Dennis Bigelow

Quick Facts

Significance:

Listed as a Member of the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee

Place of Birth:

Unknown

Date of Birth:

Unknown

Place of Death:

Unknown

Date of Death:

Unknown

According to the membership roster in Austin Bearse's Reminiscences of the Fugitive Slave Law Days in Boston, Dennis Bigelow participated as a member of the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee.¹

Bostonians founded this iteration of the Vigilance Committee in 1850 in response to the passage of the new Fugitive Slave Law. This controversial law empowered enslavers and their agents to capture and return freedom seekers to bondage with the full backing of the federal government. It also mandated the assistance of local and state officials and the public at large. Members of the Vigilance Committee provided funds, shelter, transportation, medical attention, and other assistance to freedom seekers escaping enslavement on the Underground Railroad.

We have not been able to find much information on Dennis Bigelow. The 1850 United States Census lists a Dennis Bigelow (b: 1778, d: 1851) living in West Boylston, Massachusetts, but given his age and the distance between his home and Boston he does not appear a likely candidate. Although another "Dennis Bigelow" lived in Boston in 1848 and 1849, he had apparently left by 1850.² While Dennis Bigelow is listed as a Vigilance Committee member by Bearse, there are no other accounts linking him (or any "D. Bigelow") to the Vigilance Committee, Underground Railroad, or antislavery activity. He does not appear on other lists of Vigilance Committee members, anywhere else in Bearse's Reminiscences, or in the Account Book of Francis Jackson, Treasurer of the Boston Vigilance Committee.

There is one intriguing possibility. In 1851, "Darius Bigelow," one of the "anti-slavery fraternity" signed a petition condemning the Mayor and Aldermen of Boston for their recent decision denying “the Free Soil citizens of this city and Commonwealth” the use of Faneuil Hall for a meeting.³ The Free Soil Party focused its attention on stopping the expansion of slavery into the western territories of the United States. Could this Darius Bigelow be connected to Dennis Bigelow? Could Bearse have gotten the name wrong? Unfortunately, public searches have not turned up any further record of a Darius Bigelow living in Massachusetts or connected to the anti-slavery movement.

For now Dennis Bigelow's identity and contributions to the Vigilance Committee remain a mystery. If you are a researcher or descendent of either Dennis or Darius Bigelow or can provide any further details of a Dennis (or Darius) Bigelow who participated in the Vigilance Committee, please reach out to us at [e-mail].

Footnotes

1. Austin Bearse, Reminiscences of Fugitive-Slave Law Days in Boston (Boston: Printed by Warren Richardson, 1880), 3.
2. According to Boston City Directories, in 1848 "Dennis Bigelow, Clerk" worked at 2 Union St. and boarded at the Marlboro Hotel. The 1849 Boston City Directory lists "Dennis Bigelow, Clerk, 72 Blackstone." There are no further mentions of Dennis Bigelow in the City Directories.
3. "Reception of Mr. Webster in Boston," The Liberator, Boston, Massachusetts, April, 18 1851, 2.