Pages, documents and objects and we collect material up to the present day. We like to say that we tell a global story through a massachusetts lens. If youre interested in learning more about the society, we have all the programs we are putting on, including the other events series. G the please visit our website. Academic seminars made possible we have by our donors. If youre interested in supporting us, visit our website for more information. This series, the legacies of 1619, it marks the 400th anniversary of the first recorded landing of africans at an english colony in north america. We thought this would be a great opportunity to have a retrospective look at africanamerican history over the course of 400 years. The First Program today is titled recognition and resilience. All the panelists will be speaking to that theme. Some element of that theme as we get going. We are in the historic african meetinghouse. We are very thankful to the museum of African American history for hosting us here. I am going to introduce our speakers in the order that they will be speaking. They will speak for about 10 minutes on the theme of recognition and resilience. Then, i will throw it over to our moderator, who will engage the panelists in a conversation for another 1015 minutes, that en we will open it up to questions for the audience. Have questions ready as we get going. Our first speaker today is an assistant professor of history at princeton university. His first book is titled higher laws, blackandwhite transcendentalists in the fight against slavery. He is a longterm fellow at the Massachusetts Historical Society and he is there working on intellectual history of the reconstruction era. Our second speaker is the director of the American Studies Program at tufts university. She is also the codirector of the africanamerican trail project at the center for the study of race and democracy. She has a book coming out in november called black radical the life and times of William Monroe trotter. Whenill be giving a talk that comes out. And finally a professor from the Wisconsin University at pottsville. He is the author of multiple volumes of historic nonfiction and fiction. Including 1919 the year of racial violence. That came out in your moderator 2014. Is Professor Robert belanger. He is also the director of the black studies program and clark collection of africanamerican literature. Thank you so much for joining us. Professor. [applause] i want to start by thanking the team for hosting us. I want to think the audience for coming out on a beautiful saturday afternoon to spend some time talking about this important topic. As we have seen over the last couple of years, there is no historical topic more important than american slavery and its impact on our life. Im going to cover a small chunk of the story of how black and white abolitionists saw southern slavery not as a foreign, distant thing that only existed mason dixon line. Its an institution that lived and breathed and shaped life here. I want to start my talk with an observation that william cooper, a black abolitionist and historian made, he was speaking at daniel hall, not too far from here. Even though he was born in boston and spent most of his life here, he claims he was a victim of slavery in the south. Testifying in the statehouse, he explained what he meant. Here, we stand equal before the law. But i stand before you today a victim of violated rights. He was unable to visit the southlake like other white citizens could. His argument was all people of one state that there would be guaranteed privilege. As a free africanamerican in the 1850s, not the case. That was not the case. He was enslaved in South Carolina. Slavers in South Carolina reduced his ability to equal rights in massachusetts. Slavery, framed northern culture and politics well into the 19th century. It is easy to assume there is a hard line separating the north and south. That massachusetts was a free state after the revolution. His observation confirms that confounds that assumption. Its true that northern political culture ultimately developed in ways that were more committed to freedom than the south. To some degree, the fact they were willing to do that is because they were worried about the ways southern slavery will be interfering with their life. That does not mean slavery did not impact the economic and legal culture of states like massachusetts. I want to suggest the realities life inry have shaped the 19th century. As im sure most of you know come massachusetts abolished slavery in the constitution. It was approved by voters of the commonwealth. Realipation was made through a series of lawsuits. One slave brought about a despot lawsuits before the supreme court. They declared that slavery was against the massachusetts state constitution. By the First Federal census said 1790, there was no legal slavery in massachusetts. This was a trend. During and after the revolution, voters and politicians in most of northern states interpreted the values of the American Revolution contrary to slavery. These are some of the first governments in modern history that were prodemocratic and some of their first actions were to abolish slavery. As one historian argued the , American Revolution constituted a part of modern largest emancipation in modern history and the rest of activity would follow. By the early 19th century, they started second slavery. The expansion of slavery in the u. S. South intended to produce Raw Materials for the Industrial Revolution in europe and in the north. This reinvigorated southern slaveholders with more aggressive slave politics. By the 1830s, northern abolitionists and free africanamericans were becoming aware that the ways these newly empowered southern slaveholders were having a hold on the social life of northern life even generations after being emancipated. First, economic. As many of you know in the first , part the 19th century, new england was the center of american industrialization, particularly textiles. This directly linked the northern economy to slavery. Consider an observation made by josiah quick. Most of you have seen the statue. Former mayor of boston. A change had come over the free states. In certain localities where cotton weaving became a source of wealth. Boston became identified with cotton weaving interest. He was a federalist mayor of conservative boston for, establishment guys. In the late 80s, he became a radical critic of what happened in boston because of these links with southern slavery. You have the sense that my city, boston, is being lost because of the cotton wealth. Boston itself, because it was where merchants who traded in cotton lived, they consistently voted against abolitionist politics well into the 1860s, while the rural parts were much more likely to support antislavery politics. That suggests the alliance between southern planters and northern textile makers have political consequences. Many northern politicians abandoned their antislavery principles as the merchants began to do so much business with southern planters. The whigs begin to dominate the way party to keep tabs on prices. Observed, a wanderer through the streets of boston, by 1820s, was less likely to hear someone talking about the rights of man and more likely to hear them discussing the price of cotton. A consequence of this is that it began to seem with the legal institutions and customs of slavery were coming north. Northern blacks were unable to freely travel between the states. One of the central rights protected by the u. S. Constitution. That wasnt all. Northern africanamericans could not easily travel abroad. The federal government was in charge of issuing passports. They refused to grant africanamericans passports, refusing to acknowledge the possibility of black citizenship. A fugitivels brown, slave intellectual, complained after they degraded us, sold us mobbed us, did , everything in their power to oppress us, then we wish to leave the country, the refuse us passports on the grounds we are not citizens. The legal power southern slaveowners have over boston africanamericans was worse after the 1850 fugitive slave law, which further eroded the rights they had. The cornerstone of american law was the presumption of innocence. In other words, one should be considered innocent of a crime of running away unless proven otherwise. Slaves in the south did not have this presumption of innocence. The fugitive slave law brought the southern logic north into boston. It required instead that a free africanamerican prove their freedom. Blacks in the north begin caring proof of their emancipation, similar to blacks in the south having to carry a pass. Slaveowners could get citizens to recapture freed slaves, similar to southern patrols. William brown concluded we have no rights in massachusetts. The result of senator Charles Sumner declaring that slavery is everywhere. There is no time to give a full account. It is worth considering many africanamericans and white citizens in the north, the Abolitionist Movement was just about self as protecting themselves. Thank you. [applause] hello. Hello. [laughter] call and response. Historicalhank the society and the museum and my this timelyists for and needed discussion. Im looking to hear from the audience as well. Over 200 20 5, 1902, black bostonians met the mayor in the statehouse in boston