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Timelines |
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Nantucket
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Boston
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Mass. &
US |
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The 1600s |
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1635 First
African slaves in Massachusetts arrive in Salem
in exchange for Native Americans sent to West
Indies in bondage. |
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In 1600s African slaves concentrate
in port towns. Places like Boston, Salem, New
Bedford, Nantucket will later attract blacks
to whaling and the maritime industry. |
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1641 Massachusetts
Body of Liberties recognizes slavery for blacks,
Native Americans, or mulattos; their natural
rights include use of the legal system. |
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The 1700s |
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Nantucket
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Boston |
Mass. &
US
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1700 Judge
Samuel Sewall publishes The Selling of
Joseph, an early anti-slavery "memorial.
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| 1729 Elihu
Coleman, a Nantucket Quaker, writes A
Testimony Against that Anti-Christian Practice
of Making Slaves of Men. |
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1754 In Boston,
the Massachusetts slave census
counts 647 males, 342 females. |
1754 The
Massachusetts slave census counts the total
population of enslaved blacks in the colony. |
| 1770 Quaker
merchant William Rotch helps Prince Boston sue
for wages earned as a sailor aboard one of Rotch's
vessels. Boston wins the case, and slavery "ends"
on Nantucket. |
Paul Revere
engraving of
Boston Massacre |
1770 Crispus
Attucks, a runaway slave and sailor, is the
first person killed in the Boston
Massacre.
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1773 Philllis Wheatley's
Poems
on Various Subjects is published. "Distinguished"
gentlemen (John Hancock among them) testify
that she is the author, even though she is a
slave.
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1773 -1778 Petitions
to the Legislature, signed by Prince Hall, a
self-educated spiritual leader, and other free
blacks, remind the Legislature that they seek
the same rights and freedoms from Britain as
their white peers.
1775 The Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition
of Slavery is formed, the first anti-slavery
society in the US. |
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1780 Paul
Cuffee
of Westport refuses to pay taxes in protest
against the state constitution's exclusion of
blacks and Native Americans from voting. Cuffee
also protests school discrimination and builds
an interracial Quaker school.
1780 - 1783 The state constitution provides
the Declaration of Rights, including equality
of all men. First test cases by slaves Quock
Walker and Mumbet (Elizabeth Freeman) declare
slavery unconstitutional. |
| 1784 Of
4,000 residents, "Negroes" account for about
2.5%
of Nantucket's population.
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1787 Prince Hall petitions the Boston school
committee for a separate school for "colored"
children.
1788 Three Boston free blacks kidnapped and
taken to the West Indies. Petition to Legislature
by Prince Hall and 21 others successful and
they are returned to Boston.
1798 - 1800 A private school, the African School,
is established in the house of Prince Hall. |
1784 First
African Lodge of Freemasons under Prince Hall
as master officially recognized.
Prince Hall
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1800 to 1809 |
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Nantucket
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Boston
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Mass. &
US
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African
Meeting House in Boston |
1806-1808
The African
Meeting House is built in Boston; two years
after opening, the African school is housed
in the basement of the building. |
1808 By an act of Congress, it is illegal to
transport enslaved Africans into the US after
January 1, 1808. |
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1810 to 1829 |
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Nantucket
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Boston |
Mass. &
US |
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1815 Abiel
Smith, a wealthy white businessman, dies and
leaves money in his
will to fund the African School (through
the Boston school committee). |
Abiel Smith will
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1818 Unlike many other communities of its size,
Nantucket does not have a public school system.
Pressure begins to build as many citizens start
a growing movement for "Free
Schools" on Nantucket. |
1817 Sabbath (or Sunday) school is organized
at the Smith School (The African School was
renamed in Smith's honor.)
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1816 The
American Colonization Society is formed to encourage
the emigration of free blacks from the US to
West Africa.
Paul Cuffee, ship captain and a prominent and
wealthy Westport bi-racial African-American/
Wampanoag, leads an expedition to West
Africa for settlement
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| 1822 After
100 years on Nantucket, African-Americans are
prominently linked to the whaling industry.
Absalom
Boston commands an historic voyage on the
ship, Industry, with an all black crew. |
1820s John
Russwurm, an African-American activist, serves
as an instructor at the Smith School. |
1821 - 1827
Legislative acts passed to improve the public
education system in Massachusetts. |
| 1824 The
African
Meeting House is built in "New Guinea" as
a church/school.
