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Introduction

The Abiel Smith School is one of the oldest buildings constructed solely for the education of African American children. Its establishment was the result of years of concerted efforts from activists and parents in the Boston community. After several decades of petitions, the Boston School Committee agreed to provide partial funding for the African School that had been established in 1798. At the time, the African School was being held on the first floor of the African Meeting House, but the school was in poor condition. Funding for the Abiel Smith School came from the will of a white businessman and the school's namesake, Abiel Smith, and the school was opened in 1835. While its construction marked a huge step forward for African American education, the Abiel Smith School eventually came to exemplify the inequality in Boston's school system.

Images

The Abiel Smith school became the first public school for African American children in the United States.

An inside picture of the Abiel Smith School

Streetside view of Abiel Smith School

Backstory and Context

As early as 1787, black Bostonians began to protest against discrimination in public schools. They started to petition the state legislature, claiming it was unconstitutional for the government to use their tax money for the education of white children when it provided no similar service for the black community. In 1798, members of the black community organized the African School which was first located in the home of Primus Hall. Mr. Hall had spent time as a servant for Col. Timothy Pickering who served as the 3rd Secretary of State. The school moved to the African Meeting House in 1808.

In 1812, the Boston School Committee responded to years of petitions and agreed to provide partial funding for the school. Three years later a white businessman, Abiel Smith died and left $4000 in his will for the education of African American children in Boston. Initially, the interest from this donation was used to help fund the school, but later it was used to build the Abiel Smith School which opened in 1835. The school gave the opportunity of education to children who had been denied it for so long. Many saw this school as a beacon of hope for the black children of Boston and applauded its construction.

Unfortunately, beginning around 1839 the Abiel Smith School became the center of controversy as an example of the inequality between white and black schools. In 1849, the organization Nell's Equal School Association led a boycott movement to protest the poor conditions of the Abiel Smith School. Most of the African American community joined in and removed their children from the school. The boycott came on the heels of the 1848 Massachusetts State Supreme Court case Sarah Roberts v. Boston. Sarah's father, Benjamin Roberts challenged the Boston School Committee's policy of racial segregation. The court held that racial segregation was permitted under the Constitution. This unfortunate ruling was used as a precedent in many subsequent cases including Plessy vs. Ferguson.

In 1855, the Massachusetts state legislature passed a law which prohibited public schools from discriminating on the basis of race, sex or religious beliefs. The Abiel Smith School was closed the same year. After its closure, the school building was used to store school supplies and furniture until 1887 when it became the headquarters for African American Civil War veterans. Today the Smith school is an exhibit gallery, a museum store and is also the 13th site on the Black Heritage Trail in Boston.

Sources

Horton, James, Oliver, Landmarks of African American History, New York: Oxford University Press Inc, 2005.

Lascarides, V., Celia and Blythe F. Hinitz. History of Early Childhood Education, New York, NY: Routledge, 2000. Wilson, Susan, An Essential Guide to Historic Landmarks in and Around Boston, Boston: Beacon Press Books, 2003.

Grover, Kathryn. "Abiel Smith School." National Parks Service. August 22, 2017. Accessed September 28, 2018. https://www.nps.gov/boaf/learn/historyculture/abiel-smith-school.htm.

"Abiel Smith School Museum Of African American History." MAAH.org Museum of African American History, African Meeting House, 2018.

"National Trust for Historic Preservation: Return to Home Page." National Trust for Historic Preservation. Accessed February 14, 2017. https://savingplaces.org/places/african-meeting-house-boston#.XHeY21NKjBJ.

Additional Information

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Abiel Smith School (Boston Black Heritage Trail Site 9) - Clio

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The Abiel Smith School is one of the oldest buildings constructed solely for the education of African American children. Its establishment was the result of years of concerted efforts from activists and parents in the Boston community. After several decades of petitions, the Boston School Committee agreed to provide partial funding for the African School that had been established in 1798.

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A National Trust Historic Site, The African Meeting House was built in 1806 and is the oldest existing black church building in the country built primarily by black artisans. The meeting house hosted numerous prominent abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglas. The Abiel Smith School, built in 1835, was the nation's first building constructed for the sole purpose of housing a black public school.

At the end of the 19th century, as the African American community began to migrate from Boston's West End to the surrounding neighborhoods of South End and Roxbury, the building was sold to a Jewish congregation. It served as a synagogue until it was acquired by the Museum of African American History (MAAH) in 1972.

The African Meeting House is owned and operated by the Museum of African American History.

Shawmut Design and Construction

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African Meeting House and Abiel Smith School | National Trust for Historic Preservation

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The African Meeting House (1806) is the oldest existing black church building in the country. Black artisans are largely responsible for building the church. African American artisans were largely responsible for building this structure. The Smith School was the nation's first building constructed for the sole purpose of housing a black public school.

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The 54th Massachusetts Regiment Memorial features Colonel Robert Gould Shaw leading the men of the 54th Regiment. The monument's emphasis on a white officer reflects the racial mores of the era when the monument was created, as well as the tendency for military memorials to feature commanding officers. The 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was the most well-known African American regiment to serve the Union owing to the prominence of many of the black men who recruited, led, and served in the regiment. The monument is the first site on Boston's Black Heritage Trail, which takes visitors through sites of historic significance to the African American experience in central Boston between 1800 and 1900.

The 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was not the first to serve in the Civil War, but it did become the most well known owing to the prominence of many of the men who recruited and joined the unit as well as their gallant stand at Fort Wagner. This battle, as well as the 54th Massachusetts fight for equal pay in the Union army, was popularized by the Hollywood film Glory.

African Americans volunteered for military service when the Civil War began, but it was not until the fall of 1862 when black men organized without official military approval in Kansas saw battle. The 1st South Carolina Volunteers were the first officially recognized unit. The 54th Massachusetts, like other black units, was led by a white officer. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw volunteered to lead the regiment and grew to respect the men and supported their efforts to equal pay.

In both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, African Americans fought on behalf of the United States. The men of the 54th made headlines when they refused to accept a salary lower than white soldiers while remaining in the army and fighting both racial injustice in the Union Army and the Confederacy's attempt to maintain slavery. The 54th were joined by black soldiers in other units and were eventually able to secure equal pay retroactively.

During the Second Battle of Fort Wagner, Colonel Shaw led his men in a charge to take the fort from Confederate control. Shaw was killed while leading the charge before his unit got close to the fort. Shaw's men continued the charge despite high losses. To demonstrate their disdain for white officers who would lead African American troops into battle, Confederate leaders ordered Shaw's body to be buried in a mass grave with the black men of his unit. Up to this time, the South would always return the dead officers of the North back to have proper burials as a sign of respect. Although intended as an act of disrespect against Shaw for leading an African American regiment against the South.

Sergeant William Carney deserves much of the credit for training the men of the 54th. Carney became the first African American to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor because he saved the American flag from being captured by Confederate forces during the Battle of Fort Wagner. He was shot several times during his brave actions to defend the flag.

The monument was dedicated on May 31, 1897, in a ceremony that included Carney, the surviving members of the 54th and 55th Regiments, the 5th Calvary, and speakers such as Booker T. Washington. In 1982, the names of the other 62 soldiers who died during the Battle of Fort Wagner were added to the lower part of the memorial.

Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2014, from http://battleofolustee.org/54th_mass_inf.html Museum of African American History, Boston - Black Heritage Trail Site 1. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2014, from http://www.afroammuseum.org/site1.htm United States. National Park Service. (2014, September 8). Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment. Retrieved September 19, 2014, from http://www.nps.gov/boaf/historyculture/shaw.htm

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54th Massachusetts Regiment Memorial (Boston Black Heritage Trail Site 1) - Clio

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The 54th Massachusetts Regiment Memorial features Colonel Robert Gould Shaw leading the men of the 54th Regiment. The monument's emphasis on a white officer reflects the racial mores of the era when the monument was created, as well as the tendency for military memorials to feature commanding officers.

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The Charles Street Meeting House is the fifth stop on the Black Heritage Trail in Boston. Built in 1807 by the Third Baptist Church, the Charles Street Meeting House, then called the Charles Street Baptist Church, is significant as the location of many anti-slavery meetings in the decades prior to the Civil War. During its first decades, the church practiced racial segregation with black attendees being relegated to the gallery and generally barred from many of the privileges of full membership in the congregation. In 1836, abolitionist Timothy Gilbert was expelled from the church for inviting African Americans to sit beside him in his regular pew. In subsequent decades, the congregation took a stand against slavery and African Americans like Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth delivered speeches alongside white abolitionists like Charles Sumner. White membership in the congregation dwindled and the congregation sold the building to the Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1876. That congregation had been formed in 1833 and had grown to become the largest black congregation in Boston after the Civil War. The congregation sold the building in 1939 owing to the declining number of African American families in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.

This building was home to a variety of congregations until 1979 and home to the Charles Street AME from 1876 to 1939.

Numerous abolitionists spoke at this building in the decades leading up to the Civil War.

Despite the historic appearance of the exterior, the interior has been significantly altered and is home to several Boston firms.

The Charles Street Meeting House was built in 1807 by the Third Baptist Church, a predominantly white congregation that practiced segregation. This seating rule would be challenged by Timothy Gilbert, a white abolitionist, in the 1830s. He and other white abolitionists later established Tremont Temple, one of the first integrated congregations in America. In the 1840s and 1850s, Charles Street Meeting House became home to many anti-slavery movements and speakers. Among those speakers were Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Sojourner Truth.

The original congregation saw a decline in white membership and sold the building to the leading African Methodist Episcopal congregation in 1876. The First African Methodist Episcopal Church, AME for short, was the first black independent denomination in the United States. The AME saw declining membership as fewer black families lived in the neighborhood, and the congregation sold the building in 1939. The new owners, the Charles Meeting House Society, rented the building to the Albanian Orthodox, the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, the Massachusetts Universalist Convention, the Unitarian Universalists, and other organizations over next few decades. A private owner purchased the building in 1979 and sold it to a group of historic preservationists the following year.

The Charles Street Meeting House Associates raised funds to repair and restore the building. After renovations he Charles Street Meeting House has become office space with a very modern interior but an exterior that won the American Institute of Architects Excellence in Architecture Award in 1983 for its historical integrity. While the interior is quite modern, the exterior looks much as it did when the building was home to the AME church and the property is part of Boston's Black Heritage Trail and significant as a site of abolitionist meetings and as one of the last black institutions to leave Beacon Hill.

Boston, Massachusetts History and Architecture -- Welcome to ... (n.d.). Retrieved October 5, 2014, from http://www.iboston.org/mcp.php?pid=charlesStreetMtgHouse Museum of African American History, Boston - Black Heritage Trail Site 5. (n.d.). Retrieved October 5, 2014, from http://www.afroammuseum.org/site5.htm United States. National Park Service. (2014, September 10). Charles Street Meeting House. Retrieved October 5, 2014, from http://www.nps.gov/boaf/historyculture/charles-street-meeting-house.htm

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Charles Street Meeting House (Black Heritage Trail Site 5) - Clio

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The Charles Street Meeting House is the fifth stop on the Black Heritage Trail in Boston. Built in 1807 by the Third Baptist Church, the Charles Street Meeting House, then called the Charles Street Baptist Church, is significant as the location of many anti-slavery meetings in the decades prior to the Civil War.

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The fourth stop on the Black Heritage Trail in Boston, this historic home was the property of John J. Smith, an African American abolitionist who helped slaves in the Underground Railroad. Smith also recruited soldiers for the all-black 5th Cavalry during the Civil War, an important regiment in the fight for equality in the military given the prestige of the cavalry in the mid-19th century. After the war ended, Smith served three terms in Massachusetts House of Representatives.

The John J. Smith House remains a private residence and is not open to the public.

John J. Smith towards the end of his life

John J. Smith began life as a free man, but being born to African American parents in Richmond in 1820, he was surrounded by slavery. He managed to save money and move to Boston in his early 20s. At the age of 28 he traveled to California like many young men hoping to strike it rich by finding gold. Unfortunately for Smith, he didn't strike it rich, and decided to move back to Boston and set up a barber shop-a path to financial stability and even relative prosperity for many African American men in the 19th century. Smith's barber shop became a meeting place for abolitionists who gathered at the shop and shared information. Before long, the barbershop became a center of information for those who supported slaves escape to freedom via the Underground Railroad. It is likely that several individuals took shelter in Smith's shop or at his home.

When the Civil War began, Smith moved to Washington DC with the goal of supporting the Union against the Confederate States of America. Smith became a recruiter for the all-black 5th Cavalry. After the war, Smith served three full terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He was elected in 1868, 1869, and 1872. Smith was just the third African American to serve in this position. After his time in government, Smith moved to this house on Pinckney Street around 1878. At that time, he became the first African American to serve on the Boston Common Council.

As a council member, Smith worked to secure the first positions for African Americans on Boston's police force. Smith's influence continued to the next generation with his daughter, Elizabeth Smith, who became the first African American teacher to at an integrated public school in Boston at the Phillips School. Smith died at this home while surrounded by family on November 4, 1906.

BEACON HILL ABOLITIONISTS. (n.d.). Retrieved September 29, 2014, from http://www.soulofamerica.com/boston-beacon-hill-abolitionists.phtml Museum of African American History, Boston - Black Heritage Trail Site 4. (n.d.). Retrieved September 29, 2014, from http://www.afroammuseum.org/site4.htm United States. National Park Service. (2014, September 8). John J Smith House. Retrieved September 29, 2014, from http://www.nps.gov/boaf/historyculture/john-j-smith-house.htm

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John J. Smith House (Black Heritage Trail Site 4) - Clio

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The fourth stop on the Black Heritage Trail in Boston, this historic home was the property of John J. Smith, an African American abolitionist who helped slaves in the Underground Railroad. Smith also recruited soldiers for the all-black 5th Cavalry during the Civil War, an important regiment in the fight for equality in the military given the prestige of the cavalry in the mid-19th century.

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The Phillips School is the third stop on the Black Heritage Trail in Boston. The school was opened in 1824 and only allowed white children to attend its classes. Black children at the time had to attend classes in either the first floor of the African Meeting House or the Smith School after 1834. During 1855 the Phillips School became one of the first schools in Boston to accept black and white children together.

A current day picture of the Phillips School.

An old drawing picture of the school.

