitary dwelling and family numbers to denote separate families. By linking these names (which are listed by wards) with the Directories, we had a way to determine the actual street addresses, and therefore characteristics of the neighborhoods.

Phase IV: Voluntary Associations

We now had a fairly accurate idea of who lived where in Beacon Hill and the West End. We compiled an annotated list of voluntary assocations that appeared William Garrison's The Liberator around this time period. Which colored citizens from our list participated in which associations. This would provide us with another way of determining how these people lived, what were their interests, and what was their level of participation in the community?

Index to Voluntary Associations in The Liberator (compiled by Uri Lafontant)

Phase V: Research Papers