1827 A bill of indictment is brought against
the town for violating the 1789 law requiring
towns to establish public schools. |
African Meeting
House on Nantucket |
1825 Mass. General Colored Association founded
to abolish slavery, improve conditions; David
Walker leader.
1826 John Russwurm is one of the first blacks
to graduate with a degree from a US school,
Bowdoin College. |
| 1829 Mr.
Jacob Perry, the first and only black teacher
in the African school, is hired. He is well
received by the school committee.
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1829 William
Cooper Nell is awarded the prestigious Franklin
Medal (as an outstanding scholar), but must
act as a waiter's assistant in order to attend
the ceremony he was excluded from on the basis
of his color.
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1829 David
Walker's Appeal
to the Colored Citizens of the World is
published. Southern laws prohibit its distribution
because the emphasis on education and action
is considered too dangerous. |
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1830 to 1839 |
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Nantucket
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Boston |
Mass. &
US |
| 1830s The
number
of blacks on Nantucket has increased to
nearly 500, but they are still segregated from
the whites in many ways, including education
and housing.
Click here
for state census numbers. |
1830 David
Walker is murdered at his business on Beacon
Hill. He was Wanted Alive for $10,000 or Dead
for $1,000. |
1830 The
first National Negro
Convention
begins in Philadelphia on September 15.
One of the main goals of the meeting is to support
efforts for free blacks to emigrate to Canada. |
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1831 William
Lloyd Garrison begins to publish The
Liberator. |
1831 Influenced
by Walkers Appeal, Nat
Turner's insurrection occurs in Virginia. |
| 1832 Edward Pompey,
a well-known and respected member of the black
community, becomes
representative on the island for dissemination
of The Liberator. |
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1832 William
Lloyd Garrison forms the New England Anti-Slavery
Society at the African Meeting House. |
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1834 A map
by William Coffin Jr. shows New Guinea (the
black neighborhood) in relation to the larger
town of Nantucket. |
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1833 Lydia
Maria Child,
an influential abolitionist and supporter of
the Underground Railroad, writes An Appeal
in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans.
Oberlin College, the first school in the US
that admits both blacks and women, opens. |
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1835 The Abiel
Smith School is constructed and dedicated
to relieve overcrowding and poor classroom conditions
in the African Meeting House.
Susan Paul, the daughter of the minister of
the African Meeting House, writes a Memoir
of James Jackson, the Attentive and Obedient
Scholar. |
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| 1836 Anna
Gardner is hired as a teacher at the African
School. She is a committed suffragist, abolitionist,
and integrationist. One of her best students
is Eunice Ross. |
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1836 Schooling for
Working Children established by law. No children
under 15 to work, but enforcement poor. |
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1838
Cyrus Pierce, a contemporary of Horace Mann,
extols the virtues of public education to the
people of Nantucket.
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Horace Mann |
1837 Massachusetts
enacts first Board of Education, with Horace
Mann
as Commissioner. Mann initiates comprehensive,
free school system over next 12 years. His progressive
public school ideas are influential throughout
the country, but he does not support school
desegregation.
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1840 to 1844 |
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Nantucket
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Boston |
Mass. &
US
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| 1840 Eunice
Ross is found "amply qualified" to attend
the High School, but is denied because of her
color. |
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| 1841
Eliza and Nathaniel
Barney, prominent Quakers, serve as organizers
of the first anti-slavery convention on Nantucket.
Eliza Barney
Frederick Douglass speaks at the Nantucket
Atheneum.
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During this
time, members of Boston's black community actively
oppose the Boston School Committee and work
to increase awareness in their community of
their cause for equal schools.
Click here
to read about events in Boston from The Liberator. |
1841 John
Quincy Adams successfully defends black mutineers
in Amistad case before the Supreme Court.
Frederick
Douglass speaks at the Nantucket Atheneum
at the anti-slavery convention, and quickly
establishes himself as a dynamic anti-slavery
speaker and activist.
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| 1842 As
a member of the school committee, Nathaniel
Barney works to integrate the schools
- but it only lasts for one day, when the Town
Meeting overrides
his efforts.
