Robert Brough Rogers

Quick Facts

Significance:

Furniture Industry, Abolitionist, Temperance Advocate, Boston Vigilance Committee

Place of Birth:

Salem, Massachusetts

Date of Birth:

c. 1818

Place of Death:

Everett, Massachusetts

Date of Death:

August, 1882

Robert Brough Rogers, an abolitionist and temperance advocate, served on the Boston Vigilance Committee.

Born around 1818 in Salem, Massachusetts, Robert B. Rogers worked in the furniture industry. He began his career as a chair painter and later became a chair merchant and furniture dealer. In 1836, Rogers married Lucy Maria Parshley in Boston and began a family with her. The Rogers family lived in various places in and around Boston including Lynn, Chelsea, Charlestown, and Everett, though his professional life mainly centered in Boston itself.¹

While working in the city, Rogers became involved in various reform causes. He frequently contributed to temperance and antislavery efforts. In 1849, Rogers confronted renown temperance advocate Father Theobald Mathew on what he saw as the priest’s abandonment of the abolitionist cause. He told Father Mathew, "I protest against the compromise you have made with woman-whippers and baby-stealers." Also in 1849, along with fellow chair painter Henry Kemp, Rogers challenged the doctrine of peaceful non-resistance held by many abolitionists at the annual meeting of the New England Non-Resistance Society.²

In 1850, Rogers joined the efforts against the newly enacted Fugitive Slave Law. He may have addressed the audience at the African Meeting House that initially gathered to protest this law. According to a report of the meeting, a "RB Rogers" stated that he: 

would have the Fugitive and his friends remember that it was with the United States Government they were to contend, and that their position in resisting this obnoxious law was that of Rebels – a name however which he did not hesitate to accept, if loyalty to the constitution made him false to humanity. He urged the colored people to strive in securing the moral strength of the community in their favor as a potent lever for their enlargement; but would nevertheless assure them that in the event being forced upon them of a personal contest for Liberty, God was their helper.³

At this gathering in the African Meeting House, the Black community of Boston called upon their fellow Bostonians and allies to soon gather in Faneuil Hall to show their solidarity and support against this law. During the subsequent Faneuil Hall meeting, Bostonians created the third and final iteration of the Boston Vigilance Committee, which Rogers joined. This organization provided needed assistance to freedom seekers coming to and through Boston on the Underground Railroad, though Rogers' specific contributions to the group remain unknown.⁴

Rogers later involved himself in the Republican party, and, as a resident of Charlestown, unsuccessfully argued against its annexation by Boston.⁵

Remembered as "an old time Abolitionist, Free Soiler, and Republican, and a most earnest supporter of temperance and reform," Rogers passed away in Everett, Massachusetts, in 1882 at age 64.⁶

Footnotes:

1. New England Historic Genealogical Society; Boston, Massachusetts; Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911, Source Information: Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Death Records, 1841-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911; New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital Records, 1911–1915, Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011., Original data: Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook); Boston City Directory, 1847-1848, 187; Boston City Directory, 1848, 229; Boston City Directory, 1849-1850, 245; Boston City Directory, 1850-1851, 245, 328, 329; Year: 1870, Census Place: Charlestown Ward 1, Middlesex, Massachusetts; Roll: M593_625; Page: 92B, Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.
2. "Essex County Anti-Slavery Society," Liberator, October 15, 1847, 3; "Clerical Hangmen," Liberator, February 9, 1844, 3; "Father Mathew," Liberator, August 17, 1849, 3; "Sons of Temperance," Boston Evening Transcript, October 21, 1858, 4; "Ninth Annual Meeting of the N.E. Non-Resistance Society," Liberator, January 5, 1849, 3.
3. William Cooper Nell, "Declaration of Sentiments of the Colored Citizens of Boston, On the Fugitive Slave Bill!!!," Selected Writings, 1832-1874, edited by Dorothey Porter Wesley and Constance Porter Uzelac, (Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 2002), 274.
4. "Members of the Committee of Vigilance," broadside printed by John Wilson, 1850, Massachusetts Historical Society; Austin Bearse, Remininscences of Fugitive Slave Law Days in Boston, (Boston: Warren Richardson, 1880), 4; "Records of the Vigilance Committee of Boston" (Ms B.17), Garrison Collection, Boston Public Library (BPL).
5. "Political Items," Boston Evening Transcript, November 2, 1857, 2; "The 'Anti' Mass Meeting," Boston Globe, October 7, 1873, 8.
6. Everett Souvenir, 1870-1893, (Boston: Smith and Porter, 1893), 79; "Deaths," Boston Evening Transcript, August 8, 1882, 5; Middlesex County (Mass.) Probate Packets (1 - 4702) (Second Series) 1872-1967 (And 4703 - 19,935); Author: Massachusetts. Probate Court (Middlesex County), Source Information: Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.