Richard Hood

Quick Facts

Significance:

Abolitionist, Civil War soldier, 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee

Place of Birth:

Topsfield, Massachusetts

Date of Birth:

December 9, 1802

Place of Death:

Danvers, Massachusetts

Date of Death:

April 20, 1881

Place of Burial:

Danvers, Massachusetts

Cemetery Name:

Walnut Grove Cemetery

Abolitionist Richard Hood served in the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee and later in the Civil War.

In his memoir, Reminiscences of Fugitive Slave Law Days in Boston, Austin Bearse recorded the name Richard Hood on his "Doorman's List" of members of the Boston Vigilance Committee, an organization that aided freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad. Among other duties, Bearse watched the door at committee meetings and only allowed known members to enter. Although Bearse did not give any further identifying information, the Richard Hood that he listed is most likely the abolitionist Richard Hood of Danvers, Massachusetts.¹

Born in 1802 in Topsfield, Massachusetts, Richard Hood became a grist mill owner and contractor based in nearby Danvers. He married his first wife, Asenath, in 1825 and had nine children with her. Following her death, Hood married his second wife, Harriet, and had one child with her.²

Inspired by Boston abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, Hood and several others became the "leading spirits" of the anti-slavery movement in Danvers, collectively known as the "Seven Stars." Hood helped established the Danvers Anti-Slavery Society and served as a financial agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society.³

He organized abolitionist meetings and brought in high profile orators such as Frederick Douglass and Wendell Phillips. In doing so, he "rendered no small service to the town in bringing to it such visitors and voices as these, as an inspiration of liberty and life to its citizens." He even spent a night in jail for "attempting to speak on anti-slavery at a Friday evening prayer-meeting ... against the orders of the minister." According to one account, Hood and his colleagues "kept the community astir. They made the people think and talk. They were moral agitators..."⁴

In the wake of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, according to Bearse, Hood also joined the Boston Vigilance Committee. Other than appearing on Bearse's "Doorman's List," however, Hood's specific contributions to the organization and larger Underground Railroad network remain unknown.

At the onset of the Civil War, Hood enlisted in the 23rd Massachusetts Infantry. He served as wagon master of the regiment and later as wagon master of the brigade under General Ambrose E. Burnside.⁵

Following his discharge from the United States Army, Hood became a coroner and later served as a deputy sheriff for many years.⁶

Hood died in 1881 and his remains are buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery in Danvers.⁷

Footnotes

1. Austin Bearse, Remininscences of Fugitive Slave Law Days in Boston (Boston: Warren Richardson, 1880), 4.
2. Mary Jane Hood, John Hood of Lynn, Mass. And Some of His Descendants (Salem: Essex Institute, 1909), 26, Internet Archive.
3. Duane Hamilton Hurd, History of Essex County, Massachusetts: with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men (Philadelphia: J.W. Lewis & Co, 1888), 504-506.
4. Duane Hamilton Hurd, History of Essex County, Massachusetts, 504-506; "Danvers Anti-Slavery Society," Liberator, March 24, 1837, 52; "American Anti-Slavery Society," Liberator, May 29, 1840, 2; Israel Warburton Putnam, "Danvers Historical Collections" (Danvers: The Society, 1947), 84; "Agents," National Anti-Slavery Standard, September 9, 1841; Alfred Porter Putnam, Old Anti-Slavery Days (Danvers, MA: Danvers Mirror Print, 1893), ix-xx, 45, Internet Archive.
5. Mary Jane Hood, John Hood of Lynn, Mass. And Some of His Descendants, 26.
6. Mary Jane Hood, John Hood of Lynn, Mass. And Some of His Descendants, 26.
7. "Richard B. Hood," Find a Grave Memorial, accessed December 2024.