author
Benjamin P. (Benjamin Peter) Hunt
b. 1808
Known for a sharp 1866 pamphlet challenging racial exclusion on Philadelphia streetcars, this 19th-century writer also spent years tied to trade and research in Haiti and the wider West Indies. His surviving work connects social protest, historical curiosity, and a deep interest in migration and Caribbean history.
1 Audiobook
Why Colored People in Philadelphia Are Excluded from the Street Cars
by Benjamin P. (Benjamin Peter) Hunt
About the author
Benjamin P. Hunt, also identified as Benjamin Peter Hunt, was born in 1808 and died in 1877. He is best remembered for Why Colored People in Philadelphia Are Excluded from the Street Cars (1866), a pamphlet that examined racial discrimination in public transportation in Philadelphia and has remained part of the historical record of civil rights activism in the city.
Hunt was also closely connected to Haiti and the West Indies through commerce. The Boston Public Library notes that he was once a resident of Chelmsford and long engaged with trade in Haiti and the Caribbean, and that the core of its West Indies collection was bequeathed from the extensive materials he gathered on the region.
His interests clearly ranged beyond one subject. Records of his work include Facts & Notes Relating to the Redemptioners and the Early Emigration of the Poor to America, showing his attention to immigration history as well as contemporary social questions. Taken together, his writings suggest a researcher and pamphleteer drawn to overlooked histories and public injustices.