Cuming, Freeman live on
For the first 150 years of its existence, Concord was a slave town. Its doctors, lawyers, merchants, and ministers relied on slaves to grow their food and tend to their increasingly elaborate wardrobes and domestic furnishings. Slavery allowed these town leaders to pursue professions away from their plows and appear on the colonial stage as gentlemen.
Mary Rice,’a little old gentlewoman’
by Polly Attwood
Editor’s note: The following is part of a series from the Drinking Gourd Project, dedicated to preserving the Caesar Robbins house as an educational center for the untold stories of Concord’s early Africans, abolitionists and other civil liberties advocates.
Many residents and visitors to Concord know the story of John Jack, whose grave can [...]
Inside the Bigelow House
by Liz Clayton
Editor’s note: The following commentary is part of a series from the Drinking Gourd Project, dedicated to preserving the Caesar Robbins house as an educational center for the untold stories of Concord’s early Africans, abolitionists and other civil liberties advocates.
Dressed in her hoop skirt, scarf and shawl, Rosa Hallowell set out tea cups [...]
Concord Female Anti-Slavery Society Members
Members included:
Mrs. D. Gerrish, PresidentMiss Helen Louisa Thoreau, Vice President & Founding MemberThoreau’s sisterThe Thoreau home was a haven for fugitive slaves.(1812–1849)Mrs. Tewksbury, TreasurerMrs. Mary Brooks, Secretary & Founding Member“Perfectly fearless” Mary Merrick Brooks, wife of Concord lawyer Nathan Brooks, was the cornerstone of the Concord anti-slavery efforts and she corresponded quite frequently with Wendell [...]
Peter Hutchinson
A descendant of former enslaved persons, Peter Hutchinson and his wife Nancy Dager of Danvers raised fived daughters (see #26). It is believed that Peter Hutchinson was the first African resident to vote in Concord in 1881 and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetary.
The Garrisons
Jack Garrison was a self-emancipated person from New Jersey. He married Caesar Robbins’ daughter Susan and lived with Susan and their eight children in a second room added onto the Robbins’ house. A photograph of Jack Garrison hangs prominently in the Concord Museum.