Benjamin B. Mussey

Quick Facts

Significance:

Boston Vigilance Committee member,publisher

Place of Birth:

Bradford, Vermont

Date of Birth:

April 28, 1804

Place of Death:

Boston, Massachusetts

Date of Death:

January 12, 1857

Place of Burial:

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cemetery Name:

Mount Auburn Cemetery

Publisher Benjamin B. Mussey served as a member of the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee. 

Born in 1804 in Bradford, Vermont, Benjamin B. Mussey came to Boston as “a poor boy, and by his industry, prudence and economy gained an independent fortune.”¹ Mussey ran a publishing business in the heart of Boston’s publishing district. He used his position to advocate for the abolitionist movement by publishing antislavery works, such as the sermons of Theodore Parker. A prosperous businessman, Mussey also donated funds to various abolitionist organizations.²

In 1850, Mussey joined the Boston Vigilance Committee, an organization founded in response to the passage of the new Fugitive Slave Law. The Vigilance Committee provided funds, shelter, transportation, medical attention, and other assistance to freedom seekers escaping enslavement on the Underground Railroad. In June 1854, Mussey gave 20 dollars to offset the legal fees of Richard Henry Dana Jr. for his defense of the rescuers of Anthony Burns, a freedom seeker arrested in Boston.³

Mussey, a member of the Free Soil Party, also attempted to run for local political office. However, at only 52 years old, Mussey died in 1857. His peers remembered him “as an active laborer in public reforms,” and a great businessman. Mussey’s remains are interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.⁴

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Footnotes

1. “Death of B.B. Mussey, Esq.,” Vermont Phoenix, January 24, 1857, 3; “Benjamin B. Mussey,” Find A Grave, Benjamin B. Mussey (1804-1857) - Find a Grave Memorial. 
2. “Shall Slavery Destroy Freedom?” The Liberator, August 4, 1854, 2; “The Nebraska Question,” The Liberator, March 10, 1854, 2; “New Publications,” The Liberator, November 18, 1853, 3.
3. Francis Jackson, Account Book of Francis Jackson, Treasurer The Vigilance Committee of Boston, Dr. Irving H. Bartlett collection, 1830-1880, W. B. Nickerson Cape Cod History Archives, https://archive.org/details/drirvinghbartlet19bart/page/n3/mode/2up, 73; "Members of the Committee of Vigilance," broadside printed by John Wilson, 1850, Massachusetts Historical Society.  
4. “Funeral of Mr. Mussey,” Boston Evening Transcript, January 16, 1857, 2; “Respect for the Late B.B. Mussey,” Boston Evening Transcript, January 15, 1857, 2; “Free Soil Ticket,” Boston Evening Transcript, November 7, 1850, 2; Springfield Daily Republican, December 6, 1850, 2; “Benjamin B. Mussey,” Find A Grave, Benjamin B. Mussey (1804-1857) - Find a Grave Memorial.