As mentioned above, the Phillips School was originally built to be a school for white children only in 1824, while black children were not allowed to attend. Black children would have to use the first floor of the African Meeting House and the Smith school for their education until 1855. This school would undergo many more changes before and after the admittance of black children.
The school originally opened under the name of English High School which only lasted until 1825. The school would become Phillip's Grammar School in 1844, which was named after the first mayor of Boston and the father of an abolitionist. The Grammar School mainly educated wealthy children and became one of the best schools in the area. In contrast, the Smith School was home to the black children of the area and wasn't able to give its students an equal education to that of the Phillip's Grammar School. In 1855, Massachusetts passed a law that integrated schools and Phillip's Grammar School became one of the first schools in Boston to house both white and black children.
In 1863, the school would once again undergo change when it moved to a new building on Phillips Street . It was once again renamed, and this time, it became the Wendall Phillip School. Wendall Phillip was the son of the first mayor of Boston and an abolitionist. The school would once again make history as Elizabeth Smith, daughter of John Smith, started teaching at Phillips School and became one of the first African American teachers to teach at an integrated school. Today the school stands as the third site of the Black Heritage Trail in Boston.

Museum of African American History, Boston - Black Heritage Trail Site 3. (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2014, from http://www.afroammuseum.org/site3.htm The Phillips School (1824). (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2014, from http://mass.historicbuildingsct.com/?p=68 United States. National Park Service. (2014, September 8). The Phillips School. Retrieved September 26, 2014, from http://www.nps.gov/boaf/historyculture/the-phillips-school.htm

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The Phillips School (Black Heritage Trail Site 3) - Clio

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The Phillips School is the third stop on the Black Heritage Trail in Boston. The school was opened in 1824 and only allowed white children to attend its classes. Black children at the time had to attend classes in either the first floor of the African Meeting House or the Smith School after 1834.

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Lewis Hayden was born into slavery in Kentucky. His first owner was a Presbyterian minister. While he was still young, members of his family were sold to different owners. His own mother threatened to kill him while he was a child to spare him the horrors of slavery. Years later, he was traded for a couple of carriage horses. He met and married his first wife, Esther Harvey, in 1830. They had two sons together, one of which died shortly after his birth. Unfortunately, Esther and their son had a different owner, and they were sold to a new owner. Hayden never saw them again. In 1842, Lewis Hayden married Harriet Bell. He took in her son Joseph as his own child. Determined not to lose his family a third time in this life, he escape with Harriet and Joseph through the Underground Railroad. They managed to escape to Ohio, and later Canada, with the assistance of abolitionists Calvin Fairbank and Delia Webster. Fairbank and Webster were later tried and convicted for their actions.

After some time in Canada, the Haydens moved to New Bedford and finally to Boston. They bought a house, which Harriet operated as a Boarding House for other new free blacks in Boston. Lewis Hayden began to run a clothing shop out of a storefront at 107 Cambridge Street. His venture was successful and he eventually needed more space. The clothing shop moved to a larger spot at 121 Cambridge Street in 1853. The clothing shop was a place where Lewis held many abolitionist gatherings to help fellow slaves get to freedom. The Hayden House, however, was an actual stop on the Underground Railroad for slaves to pass safely to their destination. Records from the Boston Vigilance Committee, of which Lewis was a member, report that many self-emanicipated former slaves received the assistance of the Haydens and safe shelter at their home on 66 Phillips Street between 1850 and 1860.

There is a story that claims that the Haydens kept barrels of gunpowder under the front steps at all times. They could greet people with candles who came to the front door, and if anyone tried to force their way into the household, the Haydens could drop the candle and kill everyone. This stop on the Underground Railroad was so important that Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, was taken in to see how slaves on the run felt.

Lewis led a busy life outside of the Hayden House, he helped recruit members into the 54th Regiment, an all-black regiment that was led by a white Robert Gould Shaw, and he gave money to help fund John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. This was because John Brown had visited the Hayden House on his last trip to Boston. Lewis also went on to serve in the Massachusetts House of Representatives for a term, and then spent the rest of his life by working for the Massachusetts Secretary of State as their messenger.

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Lewis and Harriet Hayden House (Black Heritage Trail Site 6) - Clio

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The Lewis and Harriet Hayden House is the sixth stop on the Black Heritage Trail on Beacon Street in Boston, Massachusetts. Both Lewis and Harriet were escaped slaves who managed to get free thanks to the Underground Railroad and bought a house in Boston once they got the chance.

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John Coburn was born as a free African American man in Boston in 1811. He made a name for himself as a wealthy clothing storeowner and the operator of a gambling establishment. The house at 2 Phillips Street in the Beacon Hill neighborhood was designed specifically for Mr. Coburn by the well-known architect Asher Benjamin and constructed in 1844. Coburn was married to a woman from New Hampshire, named Emmeline Grey. They adopted a son, Wendell.

In 1845, Coburn became the Treasurer of the New England Freedom Association, which placed a heavy focus on helping people escape slavery. Coburn also worked passionately as a petitioner in the Boston desegregation campaign and a member of the Boston Vigilance Committee (an abolitionist organization).

One of the most daring things that Coburn accomplished in his life was to assist in the escape of the slave Shadrach Minkins (1851). Minkins had been a runaway slave looking for freedom in the North when he was captured by slave catchers that were enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Minkins was triumphant in his escape to Canada. He succeeded with the help of Coburn and several others and lived the rest of his life as a free man. Unfortunately, that wasn't the end for Coburn. John Coburn was arrested, tried, and eventually acquitted for his role in the whole ordeal with Minkins. After this incidence, Coburn took on new roles in his active life.

Next, Coburn helped to establish a group called the Massasoit Guards. The Massasoit Guards were a privately-funded black militia in the Boston area. It was an early version of the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. The group was named after Massasoit, a chief of the Wampanoag tribe situated in Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Massasoit was friendly the English settlers that arrived in the region in the early seventeenth century. Besides being the co-founder of the black military organization, he would also serve as its first captain.

A few years later, Coburn and his brother-in-law organized their latest business venture. They created a gambling club which catered to upper-class members of the community and ran it out of the home on Phillips Street.

John Coburn died in 1873 and left most of his estate to his adopted son, Wendell. The home is now assessed as a 4-unit condominium dwelling, all of which are privately owned. Therefore, the grand building is not open to the public for tours.

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John Coburn House (Black Heritage Trail Site 7) - Clio

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The John Coburn House is the seventh site on the Black Heritage Trial that goes through Boston, Massachusetts. Coburn was a businessman and a community activist who made it his mission in life to help escaped slaves find freedom and safety from pursuing slave catchers.

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There is a separate article written on the famous house at 3 Smith Court. It was once the residence of William Cooper Nell, an African-American activist who fought for equal school rights in the mid-nineteenth century. The two-family home was officially designated as a National Historic Landmark and added to the National Register of Historic places in 1976.

The next house, located at 5 Smith Court, was built sometime in the early part of the nineteenth century. This home consists of three stories and is covered with reddish-brown clapboard siding. A lawyer built the home as an investment - he rented it out to make additional money. The house was later purchased by the deacon of the African Meeting House, a man named George Washington, in 1849. He rented out the first floor while he lived in the upper area with his wife and children. Accounts vary, but he had nine or ten children living together in this small space (the City of Boston's Assessing Department states that the entire house only contains about 1,458 square feet of living space). Washington passed away in 1871 but the house remained in his family until 1917. Today, the house is worth over $1.3 million. It is privately owned and therefore not open to the public for viewing.

The next stop on the trail brings visitors to a small two-story home with light blue clapboard siding located at 7 Smith Court. This house was used as rental property for many years as well. An early owner, a white merchant named Elihu Bates, took in tenants beginning in 1822. In 1857, the property was purchased by an African American real estate investor, Joseph Scarlett. Scarlett owned several of the buildings on Smith Court was well as others in the Boston area. He owned 7 Smith Court until his death in 1898.

7A Smith Court stands directly behind number 7, in what is called Holmes Alley. This house was built in 1799, making it one of the oldest houses on the block. It is three stories high and has yellow clapboard siding. According to the National Park Service, this structure is the only surviving example of the early homes that lined the eight-foot wide Holmes Alley, where backyards are found today. The house was initially owned by two men, a New Bedford mariner named Richard Johnson and a hairdresser named David Bartlett. The property went through several hands before Joseph Scarlett purchased it in 1858. Scarlett owned and rented out the property, like he did with many others, until his death in 1898.

The homes at 7 Smith Court (970 sf) and 7A Smith Court (1,305 sf) are each valued by the City of Boston at approximately $1.1 million. Both are privately owned and therefore not open to the public for viewing.

Finally, 10 Smith Court was constructed in 1853 for Joseph Scarlett (the same man who owned numbers 7 and 7A). This building abuts the African Meeting House, which is the final stop on the Black Heritage Trail. By the time that Scarlett passed away in 1898, he owned at least fifteen investment properties.

The Museum of African American History lists the final Smith Court Residence as #10 Smith Court. It reports that the house is situated directly next door to the African Meeting House. However, there is no listing for 10 Smith Court on the City of Boston's website.

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Smith Court Residences (Boston Black Heritage Trail Site 8) - Clio

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Owing to the historic significance of many of the residents of Smith Court, including William C. Nell who fought for racial equality in 19th century Boston, the buildings of Smith Court are part of the Black Heritage Trail in Boston.

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The African Meeting House is the final stop on Boston's Black Heritage Trail. The structure was built in 1809 to house the first African Baptist Church of Boston, making this the oldest surviving African American church building in the United States. The church also served as a school and a gathering place for Boston's black community. Famous abolitionists and leaders such as William Lloyd Garrison, Maria Stewart, and Frederick Douglass spoke to audiences assembled within these walls. Since 1972, The African Meeting House houses the Boston's Museum of African American History. Two years later, the building became one of the first National Historic Landmarks for its connection to the anti-slavery movement and African American religious history.

Before the establishment of this independent black church, black Bostonian's had their meetings in private homes or attended services at churches where they faced discrimination. That changed at the beginning of the nineteenth century, just a little over two hundred years ago. The church, called the African Meeting House, was founded by the Reverend Thomas Paul, a native of New Hampshire. The church was organized primarily by and for black Bostonians, in cooperation and assistance from Boston's white Baptist churches. The construction was completed by a force made up almost entirely of black workers, while money was raised for the project by both the white and black communities. There is one man, in particular, that stands out. His name is Cato Gardner, and he is a native of Africa. Gardner was responsible for raising more than $1,500 towards the overall goal of $7,000 needed to finish the work. There is a small stone monument on the exterior of the church which reads "A Gift to Cato Gardner, first Promoter of this Building 1806."

The church was completed and officially constituted on 8 August 1805 with twenty-four members, of whom fifteen were women. In addition to serving as a spiritual center for the community, the house served and as the main cultural, educational, and political center of the Boston's black neighborhood. The African School held classes in the house until the nearby Abiel Smith School was opened in 1835. Community leaders roused their audiences. The Massachusetts General Colored Association, the first abolitionist organization in Boston, met at the African Meeting House. At this location in 1832, white and black abolitionists attended a meeting headed by William Lloyd Garrison. This meeting led to the establishment of New England Anti-Slavery Society, one of the most significant abolitionist organizations in American history.

In 1898 the Baptist congregation sold their meeting house and moved to a new location in the South End. The meeting house became the Jewish Congregation Anshi Libavitz in 1904 and was acquired by the Museum of African American History in 1972. Two years later it was designated a National Historic Landmark. The building is open to the public six days a week (closed on Sundays). Although there is no set fee for admission, the historic site does request a donation in return for the privilege.

African Meeting House. National Park Service. Accessed March 09, 2017. https://www.nps.gov/boaf/learn/historyculture/amh.htm.

Site 14 African Meeting House Museum of African American History 46 Joy Street, Beacon Hill. Museum of African American History: Boston and Nantucket. Accessed March 09, 2017. http://maah.org/site14.htm.

Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. "Restoration of African American Church Interprets Abolitionist Roots (Boston, Massachusetts)." Success Story 106. Success Story 106, 1-2. or via internet at: http://achp.gov/docs/african-american-meeting-house.pdf

Boston Campus. Museum of African American History. Accessed March 09, 2017. http://maah.org/boston_campus.htm.

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African Meeting House and Museum of African American History (Boston Black Heritage Trail Site 10) - Clio

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The African Meeting House is the final stop on Boston's Black Heritage Trail. The structure was built in 1809 to house the first African Baptist Church of Boston, making this the oldest surviving African American church building in the United States. The church also served as a school and a gathering place for Boston's black community.

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The house that stands at 5 Pinckney Street, Boston is the second site of the Black Heritage Trail and served as the home of George Middleton. His house is the oldest home still standing on Beacon Hill. It was built in 1786-1787, just after the American Revolution. Its wooden construction is typical for new homes going up during the late eighteenth century. Middleton was the Colonel of the Bucks of America, a founder of the Boston African Benevolent Society, and a Grand Master of the Prince Hall African Lodge of Freemasons.

The outside of the Middleton House. The home is privately owned.

The Flag presented to the Bucks of America

George Middleton built the wooden two-story home in 1786-1787 with his good friend, Louis Glapion. Glapion was a hairdresser from the French West Indies who ran his business out of their shared home. Little is known about Mr. Glapion, however, George Middleton is well known as a leader in Boston's African American community in the years during and after the American Revolution. Middleton married Elsey Marsh in 1781 and the census of 1790 lists Middleton's home as having three inhabitants, but little more is known about his family.

Middleton's history is most noteworthy because of his service during the war when he led a militia called the Bucks of America, an African American group of soldiers based in Boston with Middleton as Colonel. John Hancock, the governor of Massachusetts at the time, gave the company a white silk flag as an award of appreciation for their service. The flag is painted with the initials J.H. and G.W. (John Hancock and George Washington) and includes pictures of a pine tree, a deer, and a scroll. Today, the flag is owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society. Washington initially opposed black militia but later changed his mind owing to the opinions of other military leaders who valued black manpower. Black leaders like Middleton were savvy in convincing the political and economic elite to support their militia by offering to guard the homes of Boston merchants during the war.

Middleton became an early member of the Prince Hall African Lodge of Freemasons and in 1809, he became the third Grand Master of that Africa American fraternal organization. Middleton was also fundamental in the establishment of the Boston African Benevolent Society. Both organizations were designed to help African Americans obtain equal rights in the community but also to secure mutual protection and economic support for members.

One of the most important causes in Middleton's later life was the treatment of black children in the schools. He fought hard until the end of his life in 1815 to secure monetary support for black schools while also challenging the exclusion of black pupils.

The single-family house at 5 Pinckney Street is the oldest extant home on Beacon Hill. Today, the home is privately owned and not accessible to the public.

Baley, B. (2011, September 3). Colonel George Middleton and The Bucks of America. Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/history/colonel-george-middleton-and-the-bucks-of-america Museum of African American History, Boston - Black Heritage Trail Site 2. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.afroammuseum.org/site2.htm United States. National Park Service. (2014, September 8). George Middleton House. Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.nps.gov/boaf/historyculture/george-middleton-house.htm

Jones, Kevin Trimell. Col. George Middleton: Black Revolutionary War hero. The Bay Area Reporter. October 20, 2011. Accessed March 06, 2017. http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=6135.

