David Bryant

Quick Facts

Significance:

Architect, Member of the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee

Place of Birth:

Bradford, New Hampshire

Date of Birth:

January 6, 1801

Place of Death:

Palmer, Massachusetts

Date of Death:

September 24, 1867

According to the membership roster in Austin Bearse's Reminiscences of the Fugitive Slave Law Days in Boston, David Bryant participated as a member of the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee, an organization dedicated to assisting freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad.

Though we do not know for certain, the David Bryant listed in the Vigilance Committee roster is most likely the architect David Bryant. Born in Bradford, New Hampshire in 1801, Bryant moved to Boston by 1823. He first worked as a housewright and eventually as an architect and land surveyor. In 1828, he married Nancy Hardwick. An avid lover of music, Bryant also participated in the Bulfinch Street Church choir.¹

Bryant's contributions to the Boston Vigilance Committee and the Underground Railroad remain uncertain. However, limited coverage found in local papers tie him to several people and associations that lead us to believe this is the same person. For example, Bryant appeared in the Liberator, a major abolitionist newspaper, in an article promoting Black-owned businesses in Boston. He and others praised the services of fellow Vigilance Committee member Joshua B. Smith. Smith, known as the "Prince of Caterers," had recently catered a special dinner for the Sons of New Hampshire. Bryant and others on the Dinner Committee strongly recommended Smith and expressed their "entire satisfaction" with his work.²

Bryant also participated in both local and national politics and associated himself with parties and candidates that many other Vigilance Committee members supported. In 1854, he ran for the Massachusetts legislature as a member of the Know-Nothing Party.³ Though most known for its anti-immigrant views, the Know-Nothing Party, particularly in Massachusetts, aligned itself with some progressive causes including the antislavery movement.⁴ Though his campaign for the state legislature failed, Bryant did get elected to the Boston Common Council that year.⁵ In 1856, he joined a committee advocating for the election of John Fremont, the first Republican candidate for president.⁶ Several members of the Vigilance Committee, including John A. Andrew, not only supported but became key players in the emerging Republican Party due to its antislavery stance.

Bryant died in 1867 while visiting friends in Palmer, Massachusetts. Neither his obituary nor the records of New England Historical and Genealogical Society, in which he participated, mentioned any of his political activities or work on the Boston Vigilance Committee.⁷

If you are a researcher or descendant of David Bryant and can shed any light on his work in the Boston Vigilance Committee, please write to us at [e-mail].

Footnotes

1. Boston City Directory, 1850-1851, page 102, lists two David Bryants. One ran a grain store on Causeway Street, the other worked as an architect and lived at 45 Hudson Street. Based on supplemental sources, we believe the architect to be the member of the Boston Vigilance Committee. 1850 Federal Census has him as an architect, living in Ward 10, with his wife Nancy. For the purposes of NPS Maps, Bryant is geo-located at the approximate location of 45 Hudson Street. New England Historical and Genealogical Register 1868-10, Volume 22, Issue 4, page 475. 
2. “Business Enterprises of Colored People in Boston,” Liberator, January 27, 1854, page 3
3. Boston Evening Transcript, November 13, 1854, 2.
4. Stan Prager, "Strange Bedfellows: Nativism, Know-Nothings, African-Americans, and School Desegregation In Antebellum Massachusetts," Saber and Scroll, Volume 6, Issue 2, Spring-Summer, 2017, 15.
5. Boston Evening Transcript, January 10, 1854, 2.
6. Boston Evening Transcript, January 29, 1856.
7. New England Historical and Genealogical Register 1868-10, Volume 22, Issue 4, 475.