James B. Richards

Quick Facts

Significance:

Boston Vigilance Committee member

Place of Birth:

Ceylon

Date of Birth:

October 16, 1817

Place of Death:

New York, New York

Date of Death:

February 14, 1886

Place of Burial:

New York, New York

Cemetery Name:

Green-Wood Cemetery

James B. Richards served as a member of the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee.

Born on October 16, 1817, James Bardwell Richards spent his earliest years in Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka), where his father, a reverend, worked as a missionary. He came to New England at 8 years old following the death of his father. After completing his own education, Richards started teaching at 17 years old—first in New Hampshire, and later, in Boston for six years.¹

When visiting Europe in 1846, Richards grew interested in the education of those with intellectual disabilities after seeing institutions supporting this work in cities such as London and Paris. With the financial help of Samuel Gridley Howe, the first public institution for people with intellectual disabilities opened in South Boston in 1848; Richards served as its superintendent.²

Richards supported the abolitionist movement in Boston, becoming a “devoted adherent”³ of William Lloyd Garrison. In 1850, following the passage of a new Fugitive Slave Law, Richards joined other Bostonians to form the third and final iteration of the Boston Vigilance Committee. The organization aided those escaping slavery on the Underground Railroad coming to and through Boston. While Richards served as a member of the committee, his direct contributions to the organization remain unknown.⁴

Richards retired from his superintendent position in South Boston in 1859 and left for Philadelphia, where he opened a private institution for people with intellectual disabilities. He eventually moved from Pennsylvania to New York.⁵

In New York City, Richards continued to fight for the antislavery cause and against the Fugitive Slave Law. He helped form the State Personal Liberty Committee, which sought to “procure the enactment of a law protecting the inalienable rights of every inhabitant of the Empire State and banishing the slave-hunter from her soil.”⁶ In 1860, Richards also served on a finance committee for the American Anti-Slavery Society.⁷

Richards lived and worked in New York City until his death on February 14, 1886. His remains are interred in the Green-Wood Cemetery.⁸

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Footnotes

1. “Recent Deaths,” Boston Evening Transcript, February 16, 1886, 8; “James B. Richards,” New-York Tribune, February 16, 1886, 5; Necrology of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1887), 326, https://archive.org/details/newenglandhistov41wate/page/n657/mode/2up.  
2. The Boston Directory, (Boston, George Adams, 1850), 241; Necrology of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1887), 326.  
3. “James B. Richards,” New-York Tribune, February 16, 1886, 5.  
4. Richards is mapped at his location, 20 Bromfield St., from "Members of the Committee of Vigilance," broadside printed by John Wilson, 1850, Massachusetts Historical Society.
5. “Summary of News,” Springfield Daily Republican, November 17, 1851, 2; “Recent Deaths,” Boston Evening Transcript, February 16, 1886, 8.
6. “Petition,” The Liberator, November 18, 1859, 4. 
7. The Liberator, May 18, 1860, 3. 
8. “Recent Deaths,” Boston Evening Transcript, February 16, 1886, 8. “James Bardwell Richards,” Find A Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/58229440/james-bardwell-richards; Necrology of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1887), 326.