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George Middleton House (Black Heritage Trail Site 2) - Clio

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The house that stands at 5 Pinckney Street, Boston is the second site of the Black Heritage Trail and served as the home of George Middleton. His house is the oldest home still standing on Beacon Hill. It was built in 1786-1787, just after the American Revolution.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400. At this time there were also the beginnings of a free black community in the North End, and by 1790, the time of the first census, Massachusetts reported no slaves. The trail includes the Robert Gould Shaw & the 54th Regiment Memorial, first black regiment, the George Middleton House, the oldest home built by African Americans on Beacon Hill, and the Phillips School, one of Boston's first schools with an interracial student body.

Visitor's Guide To Black Heritage Trail

Over time, a large community of free blacks and former slaves lived on the north side of Beacon Hill. The general boundaries of the neighborhood were Cambridge, Charles, Joy and Pinckney streets. The residents opened businesses, created organizations, established schools and attended church. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the city's African-American community was at the vanguard in the quest to abolish slavery and achieve equal rights. They also operated way stations along the Underground Railroad. The Black Heritage Trail is a walking tour that connects more than a dozen pre-Civil War buildings and historic sites chronicling this cultural history of African-Americans. These include:

Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial

Designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the monument depicts Colonel Shaw leading the 54th Regiment of Volunteers down Beacon Street as they marched off to war. The regiment was the first all-black unit recruited in the North. Their story is chronicled in the movie "Glory." The high-relief bronze memorial was dedicated in 1897.

George Middleton House

The oldest extant home constructed by an African-American on Beacon Hill, it was the residence of George Middleton, a noted veteran of the Revolutionary War. He led an all-black unit called the "Bucks of America." His service was recognized by Governor John Hancock. The wood-frame, two-family home dates from 1797.

The Phillips School

Built in 1824, the school was originally all white. Neighborhood black children attended school on the first floor of the African Meeting House. After legislation desegregated city schools in 1855, the Phillips School was one of the first to accept black students.

John J. Smith House

Born a free man, John J. Smith moved from Richmond, Virginia to Boston in 1848. A leading abolitionist, his home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. He helped recruit the U.S. Army's all-black 5th Cavalry. Smith would later be elected to the state Legislature three times.

Charles Street Meeting House

An all-white congregation from its inception, the Third Baptist Church of Boston was constructed in 1807. Abolitionist Timothy Gilbert challenged the congregation's segregated seating policy of the 1830s by having black parishioners sit in his pew. He was eventually expelled. After the Civil War, the African Methodist Episcopal Church purchased the church and worshiped there until 1939.

Lewis and Harriet Hayden House

An escaped slave, Lewis Hayden occupied the home with his wife Harriet. Leaders in the abolitionist movement, the Haydens used their house as a way station on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the residence in 1853 while conducting research for "Uncle Tom's Cabin." A future state legislator, Smith helped to recruit soldiers for the 54th Regiment.

John Coburn House

Built circa 1843, the house was constructed by leading business owner and community leader John Coburn. He was also actively involved in the abolitionist movement and held key positions in several organizations, including the New England Freedom Association.

Smith Court Residences

These five residential buildings are typical examples of homes occupied by 19th century black Bostonians. The four single-family homes were built between 1799 and 1853. The apartment building was constructed around 1885 to help satisfy the growing population's need for less expensive housing. America's first published black historian, William Nell lived on Smith Court in the mid-1800s.

Abiel Smith School

This historic educational space was the first purpose-built public school for African-American children in the country. After school desegregation in 1855, the building was used as a furniture warehouse and then the headquarters for a black Civil War veterans association. Built in 1834, it has been adapted to house the galleries and exhibits of the Museum of African American History.

The African Meeting House

Built in 1806, the African Meeting House is the country's oldest freestanding African-American church. It also housed a school for black children until the construction of the Abiel Smith School. The church was the setting for oratories by several renowned abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison. Frederick Douglass helped recruit soldiers here for the 54th Regiment.
The Black Heritage Trail is approximately 1.6 miles long. Most of the sites along the trail are still used as private residences and are not open to the public. Because it is part of the Boston African-American National Historic Site, National Park Service rangers provide free guided tours.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Black Heritage Trail History and Information Guide

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400. At this time there were also the beginnings of a free black community in the North End, and by 1790, the time of the first census, Massachusetts reported no slaves. The trail includes the Robert Gould Shaw & the 54th Regiment Memorial, first black regiment, the George Middleton House, the oldest home built by African Americans on Beacon Hill, and the Phillips School, one of Boston's first schools with an interracial student body.

Visitor's Guide To Black Heritage Trail

Over time, a large community of free blacks and former slaves lived on the north side of Beacon Hill. The general boundaries of the neighborhood were Cambridge, Charles, Joy and Pinckney streets. The residents opened businesses, created organizations, established schools and attended church. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the city's African-American community was at the vanguard in the quest to abolish slavery and achieve equal rights. They also operated way stations along the Underground Railroad. The Black Heritage Trail is a walking tour that connects more than a dozen pre-Civil War buildings and historic sites chronicling this cultural history of African-Americans. These include:

Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial

Designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the monument depicts Colonel Shaw leading the 54th Regiment of Volunteers down Beacon Street as they marched off to war. The regiment was the first all-black unit recruited in the North. Their story is chronicled in the movie "Glory." The high-relief bronze memorial was dedicated in 1897.

George Middleton House

The oldest extant home constructed by an African-American on Beacon Hill, it was the residence of George Middleton, a noted veteran of the Revolutionary War. He led an all-black unit called the "Bucks of America." His service was recognized by Governor John Hancock. The wood-frame, two-family home dates from 1797.

The Phillips School

Built in 1824, the school was originally all white. Neighborhood black children attended school on the first floor of the African Meeting House. After legislation desegregated city schools in 1855, the Phillips School was one of the first to accept black students.

John J. Smith House

Born a free man, John J. Smith moved from Richmond, Virginia to Boston in 1848. A leading abolitionist, his home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. He helped recruit the U.S. Army's all-black 5th Cavalry. Smith would later be elected to the state Legislature three times.

Charles Street Meeting House

An all-white congregation from its inception, the Third Baptist Church of Boston was constructed in 1807. Abolitionist Timothy Gilbert challenged the congregation's segregated seating policy of the 1830s by having black parishioners sit in his pew. He was eventually expelled. After the Civil War, the African Methodist Episcopal Church purchased the church and worshiped there until 1939.

Lewis and Harriet Hayden House

An escaped slave, Lewis Hayden occupied the home with his wife Harriet. Leaders in the abolitionist movement, the Haydens used their house as a way station on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the residence in 1853 while conducting research for "Uncle Tom's Cabin." A future state legislator, Smith helped to recruit soldiers for the 54th Regiment.

John Coburn House

Built circa 1843, the house was constructed by leading business owner and community leader John Coburn. He was also actively involved in the abolitionist movement and held key positions in several organizations, including the New England Freedom Association.

Smith Court Residences

These five residential buildings are typical examples of homes occupied by 19th century black Bostonians. The four single-family homes were built between 1799 and 1853. The apartment building was constructed around 1885 to help satisfy the growing population's need for less expensive housing. America's first published black historian, William Nell lived on Smith Court in the mid-1800s.

Abiel Smith School

This historic educational space was the first purpose-built public school for African-American children in the country. After school desegregation in 1855, the building was used as a furniture warehouse and then the headquarters for a black Civil War veterans association. Built in 1834, it has been adapted to house the galleries and exhibits of the Museum of African American History.

The African Meeting House

Built in 1806, the African Meeting House is the country's oldest freestanding African-American church. It also housed a school for black children until the construction of the Abiel Smith School. The church was the setting for oratories by several renowned abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison. Frederick Douglass helped recruit soldiers here for the 54th Regiment.
The Black Heritage Trail is approximately 1.6 miles long. Most of the sites along the trail are still used as private residences and are not open to the public. Because it is part of the Boston African-American National Historic Site, National Park Service rangers provide free guided tours.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Black Heritage Trail History and Information Guide

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400. At this time there were also the beginnings of a free black community in the North End, and by 1790, the time of the first census, Massachusetts reported no slaves. The trail includes the Robert Gould Shaw & the 54th Regiment Memorial, first black regiment, the George Middleton House, the oldest home built by African Americans on Beacon Hill, and the Phillips School, one of Boston's first schools with an interracial student body.

Visitor's Guide To Black Heritage Trail

Over time, a large community of free blacks and former slaves lived on the north side of Beacon Hill. The general boundaries of the neighborhood were Cambridge, Charles, Joy and Pinckney streets. The residents opened businesses, created organizations, established schools and attended church. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the city's African-American community was at the vanguard in the quest to abolish slavery and achieve equal rights. They also operated way stations along the Underground Railroad. The Black Heritage Trail is a walking tour that connects more than a dozen pre-Civil War buildings and historic sites chronicling this cultural history of African-Americans. These include:

Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial

Designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the monument depicts Colonel Shaw leading the 54th Regiment of Volunteers down Beacon Street as they marched off to war. The regiment was the first all-black unit recruited in the North. Their story is chronicled in the movie "Glory." The high-relief bronze memorial was dedicated in 1897.

George Middleton House

The oldest extant home constructed by an African-American on Beacon Hill, it was the residence of George Middleton, a noted veteran of the Revolutionary War. He led an all-black unit called the "Bucks of America." His service was recognized by Governor John Hancock. The wood-frame, two-family home dates from 1797.

The Phillips School

Built in 1824, the school was originally all white. Neighborhood black children attended school on the first floor of the African Meeting House. After legislation desegregated city schools in 1855, the Phillips School was one of the first to accept black students.

John J. Smith House

Born a free man, John J. Smith moved from Richmond, Virginia to Boston in 1848. A leading abolitionist, his home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. He helped recruit the U.S. Army's all-black 5th Cavalry. Smith would later be elected to the state Legislature three times.

Charles Street Meeting House

An all-white congregation from its inception, the Third Baptist Church of Boston was constructed in 1807. Abolitionist Timothy Gilbert challenged the congregation's segregated seating policy of the 1830s by having black parishioners sit in his pew. He was eventually expelled. After the Civil War, the African Methodist Episcopal Church purchased the church and worshiped there until 1939.

Lewis and Harriet Hayden House

An escaped slave, Lewis Hayden occupied the home with his wife Harriet. Leaders in the abolitionist movement, the Haydens used their house as a way station on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the residence in 1853 while conducting research for "Uncle Tom's Cabin." A future state legislator, Smith helped to recruit soldiers for the 54th Regiment.

John Coburn House

Built circa 1843, the house was constructed by leading business owner and community leader John Coburn. He was also actively involved in the abolitionist movement and held key positions in several organizations, including the New England Freedom Association.

Smith Court Residences

These five residential buildings are typical examples of homes occupied by 19th century black Bostonians. The four single-family homes were built between 1799 and 1853. The apartment building was constructed around 1885 to help satisfy the growing population's need for less expensive housing. America's first published black historian, William Nell lived on Smith Court in the mid-1800s.

Abiel Smith School

This historic educational space was the first purpose-built public school for African-American children in the country. After school desegregation in 1855, the building was used as a furniture warehouse and then the headquarters for a black Civil War veterans association. Built in 1834, it has been adapted to house the galleries and exhibits of the Museum of African American History.

The African Meeting House

Built in 1806, the African Meeting House is the country's oldest freestanding African-American church. It also housed a school for black children until the construction of the Abiel Smith School. The church was the setting for oratories by several renowned abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison. Frederick Douglass helped recruit soldiers here for the 54th Regiment.
The Black Heritage Trail is approximately 1.6 miles long. Most of the sites along the trail are still used as private residences and are not open to the public. Because it is part of the Boston African-American National Historic Site, National Park Service rangers provide free guided tours.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Black Heritage Trail History and Information Guide

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400. At this time there were also the beginnings of a free black community in the North End, and by 1790, the time of the first census, Massachusetts reported no slaves. The trail includes the Robert Gould Shaw & the 54th Regiment Memorial, first black regiment, the George Middleton House, the oldest home built by African Americans on Beacon Hill, and the Phillips School, one of Boston's first schools with an interracial student body.

Visitor's Guide To Black Heritage Trail

Over time, a large community of free blacks and former slaves lived on the north side of Beacon Hill. The general boundaries of the neighborhood were Cambridge, Charles, Joy and Pinckney streets. The residents opened businesses, created organizations, established schools and attended church. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the city's African-American community was at the vanguard in the quest to abolish slavery and achieve equal rights. They also operated way stations along the Underground Railroad. The Black Heritage Trail is a walking tour that connects more than a dozen pre-Civil War buildings and historic sites chronicling this cultural history of African-Americans. These include:

Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial

Designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the monument depicts Colonel Shaw leading the 54th Regiment of Volunteers down Beacon Street as they marched off to war. The regiment was the first all-black unit recruited in the North. Their story is chronicled in the movie "Glory." The high-relief bronze memorial was dedicated in 1897.

George Middleton House

The oldest extant home constructed by an African-American on Beacon Hill, it was the residence of George Middleton, a noted veteran of the Revolutionary War. He led an all-black unit called the "Bucks of America." His service was recognized by Governor John Hancock. The wood-frame, two-family home dates from 1797.

The Phillips School

Built in 1824, the school was originally all white. Neighborhood black children attended school on the first floor of the African Meeting House. After legislation desegregated city schools in 1855, the Phillips School was one of the first to accept black students.

John J. Smith House

Born a free man, John J. Smith moved from Richmond, Virginia to Boston in 1848. A leading abolitionist, his home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. He helped recruit the U.S. Army's all-black 5th Cavalry. Smith would later be elected to the state Legislature three times.

Charles Street Meeting House

An all-white congregation from its inception, the Third Baptist Church of Boston was constructed in 1807. Abolitionist Timothy Gilbert challenged the congregation's segregated seating policy of the 1830s by having black parishioners sit in his pew. He was eventually expelled. After the Civil War, the African Methodist Episcopal Church purchased the church and worshiped there until 1939.

Lewis and Harriet Hayden House

An escaped slave, Lewis Hayden occupied the home with his wife Harriet. Leaders in the abolitionist movement, the Haydens used their house as a way station on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the residence in 1853 while conducting research for "Uncle Tom's Cabin." A future state legislator, Smith helped to recruit soldiers for the 54th Regiment.

John Coburn House

Built circa 1843, the house was constructed by leading business owner and community leader John Coburn. He was also actively involved in the abolitionist movement and held key positions in several organizations, including the New England Freedom Association.

