EVENTS
Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA
smallpox in early boston
WALKING TOUR, SUNDAY, JULY 19, 2026, 2:30-4PM
MICHAEL PROCHILO
Smallpox: the great killer of the 17th century. Europeans brought the disease to New England, causing the deaths of untold numbers of Indigenous people - up to 90% of some tribes. It left villages abandoned across the region in what Puritan colonists thought was a providential sign that they had the right to seize the land. But even the English, with some immunity, suffered terribly from this disease. This brand new PHB walking tour, researched deeply by Michael Prochilo, takes you into the disease-ridden past, with the terrors of sudden, inexplicable death and a dramatic debate: should Bostons vaccinate - or not? Meet at Park Street Station for an amazing walking tour!
1630: from shawmut to boston
WALKING TOUR, THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2026, 6-7:30PM
ROXANNE REDDINGTON-WILDE
Stroll through history with our original walking tour, 1630: From Shawmut to Boston! Meet the people, places and ideas of 1630s Boston - built on the Native land but created in a Puritan English image. Places are limited, so register now! Price: $10/person.
We start in 1630 on the slopes of the Shawmut peninsula. The English Puritan founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony looked to create an ideal society as seen through their own – and no one else’s – eyes. Boston, as they renamed the place, became its center. Meet the people, places and ideas that turned Shawmut into Boston.
1630: from shawmut to boston
WALKING TOUR, THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 6-7:30PM
ROXANNE REDDINGTON-WILDE
Stroll through history with our original walking tour, 1630: From Shawmut to Boston! Meet the people, places and ideas of 1630s Boston - built on the Native land but created in a Puritan English image. Places are limited, so register now! Price: $10/person.
We start in 1630 on the slopes of the Shawmut peninsula. The English Puritan founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony looked to create an ideal society as seen through their own – and no one else’s – eyes. Boston, as they renamed the place, became its center. Meet the people, places and ideas that turned Shawmut into Boston.
watch party! HOW AMERICAN RIGHTS BEGAN IN…ENGLAND
BLUESKY/YOUTUBE WATCH PARTY, SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2026, 2-3:30PM ET
DENISE CONNOR
Tyranny - or representation? Liberty - or monarchical rule? Those were the questions debated in England’s civil war, with the politics of representation, the power of the monarch, and the meaning of liberty and equality at its heart. Join historian Rachel Foxley and our social media volunteer Denise Connor in watching Radicalism and Resistance in the English Civil Wars, while sharing your views on Bluesky. Yes, it’s a new way of getting together - so sign up for Bluesky, follow the Partnership of Historic Bostons, get your popcorn at the ready, and watch! (We’ll send you precise instructions by email, so no worries.)
book club: belonging: slavery and family
BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2026, 1-2:30PM
EVANA ROSE TAMAYO
How did the many enslaved Africans who lived in households throughout New England retain their sense of family? Award-winning historian Gloria Whiting tells the tale of the enslaved men and women who fought to keep their families together - even while they lived in separate homes - and how their struggles helped to end Massachusetts slavery. Join PHB book club leader Evana Tamayo in discussing this utterly brilliant, beautifully written book, which adds so much to our understanding of what enslavement meant to the people of New England.
“LAND AS IDOL”: JUSTIFYING LAND EXPROPRIATION
DANIEL RICHTER WITH BRAD LOPES
ONLINE, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2026, 7:00-8:30pm ET
Age of Exploration, papal bulls, terra nullius? What were the justifications that English Puritans used to explain their expropriation of Native land? Renowned historian Daniel Richter tackles the question of justification in an exploration of theory and practice of colonial land annexation. “Land! Land! Hath been the Idol of Many in New-England,” lamented Puritan clergyman Increase Mather. Join this trenchant presentation, moderated by Aquinnah Wampanoag educator Brad Lopes.
stolen relations: UNCOVERING UNTOLD STORIES
PANEL DISCUSSION, OCT 7, 2026, 7-8:30PM
LINFORD FISHER, CHERYLL TONEY HOLLY, PAULA PETERS AND LORÉN SPEARS
From the first moments of European colonization, Native people in the Americas were captured and enslaved - most of them remaining unnamed and unknown. Now you can find the names and lives of thousands of them, thanks to the groundbreaking Stolen Relations project. The result of collaboration between reearchers at Brown University and a dozen regional Native nations, the Stolen Relations database tells the stories of nearly 8000 people. Find out what this remarkable database has to offer - rich documentation, suprisingly intimate details, and many names - from the core team involved in its creation.
THERE AND YET NOT THERE: THE LIFE OF ZIPPORAH ATKINS
ONLINE, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2026, 7-8:30PM
DOROTHY CLARK
“There, but yet not there.” That’s how independent researcher and historian Dorothy Clark describes the life of Zipporah Potter Atkins, the first Black woman in Boston known to have purchased her own home, in 1670. Her story shows how free Black people in early New England challenged the assumptions around them. But it also reveals, through the trail of property records, wills, church documents and maps, the elusive, little documented nature of early Black history. Through this original presentation - first given here! - Dorothy Clark helps us to consider who is remembered, who forgotten, and why.
“You knocked it out of the park with this lecture. Have signed up for them all.”
—attendee, Enslavement & Resistance series