Boston Vigilance Committee

Boston Vigilance Committee was an abolitionist organization formed in Boston, Massachusetts on June 4, 1841 at the Marlboro Chapel, Hall No. 3. with the mission of protecting fugitive slaves from being kidnapped and returned to their Southern owners in accordance with the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. The organization was led by Theodore Parker, an American Transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church. Parker is known to history as a member of the Secret Six, an abolitionist group which supported John Brown.

A vigilance committee, in the 19th century United States, was a group of private citizens who organized themselves for self-protection. The committees were established in areas where there was no local law enforcement, or where the local government was ineffectual, corrupt, or unpopular. The groups, despite generally held opinions, were not mobs of unorganized individuals bent on revenge of the moment, but usually well-organized, with charters defining their purposes and official membership lists.

Some were public, but many were secret. Secrecy prevented retaliation by lawless or corrupt organizations and also made it difficult for government officials to pursue criminal charges in areas where the government held jurisdiction. Vigilance committees are not unique to the United States and existed into the 20th century.

Before the Civil War, Fugitive Slave Laws authorized slave hunters to pursue run-away slaves into non-slave states. All through the North, vigilance committees opposed to slavery provided fugitive slaves protection, food, clothing, and temporary shelter. They also assisted run-aways in using the Underground railroad toward Canada, which did not recognize the Fugitive Slave Act.

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