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Vigilant Committee of Philadelphia minutes
The records for the Vigilant Committee consist of one volume, divided into two sections. The first section is the “Record of Cases Attended to for the Vigilant Committee of Philadelphia by the Agent.” The section consists of nineteen pages and contains records for each of the sixty-two cases in whic...
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| Corporate Author: | |
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| Collection: | Vigilant Committee of Philadelphia Minutes |
| Collection Number: | Am.3375 |
| Format: | Manuscript |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | Link to finding aid |
| Tags: | Add Tag |
| Item Description: |
Processing Information: Finding aid reformatted by Lindsey Schwartz, 2020. Processing Information: The volume had a section added to it at some point in its history. The pages in this section are larger than the rest of the text block and hung out over the edges of the binding. The spine had been replaced, but the sewing was broken and the new spine had come loose. The book was taken apart, and the sewing removed. Pressure sensitive tape was removed from pages taped into the book. Pages from the first section (the additional section) were washed and pages tipped on to others were seperated. Sections were formed and guarded, the text block resewn two-up, and placed into a new case. The original boards were soaked to remove the cover papers, and those papers are stored in a folio in a slipcase with the volume. For a transcription of the minutes, see volume 92 of Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, pp. 331-350. |
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| Physical Description: |
0.1 Linear feet ; 1 volume |
| Summary: |
The records for the Vigilant Committee consist of one volume, divided into two sections. The first section is the “Record of Cases Attended to for the Vigilant Committee of Philadelphia by the Agent.” The section consists of nineteen pages and contains records for each of the sixty-two cases in which the committee assisted from June 4, 1839, to March 3, 1840. The entries are brief and typically contain a brief description of the slave, the slave’s destination, and the expense incurred.
The first two entries of this volume pertain to a legal case in New Jersey involving the imprisonment of a runaway. Most of the remaining entries deal specifically with the cases for which assistance was provided. A typical entry is from November 1839: “Two cases. One from Bal[timore] the other from Kent attended to by EH. Coates in the absence of agent. Exp carriage 4--.” The entry for case number 12 on July 29, 1839, gives a similar summary, but is unusual because it provides the name of the slave: “Woman from vir[ginia] stout make dark complexion at Burlington. Reported by Jos Parrish. Name Mary ann Tilman sent to NY, CV. expense, $3.17.”
The majority of the cases involved one runaway, although there were some that involved two or more, such as case number 40 from November 5, 1839: “Eight persons from vir[ginia]. a very interesting Family sent to Canada accompanied by the agent. Nothing was written, however, as to why the agent found the family to be of interest.
Almost all of the cases in which the Vigilant Committee provided assistance involved runaways from Virginia and Maryland. There was one slave who came from New Orleans and one from Delaware. The runaways were predominantly sent to New York and Canada. There were a few exceptions, such as those who were to be sent to Liverpool and Trinidad and another who was to be sent to Liberia.
The second part of the book contains the minutes of the committee’s meetings from May 31, 1839, to July 25, 1844. The entries are sporadic and irregular. They contain information about the committee’s proceedings, appointments, expenses, and fund raising. The wording of certain activities was cryptic, perhaps to conceal the direct objective of the organization. At the June 10, 1839, meeting, it was resolved “that those persons who entertain strangers of a certain description shall be compensated therefore.”
Contained within the minutes are reports similar to those describing the cases at the beginning of the volume. Although the case reports end in March 1840, the minutes reveal that the Committee continued to assist fugitive slaves. At the April 25, 1841, meeting, it was reported that eleven cases had been attended to since the previous meeting held on December 17, 1840. At the September 2, 1841, meeting, it was announced that thirty-two cases were attended to since the June 23rd meeting.
The committee met only two times in 1842, both in January. The group did not meet again until December 28, 1843. The meeting was called for the purpose of reorganizing the Committee and filling vacancies. The Committee also announced its resolution to “adopt more liberal & systematic measures to aid them [slaves] in their efforts to escape.” In so doing, the committee also resolved “that it is proper to revive and reconstitute without delay the Vigilance Committee of Phila.”
Minutes were taken for five more meetings, the last of which was on July 25, 1844, where it was voted that G.W. Bolivar be substituted in place of Robert Purvis and that Bolivar and two others “were appointed to a committee for the next three months.” The circumstances surrounding Purvis’s replacement are unknown. What transpired in the following three months is also unknown, for there are no further records of the Committee. The Vigilant Committee of Philadelphia was the secret fund raising and electoral division of the Vigilant Association of Philadelphia, which was organized in 1837 by Robert Purvis, a dedicated abolitionist, to provide aid for runaway slaves. Like its sister organizations in other cities, this group provided the means necessary to assist runaways as they made their way north. The Vigilant Committee helped to make Philadelphia an important stop along the Underground Railroad. The records of the Vigilant Committee consist of one volume containing case records and minutes. The records are comprised of sixty-two entries, each of which describes the cases handled by the group between June 4, 1839 and March 3, 1840. In addition, the volume contains the minutes of the meetings held by the committee between May 1839 and July 1844. |