Posts Tagged ‘Enslaved People’
Debate Over Fugitive Slave Act Raises Questions of “Lawful Authority”
By Beth Folsom, 2026 On April 5, 1851, the Cambridge Chronicle reported that “an alleged fugitive named Robert Symmes was arrested in Boston on a warrant from Geo. T. Curtis, Esq., U.S. Commissioner. Symmes is alleged to be the slave of James Potter, of Chatham County, Ga.” In his struggle against arrest, Symmes allegedly “inflicted…
Read MoreThis carved 1746 corner cupboard has seen a lot, from an enslaver’s ceramics to British prisoners
By Caleigh Lyons, 2023 Tucked in the corner of the east parlor of the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House (built circa 1685) is a tall corner cupboard donated to the Cambridge Historical Society in 1992 by the LeMessurier family. It has served to display objects for the public to see, but what of the cupboard itself? What has…
Read MoreOn view now: “The Rebirth of the Forgotten Souls of Tory Row” art installation
The Rebirth of the Forgotten Souls of Tory Row & the Emergence of Echoes in Blue Outdoor Installation on the grounds of History Cambridge, 159 Brattle StreetOpen from dawn to duskFreeJanuary 1- April 30, 2026 The Rebirth of the Forgotten Souls of Tory Row is an outdoor installation co-created by installation artist Gail Bos and interdisciplinary artist Pam Goncalves, presented on…
Read MoreMarch 30: Washington in American Memory Speaker Series
Washington Remembered, Washington Forgotten: Washington and Slavery Monday, March 30, 20266:00-7:30 PMCambridge Public Library Lecture Hall (449 Broadway, Lower Level 2) Explore how Americans have remembered and forgotten Washington’s involvement with slavery over the past 250 years with Kelli Racine Barnes, Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow at Independence National Historical Park; John Garrison Marks, author of Thy…
Read More‘Reading Frederick Douglass Together’ at CCTV invites community to participate on Wednesday
By Beth Folsom, 2025 Frederick Douglass escaped in 1838 from enslavement in Maryland, where he had spent the first two decades of his life. Over the next 14 years, Douglass traveled around the northern states as an abolitionist speaker and writer, publishing his autobiography, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave,” and…
Read MoreEast Cambridge’s American Net and Twine Co. reflects a history entangled with enslaved labor
By Beth Folsom, 2025 Before the founding of the American Net and Twine Co. in 1844, fishing and other kinds of nets were either made locally using hemp fibers or were made of cotton but imported from England. American Net and Twine was the first manufacturer to use domestic cotton to craft its nets –…
Read MoreMarch 4: Confectionary Cambridge: Candy-Making in History and Memory
Tuesday, March 46-7 pmCambridge Public Library — O’Connell Branch48 6th Street, East Cambridge You’re invited to this special event with History Cambridge’s Beth Folsom and historian Caitlin Hopkins. The local candy-making industry goes back to the 1760s, when an Irish immigrant named John Hannon built a chocolate mill on the Neponset River in Dorchester. For…
Read MoreReclaiming William Wells Brown, an abolitionist, lecturer, author and doctor with Cambridge ties
Abolitionist William Wells Brown traveled in the 1800s in support of an immediate end to enslavement and for equal rights for Black Americans brought him around the country, across the Atlantic and ultimately to Cambridge.
Read MoreHistory Cambridge has a new partnership, joining with Slave Legacy History Coalition
While the Slave Legacy History Coalition applies for its own nonprofit status, History Cambridge expects to act as its fiscal sponsor and provide administrative support.
Read MoreSelf-Guided Tour: The Work of Revolution in Cambridge
Introduction For many, the first image that comes to mind when thinking of Cambridge during the Revolutionary Era is that of General George Washington taking command of the Continental Army on Cambridge Common in July of 1775, under what would come to be known as the Washington Elm. Although we now know that this tale…
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