Smith Court Residences

These five residential buildings are typical examples of homes occupied by 19th century black Bostonians. The four single-family homes were built between 1799 and 1853. The apartment building was constructed around 1885 to help satisfy the growing population's need for less expensive housing. America's first published black historian, William Nell lived on Smith Court in the mid-1800s.

Abiel Smith School

This historic educational space was the first purpose-built public school for African-American children in the country. After school desegregation in 1855, the building was used as a furniture warehouse and then the headquarters for a black Civil War veterans association. Built in 1834, it has been adapted to house the galleries and exhibits of the Museum of African American History.

The African Meeting House

Built in 1806, the African Meeting House is the country's oldest freestanding African-American church. It also housed a school for black children until the construction of the Abiel Smith School. The church was the setting for oratories by several renowned abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison. Frederick Douglass helped recruit soldiers here for the 54th Regiment.
The Black Heritage Trail is approximately 1.6 miles long. Most of the sites along the trail are still used as private residences and are not open to the public. Because it is part of the Boston African-American National Historic Site, National Park Service rangers provide free guided tours.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Black Heritage Trail History and Information Guide

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400. At this time there were also the beginnings of a free black community in the North End, and by 1790, the time of the first census, Massachusetts reported no slaves. The trail includes the Robert Gould Shaw & the 54th Regiment Memorial, first black regiment, the George Middleton House, the oldest home built by African Americans on Beacon Hill, and the Phillips School, one of Boston's first schools with an interracial student body.

Visitor's Guide To Black Heritage Trail

Over time, a large community of free blacks and former slaves lived on the north side of Beacon Hill. The general boundaries of the neighborhood were Cambridge, Charles, Joy and Pinckney streets. The residents opened businesses, created organizations, established schools and attended church. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the city's African-American community was at the vanguard in the quest to abolish slavery and achieve equal rights. They also operated way stations along the Underground Railroad. The Black Heritage Trail is a walking tour that connects more than a dozen pre-Civil War buildings and historic sites chronicling this cultural history of African-Americans. These include:

Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial

Designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the monument depicts Colonel Shaw leading the 54th Regiment of Volunteers down Beacon Street as they marched off to war. The regiment was the first all-black unit recruited in the North. Their story is chronicled in the movie "Glory." The high-relief bronze memorial was dedicated in 1897.

George Middleton House

The oldest extant home constructed by an African-American on Beacon Hill, it was the residence of George Middleton, a noted veteran of the Revolutionary War. He led an all-black unit called the "Bucks of America." His service was recognized by Governor John Hancock. The wood-frame, two-family home dates from 1797.

The Phillips School

Built in 1824, the school was originally all white. Neighborhood black children attended school on the first floor of the African Meeting House. After legislation desegregated city schools in 1855, the Phillips School was one of the first to accept black students.

John J. Smith House

Born a free man, John J. Smith moved from Richmond, Virginia to Boston in 1848. A leading abolitionist, his home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. He helped recruit the U.S. Army's all-black 5th Cavalry. Smith would later be elected to the state Legislature three times.

Charles Street Meeting House

An all-white congregation from its inception, the Third Baptist Church of Boston was constructed in 1807. Abolitionist Timothy Gilbert challenged the congregation's segregated seating policy of the 1830s by having black parishioners sit in his pew. He was eventually expelled. After the Civil War, the African Methodist Episcopal Church purchased the church and worshiped there until 1939.

Lewis and Harriet Hayden House

An escaped slave, Lewis Hayden occupied the home with his wife Harriet. Leaders in the abolitionist movement, the Haydens used their house as a way station on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the residence in 1853 while conducting research for "Uncle Tom's Cabin." A future state legislator, Smith helped to recruit soldiers for the 54th Regiment.

John Coburn House

Built circa 1843, the house was constructed by leading business owner and community leader John Coburn. He was also actively involved in the abolitionist movement and held key positions in several organizations, including the New England Freedom Association.

Smith Court Residences

These five residential buildings are typical examples of homes occupied by 19th century black Bostonians. The four single-family homes were built between 1799 and 1853. The apartment building was constructed around 1885 to help satisfy the growing population's need for less expensive housing. America's first published black historian, William Nell lived on Smith Court in the mid-1800s.

Abiel Smith School

This historic educational space was the first purpose-built public school for African-American children in the country. After school desegregation in 1855, the building was used as a furniture warehouse and then the headquarters for a black Civil War veterans association. Built in 1834, it has been adapted to house the galleries and exhibits of the Museum of African American History.

The African Meeting House

Built in 1806, the African Meeting House is the country's oldest freestanding African-American church. It also housed a school for black children until the construction of the Abiel Smith School. The church was the setting for oratories by several renowned abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison. Frederick Douglass helped recruit soldiers here for the 54th Regiment.
The Black Heritage Trail is approximately 1.6 miles long. Most of the sites along the trail are still used as private residences and are not open to the public. Because it is part of the Boston African-American National Historic Site, National Park Service rangers provide free guided tours.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Black Heritage Trail History and Information Guide

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400. At this time there were also the beginnings of a free black community in the North End, and by 1790, the time of the first census, Massachusetts reported no slaves. The trail includes the Robert Gould Shaw & the 54th Regiment Memorial, first black regiment, the George Middleton House, the oldest home built by African Americans on Beacon Hill, and the Phillips School, one of Boston's first schools with an interracial student body.

Visitor's Guide To Black Heritage Trail

Over time, a large community of free blacks and former slaves lived on the north side of Beacon Hill. The general boundaries of the neighborhood were Cambridge, Charles, Joy and Pinckney streets. The residents opened businesses, created organizations, established schools and attended church. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the city's African-American community was at the vanguard in the quest to abolish slavery and achieve equal rights. They also operated way stations along the Underground Railroad. The Black Heritage Trail is a walking tour that connects more than a dozen pre-Civil War buildings and historic sites chronicling this cultural history of African-Americans. These include:

Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial

Designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the monument depicts Colonel Shaw leading the 54th Regiment of Volunteers down Beacon Street as they marched off to war. The regiment was the first all-black unit recruited in the North. Their story is chronicled in the movie "Glory." The high-relief bronze memorial was dedicated in 1897.

George Middleton House

The oldest extant home constructed by an African-American on Beacon Hill, it was the residence of George Middleton, a noted veteran of the Revolutionary War. He led an all-black unit called the "Bucks of America." His service was recognized by Governor John Hancock. The wood-frame, two-family home dates from 1797.

The Phillips School

Built in 1824, the school was originally all white. Neighborhood black children attended school on the first floor of the African Meeting House. After legislation desegregated city schools in 1855, the Phillips School was one of the first to accept black students.

John J. Smith House

Born a free man, John J. Smith moved from Richmond, Virginia to Boston in 1848. A leading abolitionist, his home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. He helped recruit the U.S. Army's all-black 5th Cavalry. Smith would later be elected to the state Legislature three times.

Charles Street Meeting House

An all-white congregation from its inception, the Third Baptist Church of Boston was constructed in 1807. Abolitionist Timothy Gilbert challenged the congregation's segregated seating policy of the 1830s by having black parishioners sit in his pew. He was eventually expelled. After the Civil War, the African Methodist Episcopal Church purchased the church and worshiped there until 1939.

Lewis and Harriet Hayden House

An escaped slave, Lewis Hayden occupied the home with his wife Harriet. Leaders in the abolitionist movement, the Haydens used their house as a way station on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the residence in 1853 while conducting research for "Uncle Tom's Cabin." A future state legislator, Smith helped to recruit soldiers for the 54th Regiment.

John Coburn House

Built circa 1843, the house was constructed by leading business owner and community leader John Coburn. He was also actively involved in the abolitionist movement and held key positions in several organizations, including the New England Freedom Association.

Smith Court Residences

These five residential buildings are typical examples of homes occupied by 19th century black Bostonians. The four single-family homes were built between 1799 and 1853. The apartment building was constructed around 1885 to help satisfy the growing population's need for less expensive housing. America's first published black historian, William Nell lived on Smith Court in the mid-1800s.

Abiel Smith School

This historic educational space was the first purpose-built public school for African-American children in the country. After school desegregation in 1855, the building was used as a furniture warehouse and then the headquarters for a black Civil War veterans association. Built in 1834, it has been adapted to house the galleries and exhibits of the Museum of African American History.

The African Meeting House

Built in 1806, the African Meeting House is the country's oldest freestanding African-American church. It also housed a school for black children until the construction of the Abiel Smith School. The church was the setting for oratories by several renowned abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison. Frederick Douglass helped recruit soldiers here for the 54th Regiment.
The Black Heritage Trail is approximately 1.6 miles long. Most of the sites along the trail are still used as private residences and are not open to the public. Because it is part of the Boston African-American National Historic Site, National Park Service rangers provide free guided tours.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Black Heritage Trail History and Information Guide

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400. At this time there were also the beginnings of a free black community in the North End, and by 1790, the time of the first census, Massachusetts reported no slaves. The trail includes the Robert Gould Shaw & the 54th Regiment Memorial, first black regiment, the George Middleton House, the oldest home built by African Americans on Beacon Hill, and the Phillips School, one of Boston's first schools with an interracial student body.

Visitor's Guide To Black Heritage Trail

Over time, a large community of free blacks and former slaves lived on the north side of Beacon Hill. The general boundaries of the neighborhood were Cambridge, Charles, Joy and Pinckney streets. The residents opened businesses, created organizations, established schools and attended church. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the city's African-American community was at the vanguard in the quest to abolish slavery and achieve equal rights. They also operated way stations along the Underground Railroad. The Black Heritage Trail is a walking tour that connects more than a dozen pre-Civil War buildings and historic sites chronicling this cultural history of African-Americans. These include:

Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial

Designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the monument depicts Colonel Shaw leading the 54th Regiment of Volunteers down Beacon Street as they marched off to war. The regiment was the first all-black unit recruited in the North. Their story is chronicled in the movie "Glory." The high-relief bronze memorial was dedicated in 1897.

George Middleton House

The oldest extant home constructed by an African-American on Beacon Hill, it was the residence of George Middleton, a noted veteran of the Revolutionary War. He led an all-black unit called the "Bucks of America." His service was recognized by Governor John Hancock. The wood-frame, two-family home dates from 1797.

The Phillips School

Built in 1824, the school was originally all white. Neighborhood black children attended school on the first floor of the African Meeting House. After legislation desegregated city schools in 1855, the Phillips School was one of the first to accept black students.

John J. Smith House

Born a free man, John J. Smith moved from Richmond, Virginia to Boston in 1848. A leading abolitionist, his home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. He helped recruit the U.S. Army's all-black 5th Cavalry. Smith would later be elected to the state Legislature three times.

Charles Street Meeting House

An all-white congregation from its inception, the Third Baptist Church of Boston was constructed in 1807. Abolitionist Timothy Gilbert challenged the congregation's segregated seating policy of the 1830s by having black parishioners sit in his pew. He was eventually expelled. After the Civil War, the African Methodist Episcopal Church purchased the church and worshiped there until 1939.

Lewis and Harriet Hayden House

An escaped slave, Lewis Hayden occupied the home with his wife Harriet. Leaders in the abolitionist movement, the Haydens used their house as a way station on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the residence in 1853 while conducting research for "Uncle Tom's Cabin." A future state legislator, Smith helped to recruit soldiers for the 54th Regiment.

John Coburn House

Built circa 1843, the house was constructed by leading business owner and community leader John Coburn. He was also actively involved in the abolitionist movement and held key positions in several organizations, including the New England Freedom Association.

Smith Court Residences

These five residential buildings are typical examples of homes occupied by 19th century black Bostonians. The four single-family homes were built between 1799 and 1853. The apartment building was constructed around 1885 to help satisfy the growing population's need for less expensive housing. America's first published black historian, William Nell lived on Smith Court in the mid-1800s.

Abiel Smith School

This historic educational space was the first purpose-built public school for African-American children in the country. After school desegregation in 1855, the building was used as a furniture warehouse and then the headquarters for a black Civil War veterans association. Built in 1834, it has been adapted to house the galleries and exhibits of the Museum of African American History.

The African Meeting House

Built in 1806, the African Meeting House is the country's oldest freestanding African-American church. It also housed a school for black children until the construction of the Abiel Smith School. The church was the setting for oratories by several renowned abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison. Frederick Douglass helped recruit soldiers here for the 54th Regiment.
The Black Heritage Trail is approximately 1.6 miles long. Most of the sites along the trail are still used as private residences and are not open to the public. Because it is part of the Boston African-American National Historic Site, National Park Service rangers provide free guided tours.

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Black Heritage Trail History and Information Guide

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400. At this time there were also the beginnings of a free black community in the North End, and by 1790, the time of the first census, Massachusetts reported no slaves. The trail includes the Robert Gould Shaw & the 54th Regiment Memorial, first black regiment, the George Middleton House, the oldest home built by African Americans on Beacon Hill, and the Phillips School, one of Boston's first schools with an interracial student body.

Visitor's Guide To Black Heritage Trail

Over time, a large community of free blacks and former slaves lived on the north side of Beacon Hill. The general boundaries of the neighborhood were Cambridge, Charles, Joy and Pinckney streets. The residents opened businesses, created organizations, established schools and attended church. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the city's African-American community was at the vanguard in the quest to abolish slavery and achieve equal rights. They also operated way stations along the Underground Railroad. The Black Heritage Trail is a walking tour that connects more than a dozen pre-Civil War buildings and historic sites chronicling this cultural history of African-Americans. These include:

Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial

Designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the monument depicts Colonel Shaw leading the 54th Regiment of Volunteers down Beacon Street as they marched off to war. The regiment was the first all-black unit recruited in the North. Their story is chronicled in the movie "Glory." The high-relief bronze memorial was dedicated in 1897.

George Middleton House

The oldest extant home constructed by an African-American on Beacon Hill, it was the residence of George Middleton, a noted veteran of the Revolutionary War. He led an all-black unit called the "Bucks of America." His service was recognized by Governor John Hancock. The wood-frame, two-family home dates from 1797.

The Phillips School

Built in 1824, the school was originally all white. Neighborhood black children attended school on the first floor of the African Meeting House. After legislation desegregated city schools in 1855, the Phillips School was one of the first to accept black students.

John J. Smith House

Born a free man, John J. Smith moved from Richmond, Virginia to Boston in 1848. A leading abolitionist, his home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. He helped recruit the U.S. Army's all-black 5th Cavalry. Smith would later be elected to the state Legislature three times.

Charles Street Meeting House

An all-white congregation from its inception, the Third Baptist Church of Boston was constructed in 1807. Abolitionist Timothy Gilbert challenged the congregation's segregated seating policy of the 1830s by having black parishioners sit in his pew. He was eventually expelled. After the Civil War, the African Methodist Episcopal Church purchased the church and worshiped there until 1939.

