In 1641 the Puritan commonwealth voted for the Body of Liberties and, in it, recognized inherent, natural rights for all free white men. Nearly 150 years later, Black Bostonians, members of the Freemasons' African Lodge No. 1 , petitioned the Massachusetts state government.
Website Launch: Reimagining New England Histories K-12 Curriculum Project
Brown University's Simmons Center launches an Educator’s Guide for Teaching about Historical Injustice, Sovereignty, and Freedom in the Dawnland (New England)
ABB/WHERE Event: The Descendants Walk in York on 11/16/24
This Saturday, join us in experiencing the town of York in a new and powerful way—as the Descendants all of us are. We'll warm up over homemade soup and bread and watch a rending performance by Antonio Rocha that will open a discussion about what happened here, what each of us carries in our lineages, and what it all might mean for us today.
ABB Atlantic World Connections Event | Dr. Seth Rockman on Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery 10/23
The industrializing North and the agricultural South—that’s how we have been taught to think about the United States in the early 19th century. But in doing so, we miss slavery’s long reach into small New England communities, just as we fail to see the role of Northern manufacturing in shaping the terrain of human bondage in the South. Join us Wednesday for an introduction to Dr. Rockman's forthcoming book.
Partnership of Historic Bostons Event | A Nation in Balance: Sovereignty, Earth and the Meaning of Right Relation
Aquinnah Wampanoag citizen, educator and author Linda Coombs on how Native people saw sovereignty as the right relationship to the earth.
Imagine Studios Event | Newburyport’s 4th Annual Indigenous Peoples Day gathering on 10/14/24
Join Newburyport's 4th Annual Indigenous Peoples Day Event, Monday October 14th, at Newburyport Waterfront Park
Event | The Malaga Ship: A Story of Maine and the Middle Passage
On Friday, October 11th, at 7 pm in its historic sanctuary, First Parish Church will present award-winning storyteller Antonio Rocha in a performance of The Malaga Ship: A Story of Maine and the Middle Passage.
Walking Tour Event | Brookline’s Hidden History of Slavery and Freedom on 10/27/24
This lively 90-minute tour visits three sites to tell the history and stories of slavery and freedom in Brookline, MA.
Brown University Event | Slavery & Legacy Community Walking Tour
In the eighteenth century, racial slavery permeated every aspect of social and economic life in Rhode Island. The Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice’s Slavery and Legacy Walking Tour invites guests to learn about the history and legacy of slavery as it pertains to Brown University and the state of Rhode Island.
Radcliffe Event | Black Lead: The Radical Black Roots of New England Liberalism on 10/16/24
Kerri K. Greenidge’s new book complicates the idea—propagated by white nationalists and accepted as fact by most liberal-leaning historians, scholars, and commentators—that New England is a predominantly white space in which African descended people and their communities have had little political effect.
MHS Event | Racial Histories of Higher Education in New England: A Symposium Co-Hosted by The New England Quarterly on 9/27/24
As battles have raged over the meaning and fate of Confederate monuments across the south, colleges and universities in New England, generally regarded as liberal bastions, have also been engaged in a deep and consequential reckoning with aspects of their history and ongoing practices that rest on the legacies of slave trade and settler colonialism. This event will highlight the work of a diverse range of historians, as well as university archivists and museum professionals, discussing a range of issues from the Colonial period to the present that shape the industry, experience, and cultures of higher education.
Event | Slave Dwelling Project hosts 8th National Conference October 3-5 in Philadelphia, PA October 3-5
The 8th national Slave Dwelling Project Conference will take place October 3-5 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in collaboration with University of Pennsylvania’s McNeil Center for Early American Studies.
Truro Event | What Happened Here? Surfacing Cape Cod’s Connections to Slavery and Colonization with Meadow Dibble on 8/21
This Wednesday, Meadow Dibble will offer an overview of Cape Cod's entanglements in the global economy of enslavement at Truro's Highland House Museum.
WHERE2024 Event : The Norridgewock Memory Walk, Hosted by Wabanaki REACH on 8/17/24
This August marks the 300th year since the brutal massacre of hundreds of Wabanaki / Abenaki women, children, and elders committed by a raiding party from York. Wabanaki REACH, in collaboration with Atlantic Black Box, invites your participation in a WHERE2024 walk to take place at the Historic Pines in Madison, Maine.
Jesup Library Event | Eden’s Other Sons: MDI Seafarers, Shipbuilders, and the Slavery-Based Economies of the West Indies Trade with Anna Durand on 8/8/24
Mount Desert Island’s shipbuilders, sea captains, and sailors hold a special place in our collective memory. Hardworking and self-reliant, these men (and occasionally their wives) created a living from the sea. But historical records also show that trading Maine-made products like salt cod and barrel staves for rum, sugar, and molasses brought MDI seafarers into economic partnership with the slave-holding plantations of the West Indies.
Revolutionary Spaces Events: “Bounty” film on Indigenous resilience showing daily at the Old State House
Hosted by Revolutionary Spaces in collaboration with Upstander Project Showing daily at the Old State House starting July 1 GET TICKETS Bounty captures Penobscot families reading and reacting to bounty proclamations that incentivized the scalping of Indigenous people. Filmed in the Old State House, where many of these laws were signed, the film confronts the brutal … Continue reading Revolutionary Spaces Events: “Bounty” film on Indigenous resilience showing daily at the Old State House
Revolutionary Spaces Events: Daily Tour on Slavery and Resistance in Colonial Massachusetts
Uncover the realities of slavery and learn how enslaved people resisted oppressors at our newest tour, Slavery & Resistance in Colonial Massachusetts. Hear the compelling stories of figures like Scipio Gunney, Phillis Wheatley, and Belinda Sutton on this engaging 60-minute experience.
In the news: A family discovery connected two strangers and opened their eyes to NH’s history of slavery
A few years ago, a collection of old family letters led to a discovery that connected two strangers across the country who learned their family histories were connected by slavery in New Hampshire: one, the descendant of a man who was enslaved in Portsmouth; the other, a descendant from the family that enslaved him.
This Saturday: Join ABB & Partners for The Walk to Unsettle Portland
On Saturday, June 22, Atlantic Black Box and The Third Place’s EcoBIPOC Network invite you to join The Walk to Unsettle Portland, a daylong collective practice—at once physical, emotional, creative, and intellectual—in unsettling our understanding of this place by surfacing the suppressed stories of those who walked here before us. Please join us for all or part of the day.
ABB Event | Teaching Hard History: Past, Present, and Future on 6/13
An educator workshop and teacher-appreciation dinner with Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries of The Ohio State University, Dr. Kate Shuster of the Hard History Project, and longtime education leader Maureen Costello.