We used our studio time this week to record something special that will air next month. Without a new episode, we didn’t want to leave you without any HUB History this week. Instead, here are three classic episodes honoring black and white abolitionists in 19th Century Boston. Recorded last February, in the wake of President Trump’s attempt to implement a “Muslim Ban,” these episodes focus on Boston’s resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act, which was seen as an unjust law.
Boston Resists the Fugitive Slave Act
Lewis and Harriet Hayden
Harvard Medical School’s “Lewis and Harriet Hayden Scholarship for colored students.”- Visit the Lewis and Harriet Hayden House on a tour of the Boston African American National Historic Site and its Black History Trail.
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People of the Underground Railroad: A Biographical Dictionary by Tom Calarco
Shadrach Minkins and the Fugitive Slave Act
- Here are the notes Daniel Webster used to deliver a famous speech in favor of the Fugitive Slave Act.
- The 1843 Massachusetts Personal Liberty Law.
Seeking testimony that Lewis Hayden didn’t lead the mob:
Our Temple of Justice is a Slave Pen!
- The letter from Mary Blanchard to her father Benjamin Seaver, describing Anthony Burns’ march to the waterfront.
- The checks used to purchase Anthony Burns’ freedom
- An 1856 book about the Burns case; the following images are from this book.
- A City So Grand, by Stephen Puleo
Featured Historic Site
The Black Heritage Trail is this week’s featured site. It begins at the Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial and links 14 pre-Civil War structures and historic sites, including the 1806 African Meeting House, the oldest surviving black church in the United States. Today, the African Meeting House is preserved as part of the Museum of African American History, along with the adjacent Abiel Smith School, the oldest building in the nation constructed for the sole purpose of housing a black public school. The school houses rotating exhibits and a Museum Store open year around.
Visitors have several options for experiencing the Black Heritage Trail. You can download an audio tour, self-guide via the Museum’s website, or take a tour with a National Parks Ranger. The Museum of African American History’s Abiel Smith School and African Meeting House are open to the public year round, six days a week, Monday-Saturday: 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Upcoming Event
On Monday, February 26 at 6pm, the Massachusetts Historical Society is hosting a talk by Paul Finkelman of the University of Pittsburgh Law School, author of “Supreme Injustice, Slavery in the Nation’s Highest Court.” The book traces the history of slavery cases before the US Supreme Court, as well as the personal racism of some of the most influential pre-Civil War justices. From the MHS website:
The three most important Supreme Court Justices before the Civil War—Chief Justices John Marshall and Roger B. Taney and Associate Justice Joseph Story—upheld the institution of slavery in ruling after ruling. These opinions cast a shadow over the Court and the legacies of these men, but historians have rarely delved deeply into the personal and political ideas and motivations they held. In Supreme Injustice, the distinguished legal historian Paul Finkelman establishes an authoritative account of each justice’s proslavery position, the reasoning behind his opposition to black freedom, and the incentives created by circumstances in his private life.
There will be a reception starting at 5:30pm and the talk starts at 6. Registration is required, and costs $10 for non-members.