Ian McGiver wrote:
>
> Is any one on the list familiar with "vigilance committees" operating in
> mid-nineteenth-century New York State?
>
> I am trying to make sense of a brief notation in the town minutes for the
> town of Fulton, Schoharie County. In Feb. 1840, the town formed a
> "commitey at vigelence." Several men from various sections within the town
> were named to be on the committee.
>
> At that point Anti-Rent difficulties were starting up in nearby Albany
> County. I know that Schoharie County farmers were paying close attention
> to the Albany situation. And, within a few years, many Schoharie County
> farmers would join the anti-rent resistance. The farmers in the uplands of
> the town of Fulton were said to be particularly fierce in their support
> for the resistance. So I am wondering if the 1840 vigilance committee
> might have had something to do with the anti-rent situation. But this is
> only a guess. I have no other information about this committee, or its
> actions, other than this brief notation in the town records. Nor did I see
> a reference to such a committee in the town an earlier or later date.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Thanks
> Ian McGiver
> [log in to unmask]

I was just at Mystic Seaport, and in their Amistad exhibition there is a
letter that went out soliciting financial support for a vigilance
committee, which helped fugitive slaves. I can't remember the state from
which it originated, and I believe it was nineteenth century.
--
Lesley L. Humphreys
Curator of History and Research
New York State Historical Association/The Farmers' Museum
PO Box 800
Cooperstown, NY 13326
PH  607-547-1531
FX  607-547-1404