Spotlight #8: Jeremiah C. Boggs
These photos and the accompanying caption were originally posted to our Facebook page (link to external site) on February 1, 2024.
The month of February is dedicated to the often-overlooked history, achievements and struggles of Black Americans. Unfortunately, this history is not always easy to find, and we only know about many Black historical figures through second- and third-hand accounts. One of these figures is Jeremiah C. Boggs, a 30-year-old enslaved man who escaped to St. Albans in 1843 after being sold six times.
Boggs initially escaped from Richmond, Virginia and arrived in Albany, New York three weeks later. His ultimate goal was to make it to Canada, where slavery had been outlawed nine years earlier, but he traveled through Vermont instead of taking a more direct route, because he had a brother in Montpelier.
Once in Vermont, Boggs was welcomed by Underground Railroad agent Lawrence Brainerd, who gave him a job and taught him to read and write. However, Boggs' plans to stay in Vermont were cut short when he was recognized by a friend of his former master, and he soon departed for Liberia, West Africa with an agent from the American Colonization Society. Much of what we know about Boggs' life comes from a letter written by Lawrence Brainerd's son Aldis in 1895.