Did white chimneys represent secret safe houses on the Underground Railroad? | The Curiosity Desk

Was a historic area home’s distinct white chimney once a signal that that it was a safe house on the Underground Railroad? Hanover resident John Goldthwait reached out to the Curiosity Desk to find out whether this tale that he’s long heard is true. For an answer we visit Boston’s Beacon Hill, once a center of Underground Railroad activity, with historian L’Merchie Frazier. Frazier discusses some of the common mythology surrounding the Underground Railroad and takes us to a few of the neighborhood locations that were critical to the effort, including the Lewis & Harriet Hayden House, John Coburn’s Gaming House and the African Meeting House. And historian Rachel Hoyle weighs in on whether the story of the white chimney is a true tale or just a historical myth.


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[GBHNews]

A bit of extra detail on what Rachel Hoyle at the Shirley-Eustis house told us regarding the white chimney:

According to Hoyle, there is solid, written historical evidence that some chimneys were white thanks to that particular, moisture-preventing paint. As for the black trimming, there isn't the same kind of documentation, but Hoyle and other historians theorize that it was most likely simply aesthetic.

She also said the idea that these white chimneys were connected to the Underground Railroad isn't the only myth they've been associated with.

"Sometimes those types of white chimneys with the little black on the top are called loyalist chimneys, ” she explained. “Because it was also thought that, in the 18th century, that that denoted a home where a loyalist lived."

To be clear, that’s ‘loyal to England’ during the Revolutionary War-era. And it’s also almost certainly untrue.

[pmclaughlin]

It would have been nice to include Massachusetts personal liberties laws(e.g. Latimer law), Boston Vigilance Society, .and the Abolition Riot of 1836 and Riot of 1854