Vigilance Committee

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Abolitionists met at Faneuil Hall in the 1830s and formed the Committee of Vigilance and Safety to 'take all measures that they shall deem expedient to protect the colored people of this city in the enjoyment of their lives and liberties.' The abolitionist New York Committee of Vigilance and Vigilant Committee of Philadelphia were also established in the 1830s and assisted fugitive slaves and the Underground Railroad. Between 1850 and 1860, following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, professional bounty hunters began swarming through Northern states searching for missing enslaved people. In response, vigilance committees were set up in several places in the North to assist the escaped enslaved people. For example, Gerrit Smith called the Fugitive Slave Convention of 1850 'on behalf of the New York State Vigilance Committee.' Many such committees were integral parts of the Underground Railroad.

In Their Own Story

In the Western United States, before and after the Civil War, various vigilance committees formed with the stated purpose of maintaining law and order and administer summary justice where governmental law enforcement was inadequate. In reality, those high in the social hierarchy often used them to attack maligned groups, including recent immigrants and racial or ethnic groups. In newly settled areas, vigilance committees promised security and mediated land disputes. In ranching areas, they ruled on ranch boundaries, registered brands, and protected cattle and horses. In the mining districts, they defended claims, settled claim disputes, and attempted to protect miners and other residents. In California, some residents formed vigilance committees to take control of officials whom they considered to be corrupt. This occurred in San Francisco during the 1856 trial of Charles Cora (Belle Cora's husband) and James Casey.

Reader's Guide

In 1835, after a kangaroo court 'conviction', a vigilance committee in Nashville, Tennessee was responsible for the public whipping of Rev. Amos Dresser for the crime of distributing abolitionist publications (which he claimed he did not do). The names of all 62 members of the self-appointed vigilance committee were published by the American Anti-Slavery Society, annotating some as 'Elder in the Presbyterian Church' and the like. Other examples include the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee, 1840s and 1850s: abolitionists who worked to subvert the Fugitive Slave Act and helped escaped enslaved people, including Henry Box Brown; the Jackson County, Indiana Vigilance Committee (a.k.a. the Scarlet Mask Society or Southern Indiana Vigilance Committee), 1868: captured and hanged ten members of the Reno Gang; the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance, 1851 and 1856, San Francisco, California; the San Luis Obispo Vigilance Committee, 1850s, San Luis Obispo, California: known to have hanged six Californios and engaged in battles around the area; the 3-7-77 Vigilance Committee, 1860s–1870s, Virginia City, Montana; the Anti Horse Thief Association, 1860s, Fort Scott, Kansas; the Baldknobbers, 1880s, Taney, Christian, and Greene Counties, Missouri; and the Knights of Liberty, c. 1917–1918, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and California.

Did You Know?

• The Whitechapel Vigilance Committee was founded in 1888 in London to capture Jack the Ripper.
• The Oxford Vigilance Committee during World War I ran volunteer patrols of women to discourage and report on what was perceived as 'immoral' behaviour of the town's women.
• The Vigilance Committee of the Gaelic Athletic Association identified members who played or attended 'foreign games' (soccer and rugby union) in contravention of the association's rules, a rule in place until 1971.
• The Biddulph Peace Society was a vigilance committee formed in 1876 in Biddulph, Ontario, Canada.
• The 1835 Nashville vigilance committee publicly whipped Rev. Amos Dresser for distributing abolitionist publications, which he claimed he did not do.