Join the 17th Century

Explore the story of early Boston, Massachusetts, and the wider 17TH century world

reject attacks on massachusetts’ native people

According to the Cape Cod Times, March 22, 2024, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project building in Mashpee, Massachusetts, was desecrated last week with white supremacist graffiti, including swastikas. The Partnership of Historic Bostons rejects of this act of hatred. We know from our own public-history programs that the 17th century brought genocidal violence against Native people. Today, we owe New England’s original peoples the utmost respect and our solidarity.

UN-ERASING BLACK HISTORY

“Slavery never existed here [in New England] to any considerable extent,” wrote a Connecticut minister in 1825, “and for years it has been a thing unknown.”

As American Folk Art Museum curator Emelie Gevalt writes in her description of her forthcoming presentation for us, Unseen New England, neither point was true.

Building on last fall’s Enslavement & Resistance lecture series, we’re now offering you Recovering Black History in New England. These three events show what local history, local historians and art can do to bring people out of the shadows.

On March 27, in archaeologist and brilliant local history sleuth Gail Golec, joined by descendant Ray Brooks, reveals her findings about four generations in southern New Hampshire and Vermont in Remembering the Brooks Family.

On April 17, we offer you to tools to do this local history yourself. Two pioneering historians in New Hampshire show you the sources, methods and tools in Recovering Black History: A Workshop.

Finally, on May 15, American Folk Art Museum curator Emelie Gevalt will present Unseen New England: Re-envisioning Black Presence in Early American Art. She examines four pieces of art to reveal what they say about the portrayal - or absence - of Black people in early New England.

A sampler by Mary Little, in Newburyport, Massachusetts, 1800. Credit: William Butterworth Foundation, Moline, Illinois, 989.108.1

Events

remembering the brooks family

gail golec

ONLINE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2024, 7-8:30PM

How do we rescue forgotten people from oblivion? Join archaeologist Gail Golec as she retraces the steps she has taken to recover the lives of four generations of the Brooks family of southern New Hampshire and Vermont. Together with descendant Ray Brooks, a descendant, she brings to life this large extended Black family whose story has been largely unrecognised until now. Part I of our two-part series, Recovering Black History in New England.

recovering black history: a workshop

Jennifer Carroll and Michele Stahl

ONLINE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2024, 7-8:30PM

Two historians from trailblazing New Hampshire historical societies take you through the sources, methods and essential teamwork you need to undertake your own investigation into the hidden stories in your town. Together, they and a team of citizen archivists have uncovered the names and lives of more than 500 Black people in southern New Hampshire and Vermont, almost all previously unknown. Delve into your own local history with the aid of this dynamic duo!

UNSEEN NEW ENGLAND IN EARLY AMERICAN ART

EMELIE GEVALT

ONLINE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2024, 6-7:30PM

Emelie Gevalt, curator of a superb exhibition, Unnamed Figures, and curatorial chair of collections and curator of folk art at the American Folk Art Museum, offers a new way of re-envisioning the past: through early New England art. Her exploration of four key works reveals both gaps in our collective memory - and the distinctive nature of New England slavery, including the highly personal but deeply conflicted relations between white and black people in the same, intimate household. Unnamed Figures opens at Historic Deerfield in May.

“It really hit home that this is why history is so critical.”

participant, reading group

a remarkable tour: 53 sites

Fifty-three historical sites in Rhode Island, some newly discovered, most little known, have been joined in a novel project to put early New England history on the map: the Sowams Heritage Area. Dave Weed, project director, reveals the rich and multi-faceted history - Native and English - in tours and in his newsletter. See the spot where King Philip’s War began and the cave where Ousamequin offered Roger Williams a home.

the world of puritanism

On the eve of colonial Boston’s 400th anniversary, scholar Francis J. Bremer offers us a mini crash-course on puritanism - the magical world in which they, like all Europeans, existed; the profound pull of a pure faith in John Winthrop’s Stour Valley; and the unexpectedly liberating nature of puritanism for women. Learn all about it, in four short articles, from a world renowned expert.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum

A deed of sale signed by Squaw Sachem. The cost of imprisonment for the accused in the witchcraft trials. The “A” for adultery law. Who knew that it was possible to see these remarkable documents firsthand - or that they even survived? Go behind the scenes of the Commonwealth Museum to see what the Massachusetts Archives has in store.