Lewis and Harriet Hayden House

An escaped slave, Lewis Hayden occupied the home with his wife Harriet. Leaders in the abolitionist movement, the Haydens used their house as a way station on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the residence in 1853 while conducting research for "Uncle Tom's Cabin." A future state legislator, Smith helped to recruit soldiers for the 54th Regiment.

John Coburn House

Built circa 1843, the house was constructed by leading business owner and community leader John Coburn. He was also actively involved in the abolitionist movement and held key positions in several organizations, including the New England Freedom Association.

Smith Court Residences

These five residential buildings are typical examples of homes occupied by 19th century black Bostonians. The four single-family homes were built between 1799 and 1853. The apartment building was constructed around 1885 to help satisfy the growing population's need for less expensive housing. America's first published black historian, William Nell lived on Smith Court in the mid-1800s.

Abiel Smith School

This historic educational space was the first purpose-built public school for African-American children in the country. After school desegregation in 1855, the building was used as a furniture warehouse and then the headquarters for a black Civil War veterans association. Built in 1834, it has been adapted to house the galleries and exhibits of the Museum of African American History.

The African Meeting House

Built in 1806, the African Meeting House is the country's oldest freestanding African-American church. It also housed a school for black children until the construction of the Abiel Smith School. The church was the setting for oratories by several renowned abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison. Frederick Douglass helped recruit soldiers here for the 54th Regiment.
The Black Heritage Trail is approximately 1.6 miles long. Most of the sites along the trail are still used as private residences and are not open to the public. Because it is part of the Boston African-American National Historic Site, National Park Service rangers provide free guided tours.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Black Heritage Trail History and Information Guide

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400. At this time there were also the beginnings of a free black community in the North End, and by 1790, the time of the first census, Massachusetts reported no slaves. The trail includes the Robert Gould Shaw & the 54th Regiment Memorial, first black regiment, the George Middleton House, the oldest home built by African Americans on Beacon Hill, and the Phillips School, one of Boston's first schools with an interracial student body.

Visitor's Guide To Black Heritage Trail

Over time, a large community of free blacks and former slaves lived on the north side of Beacon Hill. The general boundaries of the neighborhood were Cambridge, Charles, Joy and Pinckney streets. The residents opened businesses, created organizations, established schools and attended church. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the city's African-American community was at the vanguard in the quest to abolish slavery and achieve equal rights. They also operated way stations along the Underground Railroad. The Black Heritage Trail is a walking tour that connects more than a dozen pre-Civil War buildings and historic sites chronicling this cultural history of African-Americans. These include:

Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial

Designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the monument depicts Colonel Shaw leading the 54th Regiment of Volunteers down Beacon Street as they marched off to war. The regiment was the first all-black unit recruited in the North. Their story is chronicled in the movie "Glory." The high-relief bronze memorial was dedicated in 1897.

George Middleton House

The oldest extant home constructed by an African-American on Beacon Hill, it was the residence of George Middleton, a noted veteran of the Revolutionary War. He led an all-black unit called the "Bucks of America." His service was recognized by Governor John Hancock. The wood-frame, two-family home dates from 1797.

The Phillips School

Built in 1824, the school was originally all white. Neighborhood black children attended school on the first floor of the African Meeting House. After legislation desegregated city schools in 1855, the Phillips School was one of the first to accept black students.

John J. Smith House

Born a free man, John J. Smith moved from Richmond, Virginia to Boston in 1848. A leading abolitionist, his home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. He helped recruit the U.S. Army's all-black 5th Cavalry. Smith would later be elected to the state Legislature three times.

Charles Street Meeting House

An all-white congregation from its inception, the Third Baptist Church of Boston was constructed in 1807. Abolitionist Timothy Gilbert challenged the congregation's segregated seating policy of the 1830s by having black parishioners sit in his pew. He was eventually expelled. After the Civil War, the African Methodist Episcopal Church purchased the church and worshiped there until 1939.

Lewis and Harriet Hayden House

An escaped slave, Lewis Hayden occupied the home with his wife Harriet. Leaders in the abolitionist movement, the Haydens used their house as a way station on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the residence in 1853 while conducting research for "Uncle Tom's Cabin." A future state legislator, Smith helped to recruit soldiers for the 54th Regiment.

John Coburn House

Built circa 1843, the house was constructed by leading business owner and community leader John Coburn. He was also actively involved in the abolitionist movement and held key positions in several organizations, including the New England Freedom Association.

Smith Court Residences

These five residential buildings are typical examples of homes occupied by 19th century black Bostonians. The four single-family homes were built between 1799 and 1853. The apartment building was constructed around 1885 to help satisfy the growing population's need for less expensive housing. America's first published black historian, William Nell lived on Smith Court in the mid-1800s.

Abiel Smith School

This historic educational space was the first purpose-built public school for African-American children in the country. After school desegregation in 1855, the building was used as a furniture warehouse and then the headquarters for a black Civil War veterans association. Built in 1834, it has been adapted to house the galleries and exhibits of the Museum of African American History.

The African Meeting House

Built in 1806, the African Meeting House is the country's oldest freestanding African-American church. It also housed a school for black children until the construction of the Abiel Smith School. The church was the setting for oratories by several renowned abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison. Frederick Douglass helped recruit soldiers here for the 54th Regiment.
The Black Heritage Trail is approximately 1.6 miles long. Most of the sites along the trail are still used as private residences and are not open to the public. Because it is part of the Boston African-American National Historic Site, National Park Service rangers provide free guided tours.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Black Heritage Trail History and Information Guide

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400. At this time there were also the beginnings of a free black community in the North End, and by 1790, the time of the first census, Massachusetts reported no slaves. The trail includes the Robert Gould Shaw & the 54th Regiment Memorial, first black regiment, the George Middleton House, the oldest home built by African Americans on Beacon Hill, and the Phillips School, one of Boston's first schools with an interracial student body.

Visitor's Guide To Black Heritage Trail

Over time, a large community of free blacks and former slaves lived on the north side of Beacon Hill. The general boundaries of the neighborhood were Cambridge, Charles, Joy and Pinckney streets. The residents opened businesses, created organizations, established schools and attended church. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the city's African-American community was at the vanguard in the quest to abolish slavery and achieve equal rights. They also operated way stations along the Underground Railroad. The Black Heritage Trail is a walking tour that connects more than a dozen pre-Civil War buildings and historic sites chronicling this cultural history of African-Americans. These include:

Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial

Designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the monument depicts Colonel Shaw leading the 54th Regiment of Volunteers down Beacon Street as they marched off to war. The regiment was the first all-black unit recruited in the North. Their story is chronicled in the movie "Glory." The high-relief bronze memorial was dedicated in 1897.

George Middleton House

The oldest extant home constructed by an African-American on Beacon Hill, it was the residence of George Middleton, a noted veteran of the Revolutionary War. He led an all-black unit called the "Bucks of America." His service was recognized by Governor John Hancock. The wood-frame, two-family home dates from 1797.

The Phillips School

Built in 1824, the school was originally all white. Neighborhood black children attended school on the first floor of the African Meeting House. After legislation desegregated city schools in 1855, the Phillips School was one of the first to accept black students.

John J. Smith House

Born a free man, John J. Smith moved from Richmond, Virginia to Boston in 1848. A leading abolitionist, his home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. He helped recruit the U.S. Army's all-black 5th Cavalry. Smith would later be elected to the state Legislature three times.

Charles Street Meeting House

An all-white congregation from its inception, the Third Baptist Church of Boston was constructed in 1807. Abolitionist Timothy Gilbert challenged the congregation's segregated seating policy of the 1830s by having black parishioners sit in his pew. He was eventually expelled. After the Civil War, the African Methodist Episcopal Church purchased the church and worshiped there until 1939.

Lewis and Harriet Hayden House

An escaped slave, Lewis Hayden occupied the home with his wife Harriet. Leaders in the abolitionist movement, the Haydens used their house as a way station on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the residence in 1853 while conducting research for "Uncle Tom's Cabin." A future state legislator, Smith helped to recruit soldiers for the 54th Regiment.

John Coburn House

Built circa 1843, the house was constructed by leading business owner and community leader John Coburn. He was also actively involved in the abolitionist movement and held key positions in several organizations, including the New England Freedom Association.

Smith Court Residences

These five residential buildings are typical examples of homes occupied by 19th century black Bostonians. The four single-family homes were built between 1799 and 1853. The apartment building was constructed around 1885 to help satisfy the growing population's need for less expensive housing. America's first published black historian, William Nell lived on Smith Court in the mid-1800s.

Abiel Smith School

This historic educational space was the first purpose-built public school for African-American children in the country. After school desegregation in 1855, the building was used as a furniture warehouse and then the headquarters for a black Civil War veterans association. Built in 1834, it has been adapted to house the galleries and exhibits of the Museum of African American History.

The African Meeting House

Built in 1806, the African Meeting House is the country's oldest freestanding African-American church. It also housed a school for black children until the construction of the Abiel Smith School. The church was the setting for oratories by several renowned abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison. Frederick Douglass helped recruit soldiers here for the 54th Regiment.
The Black Heritage Trail is approximately 1.6 miles long. Most of the sites along the trail are still used as private residences and are not open to the public. Because it is part of the Boston African-American National Historic Site, National Park Service rangers provide free guided tours.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Black Heritage Trail History and Information Guide

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Black Heritage Trail features various homes, memorials, and sites that are significant in the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. The first slaves arrived in 1638 and by 1705 there were over 400.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
National Trust for Historic Preservation

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African Meeting House - Boston African American National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)

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In 1898 the Baptist congregation sold their meeting house and moved to a new location in the South End. The meeting house became the Jewish Congregation Anshi Libavitz in 1904 and was acquired by the Museum of African American History in 1972. The building is a National Historic Landmark.

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Responding to pressure from black and white abolitionists, President Lincoln admitted black soldiers into the Union forces in 1863. The 54th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was the first black regiment to be recruited in the North.

Robert Gould Shaw, a young white officer from a prominent Boston family, volunteered for its command. The 54th Regiment trained in Readville (in the present day Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston).

On July 18, 1863, the 54th Regiment became famous for leading an assault on Fort Wagner as part of operations to capture the Confederate city of Charleston, South Carolina. In the hard-fought battle Shaw and many members of the regiment were killed.

Sergeant William Carney of New Bedford was wounded three times in saving the American flag from Confederate capture. Carney's bravery earned him the distinction of the first African American to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. A photographic reproduction of the 54th's saved national flag is on display across the street in the State House's Hall of Flags.

For 18 months of service, the 54th Regiment refused to accept a salary lower than their white counterparts. Ultimately, Congress relented and increased their pay retroactively. This high-relief bronze memorial to Colonel Shaw and the 54th Regiment was erected through a fund established by Joshua B. Smith in 1865. Smith, a fugitive slave from North Carolina, was a caterer, former employee of the Shaw household, and a state representative from Cambridge.

The sculpture is by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and the architectural setting by McKim, Mead and White. The monument was dedicated on May 31, 1897 in ceremonies that included Carney, veterans of the 54th and 55th Regiments, the 5th Calvary, and several speakers, including Booker T. Washington.

The inscription on the reverse side of the monument was written by Charles W. Eliot, then president of Harvard University.

The 62 names listed on the lower portion of the monument are those soldiers who died during the assault on Fort Wagner. They were added in 1982.

Next Stop: George Middleton House

Built in 1797, this is the oldest extant home built by African Americans on Beacon Hill. Its original owners were George Middleton (1735-1815), a liveryman, and Louis Glapion, a hairdresser. Both Middleton and Glapion were members of the African Lodge of Masons founded by black educator Prince Hall.

OGeorge Middleton was a veteran of the American Revolution. Honorifically called "colonel," Middleton supposedly led the all-black company, the "Bucks of America." John Hancock, in front of his house on Beacon Street, was documented by William C. Nell as having presented the company with a painted silk flag bearing the initials JGWH, a pine tree, a deer, and a scroll bearing the name of the company.

During the Civil War, Nell donated the flag to the Massachusetts Historical Society where it is preserved today. Middleton in his old age on Pinckney Street was remembered by Lydia Maria Child:

"If became a frolic with the white boys to deride them on this day [the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, celebrated in June] and finally...to drive them from the Common. The colored people became greatly incensed by this mockery of their festival, and rumor reached us...that they were determined to resist the whites, and were going armed with this intention...Soon, terrified children and women ran down Belknap Street [now Joy Street] pursued by white boys, who enjoyed their fright. The sounds of battle approached; clubs and brickbats were flying in [all] directions. At this crisis, Col. Middleton opened his door, armed with a loaded musket, and in a loud voice, shrieked death to the first white who should approach.

Hundreds of human beings, white and black, were pouring down the street...Col. Middleton's voice could be heard above every other, urging his party to turn and resist to the last. His appearance was terrific, his musket was leveled, ready to sacrifice the first white man that came within his range. The colored party, shamed by his reproaches, and fired by his example rallied...."

Next Stop: John J. Smith House

Lewis Hayden was born a slave in 1816 in Lexington, Kentucky. After escaping slavery via the Underground Railroad to Detroit, he moved to Boston with his wife Harriet and soon became a leader in the abolitionist movement. In Boston Hayden's political activities were based in the clothing store he owned on Cambridge Street, and in his home here on Phillips Street (then Southac Street).

The house was built in 1833. Hayden moved in as a tenant around 1849. Francis Jackson, treasurer of the Vigilance Committee, a radical abolitionist organization, purchased the house in 1853, possibly to assure that Hayden would not be harassed in his Underground Railroad activities. (Jackson's estate sold the house to Harriet Hayden in 1865).

In 1850, Southern slave owners were given legal sanction by the Fugitive Slave Act to retrieve their runaway slaves. Boston ceased to be a haven for escaped slaves. Hayden and his wife, Harriet, turned their home into an Underground Railroad station. William and Ellen Craft, a fugitive couple who masqueraded as master and slave, were sheltered here as were countless other fugitive blacks.

The Haydens reputedly kept two kegs of gunpowder under their front stoop. They greeted bounty hunters at the door with lit candles, saying that they would rather drop the candles and blow up the house than surrender the ex-slaves in their trust. Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the Hayden's home in 1853:

"When, in 1853, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe came to the Liberator Office, 21 Cornhill, to get facts for her "Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin," she was taken by Mr. R.F. Wallcutt and myself over to Lewis Hayden's house in Southnac Street, thirteen newly-escaped slaves of all colors and sizes were brought in into one room for her to see. Though Mrs. Stowe had written wonderful "Uncle Tom" at the request of Dr. Bailey, of Washington, for the National Era, expressly to show up the workings of the Fugitive Slave-Law, yet she had never seen such a company of 'fugitives' together before."

