Join the 17th Century
Explore the story of early Boston, Massachusetts, and the wider 17TH century world
resisting tyranny
With this year’s lecture series, Tyranny vs Liberty: Politics in 17th Century New England, we’ve seen how New England Puritans established unprecedented rights and liberties for themselves. Thanks to brilliant presentations by historians David Hall and Francis J. Bremer, we’ve seen, too, how many myths about Puritans (theocrats, autocrats, the first Christian nationalists) are simply not true.
But while the Puritans planted the seeds of representative government, what about those denied those same rights? Linda Coombs, Aquinnah Wampanoag author and historian, examined the consequences of colonial political decisions for Native people: loss of land, loss of sovereignty, resistance. Award-winning historian Margaret Newell, along with Egypt Lloyd of the Slave Legacy History Coalition and Brown University historian Linford Fisher, investigated the network of Indigenous and Black people helping the enslaved to resists and escape the tyranny of slavery.
You can watch all their presentations, here.
In the final presentation in our series, Chernoh Sesay Jr. brings us back to the question of basic rights, as we hear about the petitions filed by Boston’s Black freemasons. Nearly 150 years after the Puritans granted liberties to themselves, including the right to vote, Black people in Massachusetts were still demanding these same rights for themselves.
This document testifying to the free status of the bearer was forged by a Rhode Island Black man, who risked his life to ensure that others could be free. Courtesy of Margaret Newell
Events
signs, stories and myths
joe palumbo
ONLINE, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2025, 7-8:30PM ET
Concord, Massachusetts: home to Louise May Alcott, Emerson and Thoreau, scene of the Revolutionary “shot heard round the world,” and a centre of 19th century abolitionism. What happens when a town priding itself on its history confronts a truer story of its past? Historical guide and interpreter Joe Palumbo, born and raised in Concord, tells the story of how this storied town faces the challenges of history in the 21st century.
“It really hit home that this is why history is so critical.”
participant, reading group
Change the flag and Seal!
After 82 towns voted yes, a special state commission explored its history and meaning, and campaigners worked for years, governor Maura Healey signed a bill in July 2024 authorising the creation, over a period of a year, of a new flag and seal for Massachusetts - one that will represent, not domination over Indigenous people, but respect for all its citizens. The campaign’s David Detmold reports.
what were they thinking?
At the top of the shopping list was a simple word: “ministers". Thus the priority for the Puritan colonists preparing to leave England for their new world. First Church in Boston was precisely that - the first church, founded on arrival. What does this legacy mean today? The Rev. Dr. Stephanie May, minister of First Church Boston, offers this eloquent sermon on the anniversary of the naming of Boston as a colonial city.
This American Jezebel
Was she a self-righteous destroyer of Puritan polity and society? Or a dissenter paving the way for later struggles for freedom of speech and religion? Nearly 400 years after Anne Hutchinson’s trial and banishment, award-winning author Eve LaPlante speaks about the controversy surrounding Puritan Massachusetts’ most outspoken woman. Watch Eve’s November lecture to find out more.
