Ellen Garrison: Concord’s Young 19th Century African Activist (Caesar Robbins’ Granddaughter)
In 1835, Concord bicentennial was held, and the night before, the teacher of public school asked all the children who wanted to walk in the procession to stand. “All arose but one colored girl, a good scholar, and belonging to a respectable family. The teacher asked her if she would not like to go. She [...]
Who Was Caesar Robbins and Why Is His House So Special?
This humble house is a link and a witness to some of the most important and real history that we have. It is the only standing house built by an early African resident of Concord. It in, we have been given a unique gift : the opportunity to create a center where we can teach these stories to our youth and the visitors from across the US and the Globe who come to Concord each year.
Brister Freeman’s Ditch Fence
Naturalist J. Walter Brain discovered Brister’s ditch fence, using Thoreau’s survey map, in the Hapgood Wright Town Forest. Allan Schmidt, former member of the Trails Committee, used it to locate Brister’s home site on the Brister Freeman’s Trail Map in the town forest kiosk. Both are helping author Elise Lemire and the Drinking Gourd Project plan a stone marker to memorialize this site.
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 [...]
CFASS in Concord
Concord’s role in the American Revolution and in the literary and philosophical ‘revolution’ of Transcendentalism has long been celebrated. Less well known, is the leadership that women of Concord provided to yet another revolution – the abolition of slavery in the United States.
For decades, the Concord Female Anti-Slavery Society sponsored speakers, raised funds, wrote [...]