EVENTS
wonders, portents and providences
ONLINE
THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2025, 7-8:30PM ET
DAVID D. HALL
Ships in the sky, "monsters" born to unruly women, babies prophesying from their cradles, flying devils: welcome to the mental world of 17th c New England. Renowned Harvard historian David Hall explores the way that early New Englanders understood their world. Today we would call this magical thinking; then, it explained the world and its otherwise inexplicable events, large and small, as God’s providences. Don’t miss this presentation!
ENSLAVEMENT IN A PURITAN VILLAGE
ONLINE
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 2025, 7-8:30PM ET
JANE SCIACCA
It was lauded as the quintessential Puritan village in a Pulitzer Prize winning history. But what was the true story of Sudbury, Massachusetts - the second town established west of Boston in the first decade of English Puritan settlement? Local historian Jane Sciacca, author of a new book, delves into church records, wills, bills of sale, medical records, diaries and more to tell us of the intimate lives of both Sudbury’s enslaved people and people who were enslavers, such as the Rev. Loring, whose home is pictured here.
“This presentation nailed it - and should cause people to sit back and realize that mankind has done a lousy job of planning for pandemics because they don’t pay attention to history.”
participant, reading group