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IMAGE AND TIMELINE: Black Boston Highlights: 1638-1909
Transcript
IMAGE and TIMELINE: Black Boston highlights; 1638 - 1909
DESCRIPTION: This lithograph was created from an artist standing on the North end of Joy street, looking up the North slope of Beacon hill, standing on the sidewalk on the left side of the street, opposite the Abiel Smith School. The Abiel smith school is the two story brick building that is placed directly in the center of the image, and is placed just behind Smith Court - a street that branches off of Joy Street on the right hand side. On the side of the street facing Smith Court, there are 5 windows visible - three on the second story, and two on the first. The windows are evenly spaced apart, and it can be assumed the rest of the windows are being blocked by another wooden building on the other side of Smith Court. On the side of the building facing Joy Street, there are also 5 windows; three on the top story which are evenly spaced, and two on the bottom In the foreground on the right hand side is a wooden house, and there are our people of color standing around the front door. This wooden house has two stories and is on the part of the street going down. There is a door and window on the first floor and two windows spaced evenly above on the second floor.
CAPTION: Abiel Smith School
CREDIT: Museum of African American History
RELATED TEXT:
1638: First enslaved Africans brought to Boston aboard the slave ship Desire.
1641: Massachusetts enacts Body of Liberties defining legal slavery in the colony.
1770: Crispus Attucks, an escaped slave, is first colonist killed in the Boston Massacre.
1783: Slavery abolished in Massachusetts.
1798: First black private school opens in home of Primus Hall.
1800: Free black population nears 1,100.
1806: African Meeting House opens as First African Baptist Church.
1808: Hall house school moves to African Meeting House.
1826: Massachusetts General Coloured Association, a black abolitionist group, founded in the African Meeting House.
1829: David Walker publishes The Appeal, an essay urging slaves to fight for their freedom.
1831: William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing The Liberator.
1832: Garrison forms New England Anti-Slavery Society at the African Meeting House.
1835: Abiel Smith School opens, Boston's first black public school; replaces African Meeting House school.
1849-50: Sarah Roberts unsuccessfully challenges segregation in Boston public schools.
1850: Fugitive Slave Law requires fugitive slaves be returned to their owners.
1855: Boston integrates public schools; Abiel Smith School closes.
1861: Civil War begins.
1863: Emancipation Proclamation signed; 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment formed, the first all-black regiment raised in the North.
1865: Civil War ends; 13th Amendment abolishes slavery.
1897: Robert Gould Shaw Memorial honoring 54th Massachusetts Regiment dedicated on Boston Common.
1898: Black congregation at African Meeting House moves to Roxbury; meeting house becomes a Jewish synagogue.
1900: Sgt. William H. Carney, veteran of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, receives Medal of Honor for rescuing the flag during the Battle of Fort Wagner, SC, in 1863.
1901: William Monroe Trotter begins publication of influential African American magazine The Boston Guardian.
1909: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) founded, with overwhelming support of black and white Bostonians.
Description
Description of timeline and applicable images explaining the highlights of Boston's African American History as depicted in the BOAF brochure
Duration
4 minutes, 1 second
Credit
UniDescription/Gould and Pollock
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