Looking back and looking forward

First anniversary of this blog

I sincerely thank all of you for reading! When I started this blog a year ago, I envisioned nerding out on local history that I found meaningful, and sharing relevant stories with perhaps a small collection of local history enthusiasts. The researching and writing has been a joy to me, and the readership has grown beyond my expectations. As of today you are a group of 96 subscribers, and even if I haven’t met you in person, I consider you all “my people.”

But I want to address the elephant(s) in the room. It’s March 2025, and for the past two months the new administration has carried out a shameless attack on the history of African Americans and on the people who work to uncover, understand, and share that history. The attack on Black history has been a slow burn for a long time, but within weeks has become a conflagration. The last few weeks have set my head spinning. Like you, I’ve been struggling to find my footing in this rapidly shifting landscape. I’ve also wondered about the place of my own research and writing in this moment.

Here’s how I see it. I’m just going to keep on researching and writing these untold stories of the antislavery movement north of Boston 1760-1860.

Teachers and historians in the National Park Service, the National Archives, and the Department of Defense are finding their work erased and de-funded, their voices silenced, and their jobs in peril. So maybe it’s even more important for amateurs like me, with no career to protect, to share stories that people in power want to erase. This history needs to be shared and discussed.

But then, I wondered, how should I write about this challenging history now? We all desire some respite from the spectacle of cruelty in power. Are the discouraging stories about what the antislavery movement was up against just too depressing right now? Should I focus narrowly on the inspiring stories of people who tried to make a difference? Should I shift gears, to share some of the stories that the U.S. government has erased from public websites and documents, whether or not they fit into my local antislavery focus?

I’ve decided to just keep on doing what I’ve been doing, sharing untold stories of the antislavery movement in Essex County. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I’m keeping my local focus, because that’s what I know.

The political developments of 2025, like all of history always, arise from a complex push and pull of individual motives and broad dynamics, constantly shifting. Activists like those in the antislavery movement might feel they’re shouting into the wind for decades, and then a time comes when people are suddenly ready to hear their message. Consider the recent Bernie Sanders rallies. Bernie has been shouting his anti-oligarchy message into the wind for a long time. Today more people want to listen.

Maybe those activists of hundreds of years ago have something to teach us. So I’ll just keep on sharing the stories of what they were up against and how they persisted.

Thank you for wanting to understand this history.

Selected references

Bennett, Geoff. 2025. “Pentagon history purge highlights which stories are told and why others are ignored.” In PBS News Hour March 18, 2025. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/pentagon-history-purge-highlights-which-stories-are-told-and-why-others-are-ignored

Bobb, David J. 2025. “No One Should Want the Federal Government Dictating Civics Education.” EducationWeek March 6, 2025. https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/opinion-no-one-should-want-the-federal-government-dictating-civics-education/2025/03

Brown, Stacy M. 2025. “Trump threatens to rewrite Black history.” Minnesota Spokesman and Recorder March 2, 2025. https://spokesman-recorder.com/2025/03/02/black-press-defense-against-trump-history-erasure/

Drenon, Brandon. 2025. “Arlington Cemetery strips content on black and female veterans from website”. BBC News March 15, 2025. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz03gjnxe25o

Gruver, Mean. 2025. “One of last surviving Tuskegee Airmen criticizes Trump’s DEI purge.” Military Times March 24, 2025. https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2025/03/24/one-of-last-surviving-tuskegee-airmen-criticizes-trumps-dei-purge/

Hagopian, Jesse. 2025. “Trump’s Education Agenda for Teachers: Sanitize US History or Leave the Field.” Truthout January 24, 2025. https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-education-agenda-for-teachers-sanitize-us-history-or-leave-the-field/

Huo, Jingnan and Quil Lawrence 2025. “Here are all the ways people are disappearing from government websites.” On NPR Morning Edition March 19, 2025. https://www.npr.org/2025/03/19/nx-s1-5317567/federal-websites-lgbtq-diversity-erased

Levin, Kevin. 2025. “Frederick Douglass Parade Canceled After 54th Massachusetts Pulls Out.” On his Civil War Memory Substack February 21, 2025.

Frederick Douglass Parade Canceled After 54th Massachusetts Pulls Out

Lieberman, Mark. 2025. “McMahon Declines to Say If Black History Classes Are Allowed Under Trump Order.” In Education Week February 13, 2025. https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/mcmahon-declines-to-say-if-black-history-classes-are-allowed-under-trump-order/2025/02

Mitchell, Jerry. 2025. “Trump once hailed WWII vet Medgar Evers as a ‘great American hero.’ Now the U.S. Army has erased him from a section on the Arlington National Cemetery website.” In Mississippi Today March 17, 2025. https://mississippitoday.org/2025/03/17/wwii-vet-medgar-evers-erased-from-arlington-cemetery-website/

Siid, Asia. 2025. “Schools can still teach Black history — very carefully.” In Bay State Banner February 12, 2025. https://baystatebanner.com/2025/02/12/schools-can-still-teach-black-history-very-carefully/

Stanley, Jason. 2024. Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Erasing-History/Jason-Stanley/9781668056912

Thompson, April. 2025. “National Civil Rights Museum at risk of losing federal funding.” On WREG News March 25, 2025. https://wreg.com/news/national-civil-rights-museum-at-risk-of-losing-federal-funding/

Weinberg, Hannah. 2025. “Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Libraries.” In American Libraries March 19, 2025. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2025/03/19/tracking-the-trump-administrations-attacks-on-libraries/