During the Civil War, Hayden was a recruiting agent for the 54th Regiment. The Hayden's only son died serving in the Union Navy. In 1873, Hayden was elected to the state legislature. From 1859 until his death in 1889, he held the position of Messenger to the Secretary of State. Harriet Hayden survived her husband. In her will she established a scholarship fund for "needy and worthy colored students in the Harvard Medical School."

Next Stop: John Coburn House

The five residential structures on Smith Court are typical of the homes occupied by black Bostonians in the 19th century. Number 3 was built in 1799 by two white bricklayers. It was a double house with a common entryway. Black families began renting here between 1825 and 1830. In 1865, it was purchased by black clothier James Scott. William C. Nell boarded here from 1851 to 1865. Nell was America's first published black historian, a community activist and leader in the struggle to integrate Boston's public schools before the Civil War.

Number 5 was built as income property by a lawyer between 1815 and 1828. George Washington, a laborer and deacon of the African Meeting House, purchased the house in 1849. He lived in the upper part of the house with his wife and nine children, while the first floor was rented out.

Number 7 was built some time between 1802 and 1811. Number 7A behind Number 7, is in Holmes Alley. Number 7A was built as a double house in 1799 and sold the next year to Richard Johnson, a mariner, and David Bartlett, a hairdresser. In the 1860s, black chimney sweep and entrepreneur Joseph Scarlett bought both 7 and 7A as rental property. In the 19th century, Holmes alley had several houses similar to 7A. They stood where there are backyards today. Such housing development in the middle of blocks, with an elaborate system of pedestrian alleys, was typical when African Americans lived in the West End.

Number 10, next to the African Meeting House, was built in 1853 for Joseph Scarlett. Originally, it had two brick stories with another story of dormer windows and a pitched roof. Scarlett lived on Bunker Hill Street in Charlestown. At the time of his death in 1898, he owned 15 properties. He left bequests to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, then on North Bennett Street, and to the Home for Aged Colored Women on Myrtle Street.

The brick apartment houses on the west end of the court and on the corner of Joy Street are typical of the tenements developers began to build in this neighborhood between 1885 and 1915. They were built to satisfy the need for inexpensive, dense housing units for the waves of post-1880 European immigrants to Boston. Usually wooden houses were torn down to make way for these four and five story brick "walk-ups."

Next Stop: Abiel Smith School

Abiel Smith School

Museum of African American History

46 Joy Street, Beacon Hill

This historic space commemorates the history of African Americans from slavery through the abolitionist movement, with a focus on the quest for educational equality.

Here in the first building in the nation built for the sole purpose of serving as a public school for black children. This historic site has been transformed into exhibit galleries and a museum store open to the public Monday through Saturday year around. The site is also available to be rented for meetings and special events.

In 1787, Prince Hall petitioned the Massachusetts legislature for African American access to the public school system but was denied. Eleven years later, after petitions by the black parents for separate schools were also denied, black parents organized a community school in the home of Primus Hall, Prince Hall's son, on the corner of West Cedar and Revere Streets on Beacon Hill.

In 1808, the grammar school in the Hall home on the northeast corner of West Cedar and Revere Streets was moved to the first floor of the African Meeting House. Not until the 1820s did the city government establish two primary schools for black children.

The Abiel Smith School was named after a white businessman who left an endowment of $2,000 to the city of Boston for the education of black children. Constructed in 1834 and dedicated in 1835, the Smith primary and grammar school replaced the Meeting House School to educate a great number of the black children of Boston.

Between 1839 and 1855, Boston became embroiled in controversy over school desegregation. William C. Nell, once a young student of the Meeting House School, spearheaded a movement for "the day when color of skin would be no barrier to equal school rights." Nell's Equal School Association boycotted the Smith School.

In 1848, Benjamin Roberts attempted to enroll his daughter Sarah in each of the five public schools that stood between their home and the Smith School. When Sarah was denied entrance to all of them, Roberts sued the city under an 1845 statute providing recovery of damages for any child unlawfully denied public school instruction. Abolitionists joined the case in 1849.

Charles Sumner represented Sarah, and black attorney Robert Morris acted as co-counsel. The case was argued before Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw, one of the most influential state jurists in the country. On April 8, 1850, Shaw ruled that Sumner and Roberts had not proven that Smith School instruction was inferior to that of other public schools of Boston. Nell and his association then took their cause to the state house.

A bill to end segregation in public schools failed in 1851, but a similar measure was passed by the state legislature in 1855 and signed by the governor in April. This bill outlawed segregation in Massachusetts public schools, although the only segregated system by that time was in Boston. By the fall of 1855, black children were finally permitted to attend the public schools closest to their homes. The Smith School closed. The building was subsequently used to store school furniture and, in 1887, became the headquarters for black Civil War veterans.

Next Stop: African Meeting House

African Meeting House

Museum of African American History

46 Joy Street, Beacon Hill

The African Meeting House on Beacon Hill was built in 1806 in what once was the heart of Boston's 19th century free black community.Today, it is a showcase of architecture and African American community organization in the formative years of the new republic, and a preeminentNational Historic Landmark.

The Meeting House was host to giants in the Abolitionist Movement who were responsible for monumental historical events that changed this nation, including:

The founding of the New England Anti-Slavery Society by William Lloyd Garrison in 1832;

The 1833 farewell address of Maria Stewart, a black woman and the first American born woman to speak publicly before a gender-mixed audience;

An 1860 anti-slavery speech by Frederick Douglass given after being run out of Tremont Temple;

The 1863 recruitment to the 54th Massachusetts Regiment led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.

The African Meeting House is the oldest black church edifice still standing in the United States. Before 1805, although black Bostonians could attend white churches, they generally faced discrimination. They were assigned seats only in the balconies and were not given voting privileges.

Thomas Paul, an African American preacher from New Hampshire, led worship meetings for blacks at Faneuil Hall. Mr. Paul, with twenty of his members, officially formed the First African Baptist Church on August 8, 1805. In the same year, land was purchased for a building in the West End.

The African Meeting House, as it came to be commonly called, was completed the next year. Ironically, at the public dedication on December 6, 1806, the floor level pews were reserved for all those "benevolently disposed to the Africans," while the black members sat in the balcony of their new meeting house.

The African Meeting House was constructed almost entirely with black labor. Funds for the project were raised in both the white and black communities. Cato Gardner, a native of Africa, was responsible for raising more than $1,500 toward the total $7,700 to complete the meeting house. A commemorative inscription above the front door reads: "Cato Gardner, first Promoter of this Building 1806."

The facade of the African Meeting House is an adaptation of a design for a townhouse published by Boston architect Asher Benjamin. In addition to its religious and educational activities, the meeting house became a place for celebrations and political and anti-slavery meetings.

On January 6, 1832, William Lloyd Garrison founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society here. In the larger community this building was referred to as the Black Faneuil Hall. The African Meeting House was remodeled by the congregation in the 1850s.

At the end of the 19th century, when the black community began to migrate from the West End to the South End and Roxbury, the building was sold to a Jewish congregation. It served as a synagogue until it was acquired by the Museum of African American History in 1972.

The $9.5-million-dollar historic restoration, complete with new elevator and stair tower making it accessible for all, has returned the African Meeting House to its 1855 appearance, with elegantly curved pews and pulpit, period wainscoting and wall finishes, cast-iron posts and golden chandelier. This National Historic Landmark, now open to the public after being closed six years, welcomes visitors with Words Spoken at the Meeting House etched on granite panels towering in the new courtyard entryway.

To find out about renting the African Meeting House on Beacon Hill, click here.

Go to First Site

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MAAH.org | Museum of African American History | African Meeting House | MAAH

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Responding to pressure from black and white abolitionists, President Lincoln admitted black soldiers into the Union forces in 1863. The 54th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was the first black regiment to be recruited in the North. Robert Gould Shaw, a young white officer from a prominent Boston family, volunteered for its command.

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As home to the African Meeting House and the Abiel Smith School, Smith Court served as a vital center of African American life and culture for much of the nineteenth and earlier twentieth century in Boston. The residences along Smith Court also provide a valuable window into the lives of those who called this neighborhood home. Today, the historic homes on Smith Court, along with the African Meeting House and the Abiel Smith School, are the best preserved physical locales available for understanding the history of African Americans in nineteenth century Boston.

Activist and historian William Cooper Nell lived at 3 Smith Court, which also served as a safe house on the Underground Railroad.
NPS Photo

3 Smith Court, likely built in 1799, has a long association with African American occupants as well as significant activists in Boston. Starting in 1830, African Americans began renting here. George Washington, a bootblack and waiter, rented one side of the house from 1830 until 1845, while Andrew Telford and his wife Rachel Turner rented the other side. James Scott, the longest resident of 3 Smith Court, lived at this home for nearly 50 years. He rented from 1839 to 1865 then purchased the property and lived here until his death in 1888. Born in Virginia, Scott worked as a clothing dealer in Boston. In 1851, local authorities arrested, though later acquitted, Scott for his alleged role in the rescue of freedom seeker Shadrach Minkins from the Boston courthouse. Though his involvement in the Shadrach rescue is unclear, Scott assisted other freedom seekers at his home. For example, on July 18, 1856, he boarded Henry Jackson and his family as they made their way to freedom on the Underground Railroad. From 1850 to 1857, William Cooper Nell also resided at 3 Smith Court. One of the most prominent community activists, Nell provided crucial leadership in the abolition movement, the Underground Railroad, and the struggle for equal rights and education. With the publication of his book Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, Nell became one of the first published African American historians. Like Scott, he also sheltered freedom seekers at his home on Smith Court. ¹

5 Smith Court, built in the early 19 th century, passed through the hands of several owners, both Black and White, prior to 1849. Peter Wilcox, his wife Chloe, and their five children lived here between 1813 and 1815. The Wilcox family joined with others that migrated with mariner Paul Cuffe to Sierra Leone. In 1849, George Washington, who previously resided at 3 Smith Court, purchased the home. Born in Massachusetts in 1795, Washington worked as a bootblack and waiter. He also served as a deacon at the First Independent Baptist Church at the African Meeting House. Washington and his wife Rachel had ten children between 1832 and 1848. They also took in boarders, including an Irish-born laborer named Patrick Barnes. Although George Washington died in 1871, this house remained in his family until 1917. ²

7 Smith Court, constructed in the early 19 th century, had a series of owners, including African American mariner Peter Guss and later the White merchant Elihu Bates, who began renting to Black tenants in 1822. In 1857, Bates' children sold the property to Joseph E. Scarlett, an African American chimneysweep and later a clothing dealer. Though he never lived here, Scarlett owned this building from 1857 until his death in 1898. He lived across the street at 2 Smith Court and mostly rented 7 Smith Court to other African Americans. Tenants of this property included laborer Phillip Johnson and mariners Warner Hicks and Robert Osborn. Few residents stayed longer than three years at this property. ³

Smith Court, a hub of the 19th century Black Beacon Hill community.
NPS Photo

7A Smith Court, built in 1799, is the only surviving example of the early homes that lined the eight-foot wide Holmes Alley. Throughout the 19 th century, many African Americans lived in the residences along Holmes Alley, including at 7A Smith Court. Though earlier held by a succession of White owners, 7A became another rental property for Joseph Scarlett in 1858. Both Scarlett and the other landlords rented the property out to a variety of individuals and families, though most seem to have been short-term occupants. ⁴

2 Smith Court (or 10 Smith Court), constructed in 1853, served as a home and investment property for Joseph Scarlett. Prior to construction of the Scarlett home, an earlier house stood on this site owned by William Henry, an African American tailor. Henry, his family, as well as some tenants lived here. Joseph Scarlett purchased the property in 1852 from the Henry family and soon constructed this new building. He lived here from 1860 until 1868 and eventually sold the building in 1878. By the time of his death in 1898, Scarlett owned fifteen different properties in Boston, Cambridge, and Charlestown. In his will, Scarlett left bequests to the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Zion Church and to the Home for Aged Colored Women on Myrtle Street. ⁵
Note: 3, 5, 7, 7A, and 2/10 Smith Court, sites on the Black Heritage Trail®, are private residences and are not open to the public.
Learn More...

Smith Court Stories: a collaborative project of the Museum of African American History and Boston African American National Historic Site - a unit of the National Parks of Boston.

Footnotes

1. Kathryn Grover and Janine V. Da Silva, "Historic Resource Study: Boston African American National Historic Site," Boston African American National Historic Site, 2002, 61-67.

2. Grover and Da Silva, "Historic Resource Study," 67-69.

3. Grover and Da Silva, "Historic Resource Study," 69-70.

4. Grover and Da Silva, "Historic Resource Study," 70-71.

5. Grover and Da Silva, "Historic Resource Study," 71-72.

Additional Works Consulted

Grover, Kathryn. Make a Way Somehow: African Americans in a Northern Community. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1994.

Horton, James Oliver. "Generations of Protest: Black Families and Social Reform in Antebellum Boson." New England Quarterly 49, 2 (June 1976).

Horton, James Oliver and Horton, Lois E. Black Bostonians; Family Life and Community Struggle in the Antebellum North, Revised Edition. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1999.

Jacobs, Donald M. ed. Courage and Conscience: Black and White Abolitionists in Boston. Bloomington: Indian University Press for the Boston Athenauem, 1993.

Kaplan, Sidney and Kaplan, Emma Nogrady. The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution. Rev. ed. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989.

Rosebrock, Ellen Fletcher. "A Historical Account of the Joy Street Block between Myrtle and Cambridge Streets." Manuscript Prepared for the Museum if Afro- American History, Boston, 22 December 1978.

Wesley, Dorothy Porter, and Constance Porter Uzelac, eds. William Cooper Nell, Nineteenth-Century African American Abolitionist Historian, Integrationits: Selected Writings, 1832-1874. Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 2002.

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Smith Court Residences - Boston African American National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)

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As home to the African Meeting House and the Abiel Smith School, Smith Court served as a vital center of African American life and culture for much of the nineteenth and earlier twentieth century in Boston. The residences along Smith Court also provide a valuable window into the lives of those who called this neighborhood home.

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What Did They Eat? Where Did They Stay? Black Boardinghouses and the Colored Conventions Movement

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During the late eighteenth century, Beacon Hill's north slope section became home to a considerable African American population. By the mid-1700s, the African American population in the area around Belnap Street exceeded 1,000. Throughout the early nineteenth century, the African American population in Beacon Hill continued to grow. This neighborhood is notable for its central role in the antebellum abolitionist movement, housing important locations like the African Meeting House. Advertisements in African American newspapers often featured notices for boardinghouses located in Beacon Hill including one operated by Lewis and Harriet Hayden. Many of these buildings including the African Meeting House, the Hayden House, and more, still stand. Today the African Meeting House is the location of the Boston Museum of African American History.