As a result, members of the black community
denounce the prejudice of many whites in Nantucket
in an address
through the local newspaper. |
Nathaniel
Barney |
1842 Stephen
S. Foster incites riots at the second anti-slavery
convention in Nantucket by suggesting that the
churches in the US and by association, local
ministers, are in league with Satan. (In response
to the outcry in the region, Foster generates
a pamphlet
to explain his position.) |
| 1843 At Town
Meeting, a motion is passed that specifically
prohibits the integration of the public schools.
The School Committee ignores the vote, and desegregates
the schools for a year. |
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| 1844 Blacks are resegregated
when the School Committee is replaced by anti-integrationist.
Black students are transferred back to the African
School.
Black parents begin a boycott of the African
School. |
1844 William C Nell
organizes another of his many petitions calling
for an end to segregated schools.
Black parents in Boston begin a boycott of
the Smith School. |
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|
1845 to 1849 |
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Nantucket
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Boston |
Mass. &
US |
| 1845 Edward Pompey
organizes a petition
to the State Legislature calling for an
end to segregated schools.
Other members of the Nantucket community opposed
to Pompey's petition respond with one of
their own to the Legislature.
Despite the passing of the 1845
State Act designed to end school segregation,
the citizens at the Town meeting vote to continue
segregation. |
1845 The Boston School
Committee ignores the new state law. |
1845 The Legislature
passes a law
that requires integrated schools.
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| 1846 Phebe Ann Boston,
the daughter of Absalom Boston, is the second
qualified African-American denied entrance to
the High School. With the threat of a lawsuit
by her father, the citizens at the Town meeting
elect a new school committee that officially
desegregates the school system.
Eunice Ross, now in her twenties, finally attends
the High School.
July 2 - The Great Fire destroys industrial
build-ings supporting the whaling industry on
Nantucket.
Soon, the economy of Nantucket collapses and
many thousands of people, including most of
the blacks, leave the island in search of work
elsewhere. |
1846 A Report to
the Primary School Committee on the Petitions
of Sundry Coloured Persons for the Abolition
of the Coloured Schools states that the
Boston school committee will maintain segregated
schools.
Click
here to see classroom enrollment at the
Smith School. |
1847 Frederick Douglass begins editing
The
North Star. William Cooper Nell is the publisher.
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Robert Morris
1849 Robert
Morris and Charles
Sumner are hired to sue the city of Boston
on behalf of Benjamin Roberts five-year-old
daughter, Sarah Roberts.
Two conflicting reports released by majority
and minority
factions "On the Abolition of the Smith
School," are released by the Boston School Committee. |
Click here
for songs from the Anti-Slavery
Harp, sung at anti-slavery meetings from
this time period.
Charles
Sumner
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1850 to 1855 |
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Nantucket
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Boston |
Mass. &
US |
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1850 Justice
Lemuel Shaw rules in favor of the city of
Boston in the Roberts
case. His ruling will later be used by the US
Supreme Court in the Plessey v. Ferguson
decision, justifying the "separate but equal"
doctrine. |
1850 The
Compromise of 1850 admits California as a free
state, abolishes the slave trade in Washington,
DC, and strengthens the Fugitive Slave Laws.
1852 Uncle Tomís Cabin, by Harriet
Beecher Stowe, is published. |
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1854 William Pindell
enrolls his mulatto son into an all-white school.
Once the school committee discovers this, they
transfer the boy.
Members of the Boston City Council, now dominated
by the Know-Nothings, challenge the School Committee,
reporting that it is possible to desegregate
the schools. |
Click here
to read an article from the Frederick Douglass
Papers (North Star). |
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1855 A second
law, amending the 1845 Act, passes the state
Senate and House of Represent-atives. The new
law holds the school committee directly liable.
As a result, the Boston school system
is desegregated, and the Abiel Smith School
is closed. At this time an 1852
map by McIntire shows growth of black community
on backside of Beacon Hill.
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1855 John Mercer Hughes
becomes the first African-American elected to
office in the US. He speaks at the 22nd meeting
of the American Anti-Slavery Society in Boston.
William C Nell writes The
Colored Patriots of the American Revolution,
one of the first book written by an African-American
that celebrates the achievements of African-Americans.
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