Join the 17th Century
Explore the story of early Boston, Massachusetts, and the wider 17TH century world
Take our june challenge!
J.T., author of The World turn’d upside down (pictured right), styled himself a “well-willer to King, Parliament and Kingdom,” but in 1647, when his pamphlet was published, the recipient of his good wishes - both monarch and parliament - were at war, and the kingdom was stained with blood. Britain found itself, he wrote, in “distracted Times.”
For England, the 17th century was a world turned upside down. In New England, it meant founding a colony, war and annexation of Indigenous land, rights under law, and slavery. At least, that’s what we at the Partnership of Historic Bostons think. For us, the 17th century is the most exciting and foundational century going. But what’s your view?
Our challenge to you this month is: tell us what you think of the 17th century - and why it matters today.
The winner of this short-essay competition gets a chance to be published - and a copy of Jared Hardesty’s book Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds.
In 300 words or less, or even a few sentences, send us your ideas. Write to phbostons@gmail.com by June 30, letting us know if we can use your name if you’re published. Who can resist?
J.T., The World turn’d upside down (London: John Smith, 1647). British Library
Events
SUING SLAVERY in Essex
JEANNE PICKERING
ONLINE, THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2025, 7-8:30PM ET
Between 1765 and 1783, 21 enslaved men and women sued for their freedom - and won. Their suits, starting as claims for freedom on the basis of having a free parent, soon posed questions to white citizen juries: who had rights, the enslaved or the enslaver? Join independent scholar Jeanne Pickering in exploring how these victories paved the way for legal freedom for all in Massachusetts.
“It really hit home that this is why history is so critical.”
participant, reading group
black lives, white worlds
Who tells the story of history - the powerful or the powerless? In this pithy book review, Evana Rose Tamayo asks what Jared Hardesty’s masterful book, Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds has to tell us about people in the least powerful position of all, how how they retained their own agency, and their role in building New England into the strongest economy in the new nation..
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.
Defend your rights!
The rights we take for granted did not begin in the 20th century, or in the Revolutionary era - but with the Massachusetts Body of Liberties in 1641, the first bill of rights in the English-speaking world. Honoured as much in the breach as in practice, the rights of 1641 - to equal justice under law and protection from arbitrary rule - remain for us to expand and defend today, as historian Lori Rogers-Stokes argues.
