Jump to content

Harriet Bell Hayden: Difference between revisions

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Line 13: Line 13:


==Later years==
==Later years==
During the Civil War, Hayden took classes in reading and writing offered by a white abolitionist. Following the war she and her husband supported the temperance movement and Boston's West End Woman Suffrage League. In 1875, she was one of the founders of the Prince Hall Auxiliary Association, the women's arm of the local Black Masonic organization, the Prince Hall Masons, which supported sites for both the men's and women's groups. In 1876, to mark the centennial of the American Revolution, she organized a celebration for Boston's Black community.<ref name=npsbio/>
During the Civil War, Hayden took classes in reading and writing offered by a white abolitionist.<ref name=npsbio/> In 1865, she purchased the Henleys' house from the estate of [[Francis Jackson]], an abolitionist who had purchased the building in 1853 to prevent any other landlord from interfering with his tenants anti-slavery work.<ref>{{cite web | url= http://www.afroammuseum.org/site6.htm | title = Site 6 – Lewis and Harriet Hayden House – 66 Phillips Street | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623231621/http://www.afroammuseum.org/site6.htm |archive-date=June 23, 2016| website =African American Museum, Boston | access-date = February 23, 2024}}</ref>

Following the war the Henleys supported the temperance movement and Boston's West End Woman Suffrage League. In 1875, Harriet Henley was one of the founders of the Prince Hall Auxiliary Association, the women's arm of the local Black Masonic organization, the Prince Hall Masons, which supported sites for both the men's and women's groups. In 1876, to mark the centennial of the American Revolution, she organized a celebration for Boston's Black community.<ref name=npsbio/>


Lewis Hayden died in 1889. Harriet Hayden died of pneumonia in her Boston home at the age of 74 in 1893.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Mrs. Lewis Hayden |date=December 30, 1893 |newspaper=The Cleveland Gazette}}</ref> She is buried in [[Woodlawn Cemetery (Everett, Massachusetts)|Woodlawn Cemetery]] in [[Everett, Massachusetts|Everett]], Massachusetts.<ref name=npsbio/> An obituary paid her tribute:<ref name=wjobit/>
Lewis Hayden died in 1889. Harriet Hayden died of pneumonia in her Boston home at the age of 74 in 1893.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Mrs. Lewis Hayden |date=December 30, 1893 |newspaper=The Cleveland Gazette}}</ref> She is buried in [[Woodlawn Cemetery (Everett, Massachusetts)|Woodlawn Cemetery]] in [[Everett, Massachusetts|Everett]], Massachusetts.<ref name=npsbio/> An obituary paid her tribute:<ref name=wjobit/>

Revision as of 17:56, 22 February 2024

A drawing of Harriet that was included in her Obituary

Harriet Bell Hayden (1816-1893) was an African-American antislavery activist in Boston, Massachusetts. She and her husband, Louis Hayden, were the primary operators of the Underground Railroad in Boston and also aided the John Brown slave revolt conspiracy.

Early life

Harriet Bell was born in Kentucky in 1816. She had a son named Joseph and then, in 1842,[1] married Lewis Hayden, whose wife and son had been sold away to another slaveholder.[a] On September 28, 1844, after careful planning, the Haydens and Joseph, whom Lewis had adopted, escaped their Kentucky plantation,[3] travelling via Ohio and Michigan to Canada.[4] Reverend Calvin Fairbank and Delia Webster were instrumental in the first stage of their escape. Both were arrested upon returning to Kentucky. He was given a 15-year sentence for aiding the Henleys. She was sentenced to two years and pardoned after two months.[5] By 1846, the Haydens had permanently relocated with Joseph and their daughter Elizabeth, born in 1845,[6] to the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts,[3] where Lewis ran a clothing store that became the second largest Black-owned business in Boston.[1]

Underground Railroad activism

Upon settling in Boston, Harriet and Lewis began putting significant financial resources into helping blacks escape the South and move North.[3] At their home, Harriet opened a boardinghouse where she housed and protected escaped African Americans.[5] The Hayden household "harbored 75 percent of all slaves passing through Boston", hundreds of fugitives. Following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, she managed Boston's main Underground Railroad operations and was key to leading people through Boston's tunnel system. Harriet and her husband were praised by fellow abolitionists Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison for their efforts in aiding escaped blacks.[3] Among the most notable they assisted were William and Ellen Craft, who became well-known abolitionists.[4] In 1853 when Harriet Beecher Stowe was gathering material for her documentary work A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, she was brought to the Henleys' house and saw 13 fugitive former slaves being sheltered there.[7]

