Place

Site of Jane Harris' Fruit Street Residence

A small grassy hill leading up to a large brick building. A bare tree is at the bottom of the hill.
The approximate location of Jane Harris' Fruit Street home. The building and street no longer exist.

NPS Photo/Woods

Quick Facts
Location:
5 Fruit Street
Significance:
Home of freedom seeker Jane Johnson
OPEN TO PUBLIC:
No

This site served as the final residence of Jane Harris, formerly Jane Johnson. Johnson escaped slavery in 1855 with her two sons and settled in Boston where she married Lawrence Woodfolk. Following Woodfolk’s death, she married the mariner William Harris. While in Boston, she sheltered several freedom seekers at her various residences. At the time of her death in 1872, she lived in this house as a widow with her son Isaiah. Isaiah escaped from slavery with his mother and brother twenty-two years earlier, and later he served in the 55th Massachusetts Regiment during the Civil War.1

Footnotes

  1. Katherine E. Flynn, “Jane Johnson, Found! But Is She ‘Hannah Crafts’?” in In Search of Hannah Crafts: Critical Essays on The Bondwoman’s Narrative, ed. by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Hollis Robbins (New York: BasicCivitas Books, 2004), 381.

Boston African American National Historic Site

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Last updated: January 7, 2023