Hi, I’m Chris Boehmer. I’m not a historian, but I love reading about ordinary men and women who lived in historic times, who faced challenges and sometimes did something brave. And I love sharing their stories. I live in Andover, Massachusetts, a town in Essex County north of Boston, and I’m writing about the region where I live.
What: Among the many fascinating stories buried in local history sources, the ones I find most meaningful follow the changing laws and attitudes regarding slavery from 1760 to 1860, in the century before the Civil War. Ordinary Essex County men and women, Black and white, contributed in many ways to the ongoing movement against slavery. In the late 1700s African Americans and Native Americans enslaved here in Massachusetts found ways to gain their freedom, and after the United States became a country various people worked to make slavery illegal in the state. In the early 1800s local activists sought to curtail the transatlantic slave trade, which remained a source of wealth for some ship owners and captains and merchants based in Essex County. In the mid-1800s, as more and more people were enslaved in the American South and West, the antislavery movement in Essex County grew as well. Historians have written volumes about leading abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass, but I have little to add to those stories. Instead I hope to round out the picture, adding stories not yet told about earlier antislavery efforts, little-known activists, and ordinary folks who took up the cause.
Where: I’ll cover a narrow geography, focusing on people in Essex County — in coastal towns like Newburyport and Salem and inland towns like Andover and Haverhill. These people lived near enough to Boston to be influenced by the abolitionist vanguard there, but mostly they engaged in local actions and discussions within their communities. This Essex County focus helps reveal how antislavery sentiment slowly spread among ordinary folks and later became a movement that could not be ignored.
Why: Many of these stories inspire me, and that’s what keeps me drawn to this subject. But the antislavery movement was not all holding hands and singing Kumbaya. It was messy, and long. Some legal victories were subverted, as when laws against the slave trade were passed but not enforced. Formerly-enslaved people in Massachusetts faced a “continuum of unfreedom.” Abolitionists were confronted by angry mobs and powerful men who tried to silence them. They also argued vehemently among themselves over principles and tactics, in ways that sometimes reflected their misogyny and racial prejudice.
In an odd way, these stories of the messiness in the movement also encourage me. Because across decades of failures and rancor, a succession of imperfect advocates nonetheless carried forward the vision — that no human should be enslaved, and no one should enslave a fellow human being. Changing hearts and minds is a long game, won only when many individuals play their own small part, even when their side seems to be losing.
How: For this newsletter, I’m aiming for one or more posts per week. Topics will appear in no particular order. Some posts will be short — a tale of one historical person or event, or description of another resource I’ve found particularly rich. Other posts will be long research pieces. Others may be songs. Sometimes when I encounter an interesting story, I want to put it into song, and Substack will let me embed an audio track in a post!
Warning: Historical documents from the period 1760-1860 sometimes contain terms that are offensive to 21st-century readers. I intend to avoid offensive terms in my analysis and storytelling, but the terms will sometimes appear in quotations and excerpts.
Who: I invite guest writers to share stories drawn from their own research. I’d love to help knit together the community of folks in Essex County who are exploring this subject, so please do reach out!
Chris
History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.
— Mark Twain (or someone else)
I am also an independent researcher, living in Portland, Manie. My focus is on Mathew Franklin Whittier, John Greenleaf Whittier's younger brother. I have been researching his personal history and literary legacy since 2009. I've discovered that he kept an extremely low profile, publishing under dozens of pseudonyms, but that he had arguably as august a legacy as his famous brother. He is very badly misunderstood in the official Whittier legacy. I would be happy to share my research with you if you have an interest. I know I am a pariah so far as the Whittier folks are concerned, but I'm not so awful as they imagine. In any case, evidence speaks for itself.
Dear Christiana,
A friend recently told me about your blog as she knew that I am researching the Colored Female Religious and Moral Reform Society of Salem which was formed in the 1820s. This society established by a group of Black women in Salem was ten years before the Female Anti Slavery Society of Salem was established by white abolitionists. A former enslaved woman who lived in Danvers, Delia Page Rudloff Symonds, was a member of this organization until her death in 1850. I have been researching her life as she was enslaved by Jeremiah Page from 1766-1783. The Page house is owned by the Danvers Historical Society. After she became free, she moved to Salem.
When researching her life, I found evidence of her being a member of the Colored Female Religious and Moral Reform Society in her obit where the society members invited all members to attend her funeral.
I am now researching this organization to try to find a list of members. I do know that their first president was Clarissa C. Lawrence.
I found a great deal of information in 2 books
"Black Women Abolitionists, A Study of Activism, 1828-1860" by Shirley J. Yee, Univ. of Tenn. published in 1992
"To Plead Our Own Cause, African Americans in Massachusetts and the Making of the Antislavery Movement," by Christopher Cameron, Kent State Univ. Press,
I think by 1834 when Female Anti-Slavery of Salem was formed by white female abolitionists, they did eventually allowed Black women to join them including Sarah Remond, and Charlotte Forten.
I would love to find out more what you have discovered and love to share my research. I am a retired National Park Service employee who worked in the education/interpretation division of National Parks in this area including Salem Maritime and Saugus Iron Works National Historic Sites, Boston National Historical Park and Boston African American National Historic Site. I currently live in Beverly.
Sincerely,
Sheila Cooke-Kayser