Between 1857 and 1859 John Brown stayed with the Haydens and disclosed his plans to raid Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Harriet and her husband helped to raise money in support of Brown's raid.[3] Her obituary in Women's Journal, a Boston women's rights weekly, said "no woman perhaps knew more than she of the inside history of the Harper's Ferry tragedy".[8]

Later years

During the Civil War, Hayden took classes in reading and writing offered by a white abolitionist.[6] In 1865, she purchased the Henleys' house from the estate of Francis Jackson, an abolitionist who had purchased the building in 1853 to prevent any other landlord from interfering with his tenants anti-slavery work.[9]

Following the war the Henleys supported the temperance movement and Boston's West End Woman Suffrage League. In 1875, Harriet Henley was one of the founders of the Prince Hall Auxiliary Association, the women's arm of the local Black Masonic organization, the Prince Hall Masons, which supported sites for both the men's and women's groups. In 1876, to mark the centennial of the American Revolution, she organized a celebration for Boston's Black community.[6]

Lewis Hayden died in 1889. Harriet Hayden died of pneumonia in her Boston home at the age of 74 in 1893.[10] She is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett, Massachusetts.[6] An obituary paid her tribute:[8]

Her bright, cheerful spirit and quaint, original utterances were an unfailing source of comfort and cheer in the darkest hours of the struggle. No history of that time will be complete without the name of Harriet Hayden and the record of the vigorous part she played."

Legacy

Upon her death, the entirety of the Haydens' estate, which amounted to around $5,000, was donated to endow a scholarship at Harvard University. The scholarship was to be used to provide financial assistance to black medical students at the Harvard University Medical School. The Haydens were likely inspired by their many abolitionist connections at Harvard, particularly Henry Bowditch, an abolitionist and professor of medicine there. The scholarship is still awarded today.[2]

Her home at 66 Philips Street is a national historic site and a stopping point along the Black Heritage Trail, a route that goes through the Beacon Hill neighborhood and has many stops at notable African American Heritage sites. Her home, however, is still occupied as a private residence and is not open to the public.[7]

An exhibition at the Boston Athenæum in the spring of 2024 uses two photograph albums that belonged to Harriet to document her social relationships and the networks of her day.[11]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Lewis' wife Esther Harvey and their son had been sold to US Senator Henry Clay, who in turn sold them.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Robboy, Stanley J.; Robboy, Anita W. (1973). "Lewis Hayden: From Fugitive Slave to Statesman". New England Quarterly. 46 (4): 591–613. doi:10.2307/364817. JSTOR 364817.
  2. ^ a b Powell, Alvin (February 23, 2015). "Legacy of Resolve". The Harvard Gazette.
  3. ^ a b c d e Snodgrass, Mary Ellen (2008). The Underground Railroad An Encyclopedia of People, Places, and Operations. Armonk, New York: M.E Sharpe, Inc. pp. 255–257. ISBN 978-0-7656-8093-8.
  4. ^ a b Yee, Shirley (February 17, 2007). "Harriet Hayden". Black Past. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  5. ^ a b Greenidge, Kerri (2006). Boston's Abolitionists. Massachusetts: Commonwealth Editions. pp. 31–51. ISBN 978-1-933212-19-7.
  6. ^ a b c d "Harriet Hayden". National Park Service. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Lewis and Harriet Hayden House". National Park Service.
  8. ^ a b "In Memoriam". Women's Journal. December 30, 1893. p. 413. Retrieved February 22, 2024 – via Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
  9. ^ "Site 6 – Lewis and Harriet Hayden House – 66 Phillips Street". African American Museum, Boston. Archived from the original on June 23, 2016. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  10. ^ "Mrs. Lewis Hayden". The Cleveland Gazette. December 30, 1893.
  11. ^ "Framing Freedom: The Harriet Hayden Albums". Boston Athenaeum. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harriet_Bell_Hayden&oldid=1209596532"