Thompson Baxter

Quick Facts

Significance:

Member of the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee

Place of Birth:

Boston, Massachusetts

Date of Birth:

March 12, 1815

Place of Death:

Boston, Massachusetts

Date of Death:

May 28, 1900

Thompson Baxter is listed as a member of the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee, an organization that provided funds and other assistance to freedom seekers making their way to and through Boston on the Underground Railroad.

In a broadside published by the Vigilance Committee, Baxter's address is listed as 59 Milk Street. According to the 1850 Boston City Directory, Baxter worked as a "clerk" at this address, though he lived at 233 Broadway in South Boston. His name also appears alongside others in an October 1850 Liberator article calling for a meeting at Faneuil Hall "to consider the condition of the Fugitive Slaves and other colored persons of this city, under the new Fugitive Slave Law."¹ Other than these brief mentions, however, we do not know much about Baxter's role in the Vigilance Committee, or any other involvement in the anti-slavery movement at large.

An obituary from 1900 may be that of the Thompson Baxter who served in the Vigilance Committee, though it does not mention any work in that organization. The years, occupation, and residential neighborhood seem to line up. The Thompson Baxter who died "at South Boston," worked as a "bookkeeper," and would have been in his mid-thirties when the Vigilance Committee formed. If this is the same Baxter, he attended the old Hawes School of Boston and remained active in the Old Hawes School Boys' Association. At one of the reunions of this group, the moderator introduced him as "our sterling and most respected citizen."²

This Baxter also served in several leadership roles at the Hawes Unitarian Congregational Church. Many Unitarian leaders, including Theodore Parker and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, played prominent roles in the abolition movement and Underground Railroad. Perhaps Baxter's religious beliefs inspired him to join the Vigilance Committee? He also participated in several fraternal organizations including the Bethesda Lodge 30, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.³

Given the similar profession and neighborhood, it is likely that the Thompson Baxter who died in 1900 is the same who served in the Vigilance Committee, though we do not know for certain. If you are a researcher or descendent of Thompson Baxter and can provide any further details of this or a different Thompson Baxter who may have participated in the Vigilance Committee, please reach out to us at [e-mail].

Footnotes

1. "Members of the Committee of Vigilance," broadside by printed by John Wilson, 1850, Massachusetts Historical Society. NPS maps place Baxter approximately at 59 Milk Street based on the information from this broadside.; Boston City Directory 1850-1851, 87 https://cdm.bostonathenaeum.org/digital/collection/p16057coll32/id/42; "The Fugitive Slave Law," Liberator, October 18, 1850.
2. Boston Evening Transcript, May 29, 1890.; The Hawes School Memorial (Boston, D. Clapp and Son, 1889), 25, Internet Archive.
3. Boston Evening Transcript, May 29, 1890.