Harriet Bell Hayden

Harriet Bell Hayden (c. 1816–1893) was an African-American antislavery activist in Boston, Massachusetts. She and her husband, Lewis Hayden, escaped slavery in Kentucky and became the primary operators of the Underground Railroad in Boston. They aided the John Brown slave revolt conspiracy, and she played a leadership role in Boston's Black community in the decades following the U.S. Civil War.

Early life Harriet Bell was born into slavery in Kentucky in about 1816. She had a son named Joseph who was born about 1839. Working in Lexington for her owner, Patterson Bain, On September 28, 1844, after careful planning, the Haydens and Joseph escaped from Kentucky, travelling via Ohio and Michigan to Canada. Reverend Calvin Fairbank and Delia Webster were instrumental in the first stage of their escape. Both were arrested upon returning to Kentucky. He was given a 15-year sentence for aiding the Haydens. She was sentenced to two years and pardoned after two months. By 1846, the Haydens had permanently relocated with Joseph and their daughter Elizabeth, born in Boston in 1845, and were renting a house at 66 Southac Street (now Phillips Street)

Underground Railroad activism

Upon settling in Boston, Harriet and Lewis began putting significant financial resources into helping blacks escape the South and move North.

Later years Her son Joseph served in the United States Navy from November 1861 until his death from disease in Alabama in June 1865 at the age of 26. Years later, as Lewis Hayden's health was failing, friends organized by their ally the abolitionist doctor Henry Bowditch raised enough money to pay off the Haydens' mortgage and provide additional support for Harriet. She is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett, Massachusetts. The scholarship was to be used to provide financial assistance to Black medical students at the Harvard University Medical School. The Haydens were likely inspired by their many abolitionist connections at Harvard, particularly Henry Bowditch, an abolitionist and professor of medicine there. The scholarship is still awarded today.

Her home at 66 Philips Street is a national historic site and a stopping point along the Black Heritage Trail, a route that goes through the Beacon Hill neighborhood and has many stops at notable African American Heritage sites. Her home, however, is still occupied as a private residence and is not open to the public. A plaque placed on the building by The Heritage Guild mentions Lewis but not Harriet Hayden.

An exhibition at the Boston Athenæum in the spring of 2024 examined two photograph albums that belonged to Harriet Hayden, as a means to document her social relationships and the social networks of her day.