Join the 17th Century
Explore the story of early Boston, Massachusetts, and the wider 17TH century world
deer island: FROM PARADISE TO PRISON
King Philip’s War, the bloodiest in U.S. history, raged across New England in 1675-76. The sheer violence of this conflict has, in many historical accounts, eclipsed a profound injustice: the forcible internment by Massachusetts authorities of up to 1,000 Native people from “praying Indian towns” on Deer Island in Boston harbor.
Some were sold into slavery. None were able to escape. An estimated 500 Native people died slow, painful deaths from disease, cold, and hunger.
Today the Boston harbor islands are a picturesque site for picnics and hiking. This article reminds us of their true history.
A survey map of Deer Island, c.1700, possibly undertaken as Boston finalized its claim to what had been Native land. Photo: Boston Rare Maps, Southampton, MA
Events
A 17th CENTURY LIFE: THE DIARY OF RALPH JOSSELIN
DISCUSSION Wednesday, May 19, 2021, 7:00-8:30 PM
English Puritan minister Ralph Josselin recorded his life in rural Essex in a diary covering 60 years. He wrote of his fear of the plague as it spread from London towards his small village; his anxiety for his children’s health; his pastoral care for his congregation; his elation when parliamentary forces triumphed in a civil war battle. Join our discussion to explore, though Josselin’s own words, a life in the 17th century.
“It really hit home that this is why history is so critical.”
participant, reading group
5 Myths
Haters of fun, enemies of happiness? Puritans have a distinctly dismal reputation. We’re here to dispel these myths, as well as to correct the more idealized images. Did they really ban Christmas? (Yes.) Did they disapprove of sex? (No.) Find out how the Puritans formally separated church and state, were relatively restrained in their witch-hunts, and reveled in married bliss.
OF ONE BLOOD?
Massachusetts’ most famous minister, Cotton Mather, drafted rules for Boston’s slave community and condoned slavery as a great boon to enslaved people. But he also wrote that black and white people were “of one blood” and would meet as equals in heaven. In a trenchant and insightful article, Eduardo Gonzalez explores the theology behind Mather’s Christian slavery.
ANTI-VAXXERS
Smallpox was colonial New England’s most feared and deadly disease. When it broke out again in 1721, a debate erupted - whether to inoculate or not. Was inoculation, as recommended by the Royal Society and by Cotton Mather’s enslaved man, Onesimus, safe? Only one physician said yes. Find out how these early anti-vaxxers changed their tune and inoculations saved lives.
