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Explore the story of early Boston, Massachusetts, and the wider 17TH century world
The other side of the ideal Puritan village - and patriotic history
The death of 21-year-old Simeon, an enslaved man born and raised in the household of the Rev. Israel Loring of Sudbury, was, as the minister recorded in his diary, a source of deep grief to the family. Simeon, Loring wrote, “was greatly beloved and his death has drowned us in tears.” His wife suffered such distress that she took to her bed. Simeon’s funeral was attended by much of Sudbury’s church congregation.
Yet, as Jane Sciacca, author of Enslavement in the Puritan Village, a new and important investigation into slavery in this storied Massachusetts town, points out, emotional attachment did not mean equality. Loring only freed Simeon the month before his death. At a time when slavery was legal in Massachusetts, enslavers enjoyed the same control over them as over their horses or cattle.
This sort of history has been, until recently, largely unknown. You can watch her presentation next week, on Wednesday, March 26, 7-8:30pm, read an excerpt in our blog, or buy the book at a discount, here. But history like Enslavement in the Puritan Village, which reveals a hidden story based on decades of painstaking research, could now be under threat.
In February, the US Department of Education wrote to American educational institutions, schools and universities advising them of new guidelines against education based on the “false premise that the United States is built upon ‘systemic and structural racism’” and discrimination.
The outcomes of the new demand for “patriotic history,” of course, are not yet clear, but as we in the Partnership of Historic Bostons continue to bring you scholarship from the 17th and 18th century, we’re aware of how important honest, rigorous and open-minded public history is - telling the whole story, warts and all.
The Loring parsonage in Sudbury, Massachusetts, home to the Rev. Israel Loring, who enslaved several people and whose diary is among the most revealing of sources. Wikicommons
Events
enslavement in a puritan village
jane sciacca
ONLINE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 2025, 7-8:30PM ET
Sudbury (now Sudbury and Wayland) was lauded as the ideal Puritan village. But was it? Drawing on church records, bills of sale and medical records, independent scholar Jane Sciacca explores the intimate lives of both enslaved people and enslavers - such as the Rev. Loring, whose home is pictured here.
“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.
English New England, 1620
We think of colonial Massachusetts as the home of black hatted puritans, friends of Oliver Cromwell and led by John Winthrop. Yet it was separatist puritans settling in Plymouth a decade earlier who established the New England Way of church practice, based on participation and self-government. Cattle, advice, and leadership flowed north. Award-winning historian Francis J. Bremer tells the story.
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.
