African-Americans in Antebellum Boston

We needed to locate another type of record that we could link with the database that would give us the specific 1850 addresses by race. We visited the City of Boston Archives in Hyde Park to study tax assessment records from 1850, and found that all adult names were listed by address, occupation, and race. African-Americans had "col per" or "cp" next to their names. We photocopied all of the sheets for Wards 2-6 (Beacon Hill and the West End). We digitized the tax assessment records and then compiled a mini-database. We could now place many of the African-Americans listed in the 1850 census into their respective residences. By using the Boston city directories we could now trace their lives through 1851, 1852, and 1853. We were particularly curious of the years 1850-1853 because of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Were there fugitive slaves living in Boston in 1850? Did the neighborhood population go down in the following years? The focus of our research began to expand. One of our PATH students, Alison Woitunski, discovered an account book of the Boston Vigilance Committee that lists many of the fugitive slaves and the individuals who helped them escape. From this account book Alison created a chart listing both the fugitive slaves and their benefactors. These names can be linked to our database.

Digitizing The Liberator