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Beacon Hill Neighborhood - What Did They Eat? Where Did They Stay? Black Boardinghouses and the Colored Conventions Movement

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During the late eighteenth century, Beacon Hill's north slope section became home to a considerable African American population. By the mid-1700s, the African American population in the area around Belnap Street exceeded 1,000. Throughout the early nineteenth century, the African American population in Beacon Hill continued to grow.

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What Did They Eat? Where Did They Stay? Black Boardinghouses and the Colored Conventions Movement

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During the late eighteenth century, Beacon Hill's north slope section became home to a considerable African American population. By the mid-1700s, the African American population in the area around Belnap Street exceeded 1,000. Throughout the early nineteenth century, the African American population in Beacon Hill continued to grow. This neighborhood is notable for its central role in the antebellum abolitionist movement, housing important locations like the African Meeting House. Advertisements in African American newspapers often featured notices for boardinghouses located in Beacon Hill including one operated by Lewis and Harriet Hayden. Many of these buildings including the African Meeting House, the Hayden House, and more, still stand. Today the African Meeting House is the location of the Boston Museum of African American History.

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Beacon Hill Neighborhood - What Did They Eat? Where Did They Stay? Black Boardinghouses and the Colored Conventions Movement

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During the late eighteenth century, Beacon Hill's north slope section became home to a considerable African American population. By the mid-1700s, the African American population in the area around Belnap Street exceeded 1,000. Throughout the early nineteenth century, the African American population in Beacon Hill continued to grow.

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John Coburn House
Boston African American NHS/NPS

Born in Boston between 1809 and 1813, clothes dealer and community activist John P. Coburn and his family lived at this home beginning in 1844. This house may have been the last commission of renowned architect Asher Benjamin. Coburn ran a successful clothing shop on Brattle Street. Limited evidence suggests that Coburn may have ran a gaming house for wealthy Bostonians in his house. However, his community activism is far better documented.

Coburn served as the treasurer of the New England Freedom Association, an organization dedicated to assisting freedom seekers who escaped slavery and came to Boston on the Underground Railroad. Formed in the early 1840s, this group sought "to extend a helping hand to all who may bid adieu to whips and chains, and by the welcome light of the North Star, reach a haven where they can be protected from the grasp of the man-stealer." ¹

In 1851, authorities arrested, though later acquitted, Coburn for his alleged role in aiding in the courthouse rescue of Shadrach Minkins, the first person apprehended in Boston under the provisions of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. Witnesses reported seeing him at the courthouse "'making inflammatory remarks shortly before the rescue began.'" ²

Along with other community leaders in the 1850s, Coburn founded the Massasoit Guards, an unsanctioned Black militia. Though state officials ignored their requests for official recognition and support, the Massasoit Guards continued to operate as a force for community self-defense. In their book Black Bostonians: Community Life and Struggle in the Antebellum North, historians James and Lois Horton state:
The drive for a black military company was an expression of solidarity and an assertion of potency in the face of federal attack. Blacks felt themselves embattled: the positive, visible, even inspirational presence of disciplined, organized, and armed community members served not only to discourage slave catchers but also to bolster the courage of the threatened community. ³
Militia groups such the Massasoit Guards can be considered precursors to the Black Civil War regiments, including the famous 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment.
Note: The John Coburn House, a site on the Black Heritage Trail®, is a private residence and is not open to the public.
Coburn died in 1873 and his home passed to his son Wendell, whose widow, Mary, lived in the house until the turn of the twentieth century.

Footnotes

1. William Cooper Nell: Selected Writings 1832-1874, edited by Dorothy Porter Wesley and Constance Porter Uzelac (Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 2002), 146.

2. Kathryn Grover and Janine V. Da Silva, "Historic Resource Study: Boston African American National Historic Site," Boston African American National Historic Site, (2002), 91.

3. James Horton and Lois Horton, Black Bostonians: Family Life and Community Struggle in the Antebellum North (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1979), 131.

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John Coburn House - Boston African American National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)

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Born in Boston between 1809 and 1813, clothes dealer and community activist John P. Coburn and his family lived at this home beginning in 1844. This house may have been the last commission of renowned architect Asher Benjamin. Coburn ran a successful clothing shop on Brattle Street.

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Charles Street Meeting House, 1853
Boston Public Library

Built in 1807, this building originally housed the Third Baptist Church. ¹ The segregationist tradition of New England church seating patterns prevailed here. In April 1836, member Timothy Gilbert, later an active financial supporter of the Boston Vigilance Committee, tested the church's racial segregation policy by inviting several African Americans to join him in his pew. The church immediately expelled Gilbert for this violation. He soon set out with several other members to form the First Free Baptist Church. Officially recognized in 1839, this church eventually became Tremont Temple, the first church in Boston to abolish pew rental fees. Considered "the first integrated church in America," Tremont Temple declared that "'all who practice slavery or justify it shall be excluded from the church and its communion.'" ²

Though a 1937 article in the Boston Globe reported that Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and other abolitionist luminaries spoke from the pulpit of Third Baptist Church, further research is needed and ongoing to verify these claims. ³

In 1876, the First African Methodist Episcopal (AME) congregation, previously located on today's Anderson Street, purchased the Charles Street Meetinghouse for forty thousand dollars. ⁴ In 1916, AME historian Richard R. Wright wrote:
In the early history of this church the Negroes of Boston were only allowed to occupy the first two rows in the gallery on the Charles Street side during the services...Now they own the building. ⁵
In addition to religious services, the Charles Street Meeting House served as a forum and gathering place for local activists. For example, on the final day of the 1895 First National Conference of Colored Women of America, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and other local Black clubwomen organized a special session at Charles Street A.M.E. Church. Here, delegates from across the United States agreed to form the National Federation of Afro-American Women, one of the precursors to the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs. ⁶

The AME congregation held services in this location until 1939, even after many of its members had moved to the South End of Boston. It became the last Black institution to leave Beacon Hill. Still called the Charles Street AME Church, it is now located at 551 Warren Street.

Footnotes:

1. The design of this church has been attributed to Asher Bejamin. See Kathryn Grover and Janine V. da Silva, "Historic Resource Study Boston African American National Historic Site," (2002) 118.

2. Grover and da Silva, "Historic Resource Study Boston African American National Historic Site," 118-119.

3. "Neighbors Contributions Keep Mt Vernon-St Clock Runnin," Boston Globe, April 15, 1937.

4. Roy E. Finkenbine, "Boston's Black Churches: Institutional Centers of the Antislavery Movement." Found in Courage and Conscience: Black and White Abolitionists in Boston, edited by Donald Jacobs (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993), 173; Grover and da Silva, 118-119.

5. Grover and da Silva, 118-119.

6. For more information about the 1895 Conference held in Boston, please visit the NPS article "Shall We Have a Convention...?"; "Historical Records of Conventions of 1895-96 of the Colored Women of America," University of Chicago Library (1902), https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/ead/pdf/ibwells-0009-006.pdf.

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Charles Street Meeting House - Boston African American National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)

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Built in 1807, this building originally housed the Third Baptist Church. 1 The segregationist tradition of New England church seating patterns prevailed here. In April 1836, member Timothy Gilbert, later an active financial supporter of the Boston Vigilance Committee, tested the church's racial segregation policy by inviting several African Americans to join him in his pew.

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Charles St. Meeting House has served as both a religious and community space.
NPS Photo/Woods

Built in 1807, the Charles Street Meeting House originally served as the home of the Third Baptist Church. Like most Boston churches at the time, Third Baptist enforced racially segregated seating. In 1836, Timothy Gilbert, a White abolitionist, challenged the church's policy by inviting several of his African American friends to sit in his pew. Expelled for his actions, Gilbert founded the First Free Baptist Church, also known as Tremont Temple, considered the first integrated church in Boston. In 1876, Third Baptist sold the building to the First African Methodist Episcopal Church. Known thereafter as the Charles Street A.M.E. Church, it became the largest of Boston's five Black churches at the time. When the church moved to Warren Street in Roxbury in 1939, Charles Street A.M.E. Church became the last Black institution to leave Beacon Hill. ¹

Throughout its history, the Charles Street Meeting House served as a space for social activism. During abolition, anti-slavery leaders held lectures and meetings. At the end of the 19 th century, women's suffragists of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association held suffrage meetings to encourage support among the Black community. ² In 1895, Black clubwomen held a special meeting at the end of the First National Conference of Colored Women of America to establish a national organization that laid the foundation for the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs. ³ As the neighborhood changed in the 20 th century, the Meeting House became a safe space for members of the LGBTQ+ community.

**Historic buildings on the Black Heritage Trail ® are private property and not open to the public. Please respect the privacy of the owners.

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Charles Street Meeting House - Boston African American National Historic Site
Footnotes:

1. "Black Heritage Trail," Boston African American National Historic Site, c.1980s.

2. "Suffrage Meeting in Ward Nine," Woman's Journal 16, no. 40 (October 3, 1885), Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, accessed January 10, 2020, https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:49020442$322i.

3. "Historical Records of Conventions of 1895-96 of the Colored Women of America," (1902), Ida B. Wells Papers, University of Chicago Library , https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/ead/pdf/ibwells-0009-006.pdf.

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Charles Street Meeting House (U.S. National Park Service)

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Built in 1807, the Charles Street Meeting House originally served as the home of the Third Baptist Church. Like most Boston churches at the time, Third Baptist enforced racially segregated seating. In 1836, Timothy Gilbert, a White abolitionist, challenged the church's policy by inviting several of his African American friends to sit in his pew.

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Representative John J. Smith
Massachusetts State Library

During the Civil War, Smith recruited for the Massachusetts African American regiments and for the Fifth Calvary, also an all-Black unit. Smith served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, as its third African American member, in 1868, 1869, and 1872. Georgiana, his wife, worked during that time for the Freedman's Bureau. In 1878, Smith became the first African American appointed to serve on the Boston Common Council where he successfully worked to have the first African American appointed to the Boston police force. John J. Smith's life, filled with service to his community through business, activism, and politics, ended on November 4, 1906 with family in Dorchester.

Note: The John J. Smith House, a site on the Black Heritage Trail®, is a private residence and is not open to the public.

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John J. Smith House - Boston African American National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)

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During the Civil War, Smith recruited for the Massachusetts African American regiments and for the Fifth Calvary, also an all-Black unit. Smith served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, as its third African American member, in 1868, 1869, and 1872. Georgiana, his wife, worked during that time for the Freedman's Bureau.

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86 Pinckney St.
NPS Photo

Born free in Richmond, Virginia, John J. Smith (1820-1906) moved to Boston in the 1840s. A leading community activist, Smith operated a barbershop that became a center for abolitionist activity. His shop also reportedly served a rendezvous point for "secret councils" that offered protection and assistance to those escaping slavery on the Underground Railroad. Smith played a crucial role in helping Shadrach Minkins escape from slave catchers in Boston. He and Lewis Hayden secretly took Minkins to a safe house in Concord in February 1851 following Minkin's rescue from the courthouse. Smith and his wife Georgiana also participated in the equal school rights movement in the 1850s. During the Civil War, Smith recruited for the Black Massachusetts regiments and 5 th Calvary. He later served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives for three terms and on the Boston Common Council. Smith lived here from 1878 to 1893.

Historic homes on the Black Heritage Trail ® are private residences and not open to the public. Please respect the privacy of homeowners.

Learn More...
John J. Smith House - Boston African American National Historic Site

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John J. Smith House (U.S. National Park Service)

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Born free in Richmond, Virginia, John J. Smith (1820-1906) moved to Boston in the 1840s. A leading community activist, Smith operated a barbershop that became a center for abolitionist activity. His shop also reportedly served a rendezvous point for "secret councils" that offered protection and assistance to those escaping slavery on the Underground Railroad.

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John P. Phillips School
Boston African American NHS/NPS

Built in 1824, this former school building originally served as the Boston English High School. It became the Phillips Grammar School in 1844, named after Boston's first mayor, John Phillips. ¹

Until 1855, the Phillips Grammar School only educated White students. Black students attended segregated schools nearby, including one in the basement of the African Meeting House that moved to the Abiel Smith School on Joy Street in 1834.

Equal School Rights activists such as William Cooper Nell, Lewis Hayden, Benjamin Roberts, and others led protests and petition drives that compelled the state legislature to finally outlaw segregated schools in Massachusetts in 1855. Following this landmark victory, the Phillips School become one of the first public schools in Boston with an interracial student body. The Boston Herald reported on the first day of school in 1855, "In the Phillips School fifteen colored children have been admitted...The colored pupils show a commendable neatness in their dress, as well as correctness of deportment." ² The Liberator, the radical abolitionist newspaper, also reported on the day:
The introduction of the colored youth in the schools, we are happy to say, was accomplished with general good feeling on the part of both teachers and white children. At the Phillips School, at the West End, one or two of the white boys were making a little merry sport at the colored pupils as they came up, but the principal, Mr. Hovey, stayed it at once by the quiet remark: "Is that your politeness to strangers?"... The appearance of the colored children in the heretofore by them unfrequented streets leading to the school houses created a "sensation" among the neighbors, who filled the windows, probably in anticipation of trouble. So far as we can hear, there was none, however, in any part of the city. ³ Note: The Phillips School, a site on the Black Heritage Trail®, is a private residence and is not open to the public.
In 1863, the Phillips School moved to a new building on Phillips Street (formerly Southac Street) and became the Wendell Phillips School, named after the famed abolitionist and son of the school's original namesake. In the early 1870s, Elizabeth Smith, daughter of abolitionist John J. Smith, started teaching at the Phillips School, likely becoming the first African American teacher in an integrated Boston public school. ⁴

Footnotes:

1. "Phillips School (1824)," Historic Buildings of Massachusetts. Accessed January 2021. http://mass.historicbuildingsct.com/?p=68.

2. "Affairs About Home," Boston Herald, September 5, 1855.

3. "Reopening of the Schools," The Liberator, September 9, 1855.

4. Kathryn Grover and Janine V. Da Silva, "Historic Resource Study: Boston African American National Historic Site," Boston African American National Historic Site, (2002), 120.

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The Phillips School - Boston African American National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)

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Built in 1824, this former school building originally served as the Boston English High School. It became the Phillips Grammar School in 1844, named after Boston's first mayor, John Phillips. 1 Until 1855, the Phillips Grammar School only educated White students.

