Place

Site of John Oliver's House

Winter image of a small park next to a side walk with bare trees among dirt and dead grass.
John Oliver's home once stood approximately at this site. The building and street no longer exists.

NPS Photo/Woods

Quick Facts
Location:
3 Allen Place
Significance:
Site of abolitionist John Oliver's house
OPEN TO PUBLIC:
No
MANAGED BY:
Private Residence

John Oliver, a carpenter, boarded at 3 Allen Place in 1859.1 Between 1858 and 1859, John Oliver assisted four freedom seekers according to the Account Book of Francis Jackson, Treasurer The Vigilance Committee of Boston. On November 23, 1858, the Committee reimbursed Oliver for aiding “Mrs Simpsons slave child from Smithfield Virginia.”2 The following year, Oliver boarded “Slave child Adeline” and paid for “Lizzie Swan[’s]” passage to Canada.3

Oliver’s activism on behalf of his community extended beyond helping freedom seekers. He donated to the New England Anti-Slavery society and the John Brown Anniversary Meeting.4 Oliver also helped found the Colored Young Men’s Society for Mutual Improvement in 1859, serving as one of this group’s vice presidents.5

Handwritten record documenting that John Oliver boarded the freedom seeker Adeline, a child.

According to the Boston Vigilance Committee Treasurer's Account Book, John Oliver boarded the freedom seeker Adeline, a child, in January 1859. (Credit: Account Book of Francis Jackson, Treasurer The Vigilance Committee of Boston).

Footnotes

  1. Boston Directory, 1859 (Boston: Published by George Adams, 1859), The Boston Directory, 1789 to 1900, Boston Athenaeum, 346; “John Oliver Carpenter,” The Liberator (Boston, Massachusetts), February 27, 1852.
  2. Account Book of Francis Jackson, Treasurer The Vigilance Committee of Boston, Dr. Irving H. Bartlett collection, 1830-1880, W. B. Nickerson Cape Cod History Archives, 60, https://archive.org/details/drirvinghbartlet19bart/page/n59/mode/2up.
  3. Account Book of Francis Jackson, Treasurer The Vigilance Committee of Boston, Dr. Irving H. Bartlett collection, 1830-1880, W. B. Nickerson Cape Cod History Archives, 62, 64.
  4. “Collections,” The Liberator, June 7, 1850; “Mobocratic Assault Upon An Anti-Slavery Meeting In Boston,” The Liberator, December 7, 1860
  5. “Colored Young Men’s Society for Mutual Improvement,” Boston Traveler, November 7, 1859.

Boston African American National Historic Site

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Last updated: January 8, 2023