Hosted by the Slave Legacy History Coalition
Presented by Judy Granger
Wednesday, November 12, 2025 | 10:30-11:30 AM ET
Online
This genealogical and historical research grew out of Judy Granger’s discovery of an amazing document: the first American Anti-Slavery Almanac. Sharing this news prompted a friend’s family story and concern, about a Black infant, enslaved at birth in 1761 in Massachusetts. Pomp Russell eventually became a NH Revolutionary war soldier, and an early settler of Weld, Maine. Local Maine histories and New England genealogies back into the 1600s allowed Judy to discover his kith and kin. And then a new discovery emerged, these wilderness communities had two of the earliest anti-slavery societies in the country. Why?
About Judy Granger
I am a retired educator, working with learners from 2 year olds to college students and teachers. I did my masters and doctoral work in curriculum development and educational administration at Kent State University, Ohio, and have worked in ME, NH, VT, and OH. One office was on the levee of the Ohio River, with Underground Railroad sites invisibly nearby, and racism still ever present. Remembering– it took three months of vetting people and on the day– closing off all bridges and roads by state troopers so we could hear Ralph Abernathy speak. My work focused on vision-based long range planning in schools and communities, informed by qualitative and action research. I have always been fascinated by genealogy as it could tell us real stories grounded in time, place, and the real lives of those people with whom they were connected. Giving voice to people long passed is a way of restoring and re-pairing their lives to ours.
This presentation represents the view of the speaker and not necessarily that of the Slave Legacy History Coalition.
The Slave Legacy History Coalition is a consortium of individuals, organizations, and institutions engaged in the preservation of the history of enslaved people in the Cambridge, Boston communities and beyond. The Slave Legacy History Coalition was established in the fall of 2021 by the Lloyd Family descendants of Tony, Cuba, and Darby, whose enslaver Issac Royall Jr. endowed the first law professorships at Harvard University, which eventually became Harvard Law School. The Slave Legacy History Coalition was established to build a pathway forward for other families who are descendants of slaves and also the general public to help connect to the vast repositories of information on slave legacy history in the Boston and Cambridge communities and beyond. The mission of the Slave Legacy
History Coalition is to provide easier access to information and resources on the legacy of slavery before and after emancipation for the families of slave descendants and the general public. Copyright 2022 -2024 Lloyd Family Trust