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The Phillips School was one of the city's first integrated schools.
NPS

Built in 1824 and considered one of the finest schools in Boston, the Phillips School educated only white students until 1855. Black students attended the underfunded and overcrowded Abiel Smith School on nearby Joy Street. In response to this disparity in education, Black activists and their allies launched a long and successful effort to integrate the public schools which occurred in 1855 through an act of the legislature. With the passage of this law, Massachusetts became the first state to prohibit public school segregation and the Phillips School became one of the first integrated schools in the city.

**Historic homes on the Black Heritage Trail® are private residences and not open to the public. Please respect the privacy of homeowners.

Learn More...
The Phillips School - Boston African American National Historic Site

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Phillips School (U.S. National Park Service)

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Built in 1824 and considered one of the finest schools in Boston, the Phillips School educated only white students until 1855. Black students attended the underfunded and overcrowded Abiel Smith School on nearby Joy Street.

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Built in 1824 and considered one of the finest schools in Boston, the Phillips School (originally the English High School) in Beacon Hill, educated only white students until 1855. Black students attended the underfunded and overcrowded Abiel Smith School on nearby Joy Street. Although the architect of the school has not been identified, stylistic evidence suggests that it represents the mature work of Asher Benjamin. English High School was founded in 1820 for the purpose of providing an education to "lads intending to become merchants or mechanics." The disparities in quality of buildings and size of classes between the Abiel Smith School (for Black children) and the English High School (for white children). In response to this disparity in education, Black activists and their allies launched a long and successful effort to integrate the public schools which finally occurred in 1855 through an act of the legislature. With the passage of this law, Massachusetts became the first state to prohibit public school segregation and this school became one of the first integrated schools in the city. The school was named after Wendell Phillips, a white abolitionist from Boston. The school changed names numerous times, but closed in the mid-late 1900s. In 1983, the old school was converted to condominiums, which it remains to this day. The building is now a stop on Boston's Black Heritage Trail.

Beacon Hill, Architectural History, Architectural History Blog, Architecture Blog, Beacon Hill Boston, Beacon Hill History, Black History, Boston, Boston Architecture, Boston Black Heritage Trail, Historic Preservation Boston, Inegrated School, MAAH, Museum of African American History, Phillips School, Wendell Phillips School Federal Style, Greek Revival

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Phillips School - Buildings of New England

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Built in 1824 and considered one of the finest schools in Boston, the Phillips School (originally the English High School) in Beacon Hill, educated only white students until 1855. Black students attended the underfunded and overcrowded Abiel Smith School on nearby Joy Street.

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The George Middleton House
Boston African American NHS/ NPS

George Middleton and Louis Glapion began constructing this two-family residence at 5 Pinckney Street in 1786. Finished in 1787, this building is now the oldest extant home on Beacon Hill. This wood structure is a typical example of late 18 th century Boston homes built by African Americans.

Louis Glapion worked as a hairdresser and may have been from the French West Indies. Glapion lived and ran his business out of 5 Pinckney Street until his death in 1813. His wife Lucy continued to live there until 1832.

During the Revolution, George Middleton led a Black militia company called the Bucks of America. While little evidence of the group has survived, they likely guarded the property of Boston merchants during the Revolution and may have also been known as the "Protectors." Near the close of the Revolution, Governor John Hancock presented the Bucks of America with a company flag. This flag is preserved in the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

A horse breaker and livery man by profession, Middleton also served in several Black community organizations. He became the third Grand Master of the African Lodge, later known as the Prince Hall Masons. In 1796, Middleton and others organized the African Society (also known as the Boston African Benevolent Society), a charitable organization dedicated to community service, uplift, and education.

George Middleton married Elsey Marsh on March 11, 1781 at Trinity Church. He died in 1815, apparently not survived by his wife or children.

As a leader concerned with education, the abolition of slavery, and the needs of his community, George Middleton helped build some of the early institutions and organizations in the long history of Black activism on Beacon Hill.
Note: The George Middleton House, a site on the Black Heritage Trail®, is a private residence and is not open to the public.

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George Middleton House - Boston African American National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)

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George Middleton and Louis Glapion began constructing this two-family residence at 5 Pinckney Street in 1786. Finished in 1787, this building is now the oldest extant home on Beacon Hill. This wood structure is a typical example of late 18 th century Boston homes built by African Americans.

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The building itself

Built in 1797, this is the oldest extant home built by African Americans on Beacon Hill. Its original owners were George Middleton (1735-1815), a liveryman, and Louis Glapion, a hairdresser. Both Middleton and Glapion were members of the African Lodge of Masons founded by black educator Prince Hall.

Who was George Middleton?

George Middleton was a veteran of the American Revolution. Honorifically called "colonel," Middleton supposedly led the all-black company, the "Bucks of America." John Hancock, in front of his house on Beacon Street, was documented by William C. Nell as having presented the company with a painted silk flag bearing the initials JGWH, a pine tree, a deer, and a scroll bearing the name of the company.

During the Civil War, Nell donated the flag to the Massachusetts Historical Society where it is preserved today. Middleton in his old age on Pinckney Street was remembered by Lydia Maria Child during a speech.

"If became a frolic with the white boys to deride them on this day [the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, celebrated in June] and finally...to drive them from the Common. The colored people became greatly incensed by this mockery of their festival, and rumor reached us...that they were determined to resist the whites, and were going armed with this intention...Soon, terrified children and women ran down Belknap Street [now Joy Street] pursued by white boys, who enjoyed their fright. The sounds of battle approached; clubs and brickbats were flying in [all] directions. At this crisis, Col. Middleton opened his door, armed with a loaded musket, and in a loud voice, shrieked death to the first white who should approach. Hundreds of human beings, white and black, were pouring down the street...Col. Middleton's voice could be heard above every other, urging his party to turn and resist to the last. His appearance was terrific, his musket was leveled, ready to sacrifice the first white man that came within his range. The colored party, shamed by his reproaches, and fired by his example rallied...." - Lydia Maria Child

{Cover Photo from alh1 via Flickr}

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Built in 1797, this is the oldest extant home built by African Americans on Beacon Hill. Its original owners were George Middleton (1735-1815), a liveryman, and Louis Glapion, a hairdresser. Both Middleton and Glapion were members of the African Lodge of Masons founded by black educator Prince Hall.

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George Middleton (1735-1815) was one of the 5,000 blacks who came under the banner of patriots during the war of independence. He was a colonel in the Bucks of America unit. After independence, the black community of Boston began to settle in the vicinity of Beacon Hill. Middleton built his house with the help of a friend; he was a violinist, coach of horses and coachman. He constantly fought for the rights of blacks and created the African Benevolent Society in 1796, which financially helped blacks and provided them with work. In 1808 he wrote an abolitionist manifesto with his brother Freemason Primus Hall. He was appointed Grand Master of the African Lodge in 1809.
Editorial content Do Tours ©

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Or how to obtain +2€/passenger From the traveler perspective, the travel experience starts from home and ends back home. Stress starts with distance and trafic to reach the airport. And if people are irritated upon arrival, queueing will increase tensions. Now imagine the revenue...

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Robert Gould Shaw Memorial
Boston African American NHS/ NPS

The Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial commemorates one of the first African American regiments of the Civil War. Although African Americans served in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, Northern racist sentiments kept African Americans from taking up arms for the United States in the early years of the Civil War. However, a clause in Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation allowed for the raising of Black regiments. Governor John Andrew soon created the Massachusetts 54 th Volunteer Infantry. He chose Robert Gould Shaw, the son of wealthy abolitionists, to serve as its colonel. Notable abolitionists including Frederick Douglass and local leaders such as Lewis Hayden recruited men for the 54 th Regiment. African American men enlisted from every region of the north, and from as far away as Canada and the Caribbean.

Through their heroic, yet tragic, assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina on July 18 1863, in which Shaw and many of his men died, the 54 th helped erode Northern public opposition to the use of Black soldiers and inspired the enlistment of more than 180,000 Black men into the United States forces. Sergeant William H. Carney, severely injured in the battle, saved the regiment's flag. For this act of bravery, he became the first African American recipient of the Medal of Honor. The 54 th Regiment also fought in engagements on James Island, the Battle of Olustee, and at Honey Hill, South Carolina before their return to Boston in September 1865.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens took nearly fourteen years to complete this high-relief bronze monument, which celebrates the valor and sacrifices of the Massachusetts 54 th. One of the premier artists of his day, Saint-Gaudens grew up in New York and Boston, but received formal training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts Paris. In his studio in New York, he hired forty men to serve as models for the soldiers' faces. Paid for by private donations and unveiled on May 31, 1897, this monument depicts the 54 th Regiment as they marched down Beacon Street off for war in 1863.

Blatt, Martin ed. Hope and Glory: Essays on the Legacy of the54th Amherst, University of Massachusetts, 2001.

Dryfhout, John H. The Works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens Hanover, University Press of New England, 1982.

"Historic Resource Study Boston African American National Historic Site" by Kathryn Grover and Janine V. daSilva.

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Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment - Boston African American National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)

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The Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial commemorates one of the first African American regiments of the Civil War. Although African Americans served in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, Northern racist sentiments kept African Americans from taking up arms for the United States in the early years of the Civil War.

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The white Union Army commander sits rigid atop an imposing horse. His Black men, rifles to their shoulders, march resolutely alongside on their way to battle.

For L'Merchie Frazier, the towering bronze relief in downtown Boston captures the stirring call to arms answered by Black soldiers who served in the state's famed Civil War fighting unit, which was popularized in the 1989 Oscar-winning movie "Glory."

But the longtime Boston artist says she understands how the imagery of the Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial can conjure mixed feelings as the nation takes another hard look at its monuments and memorials in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

"Whose story is being told with this monument?" said Frazier, who is the education director at the nearby Museum of African American History. "The hierarchy is very evident. White commander out front; Black soldiers in the background. It's the first thing you see."

Amid the national reckoning on racism, the Shaw memorial is the latest and, perhaps, one of the more curious to receive scrutiny.

Unlike other felled monuments, the work by American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens isn't a paean to the Confederacy. It doesn't have explicit ties to colonialism, such as the Christopher Columbus monuments that have been toppled in Boston and elsewhere.

Instead, the creation of the memorial in the aftermath of the Civil War was championed by prominent Black Bostonians of the day.

It was originally envisioned as a traditional equestrian monument to Shaw, but the colonel's family, a wealthy Boston clan strongly opposed to slavery, requested that it also honor the Black men who served and died alongside him during their famed charge on Fort Wagner in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1863.

The monument is also significant because it's the nation's first honoring Black soldiers, said Elizabeth Vizza, executive director of the Friends of the Public Garden, a group helping pay for a $3 million restoration of the monument, which started in earnest in May.

Saint-Gaudens spent 14 years creating a richly detailed bas relief, using Black men of different ages as models for his realistic soldiers. After it was unveiled to fanfare in 1897, American author Henry James declared the work "real perfection," according to the National Park Service.

"This was a radical piece of art," Vizza said. "It was not lost on people back then."

The work, which sits across from the Massachusetts Statehouse, has been vandalized over the years, mostly by people snapping off Shaw's broadsword. But during the unrest that followed Floyd's killing in May, the monument was tagged with anti-police slogans, expletives and other graffiti, along with about a dozen others in and around the Common.

Kevin Peterson, founder of the New Democracy Coalition that's calling on Boston to rename Faneuil Hall after Crispus Attucks, said the Shaw monument should be moved to a museum because it casts Blacks as "subservient" to whites.

Similar complaints have prompted the removal of other ostensibly well-meaning monuments in recent weeks, including a statue of Theodore Roosevelt in front of the American Museum of Natural History in New York and a statue of Abraham Lincoln depicting a freed slave kneeling at his feet in Boston.

The Rev. Vernon Walker, a board member with Massachusetts Peace Action, which has called for changing the state seal's controversial depiction of a Native American man, suggests the Shaw memorial could better recognize the achievements of the Black soldiers themselves.

Roughly half the regiment's 600 soldiers were killed, wounded, captured or presumed dead following the failed assault on Fort Wagner, and their heroism inspired tens of thousands of Black men and others to sign up for the Union Army, helping turn the tide of the war.

Sgt. William Carney became the first Black man awarded the Medal of Honor for saving the regiment's flag from capture. Two sons of prominent Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who had pushed Lincoln to allow Blacks to serve in the war, also fought at Fort Wagner.

But while the names of Shaw and other fallen white commanding officers were etched in the monument from its unveiling, those of the Black soldiers weren't added until the 1980s, during its last major facelift.

The film "Glory" features shots of the restored monument in its end credits. Director Edward Zwick and leading cast members, including Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman, declined to comment through their representatives.

For now, the Shaw memorial is not among the public works that have come up as Boston continues to review public concerns about city monuments in the wake of the national debate on racism, said Mark Pasnik, who chairs the city's Art Commission overseeing the process.

But Vizza, of the park group, doesn't think the memorial, which is expected to be restored by November, should be changed or moved.

She believes people will have a greater appreciation for the work if they simply learn more about it, something her organization, the mayor's office, and the National Park Service have taken pains to do.

"It's not enough to just see the piece. You have to go deeper."
L'Merchie Frazier, Boston artist

Ahead of the restoration, which included disassembling parts of the memorial last week, officials hosted forums on public monuments that included prominent Black scholars and civil rights activists.

A temporary exhibit also has been installed on the fencing around the construction site detailing the 54th regiment's exploits. And a new "augmented reality" app leads people on a virtual tour of the monument where they can learn more about its significance and ongoing restoration.

Frazier, of the Museum of African American History, says those are all laudable steps, and agrees the monument should remain where it is.

"It's not enough to just see the piece. You have to go deeper," she said. "There's so much not told, but the monument is so moving that it can lead you to those things, if you're curious."

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Boston Black Soldiers Monument Faces Scrutiny Amid Racial Reckoning

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The imagery of the Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial can conjure mixed feelings as the nation takes another hard look at its monuments and memorials in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

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Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial, Boston, MA (1897)
In an era of racial prejudice, this monument made history by honoring one of the first African American regiments to fight in the Civil War.

On the morning of May 28, 1863, the first Northern corps of African American soldiers marched proudly through the streets of downtown Boston. They were cheered on by throngs of well-wishers who had gathered to see them off to the battlefields of the South.

Just five months earlier, the Emancipation Proclamation had opened the doors of military service to black men. And just a few weeks earlier, the Confederate Congress had issued a stern warning: an official resolution stating that every black soldier captured in battle would be sold into slavery and every white officer in their command executed.

Still, the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry marched. William Lloyd Garrison, one of American history's most celebrated abolitionists, was among those cheering them on. So, too, was Frederick Douglass, who had recruited several African American men to the regiment, including two of his own sons.

To many in the assembled crowd, the Fifty-fourth embodied the hope of a future country where black men could enjoy the dignity so long denied them. This was an opportunity not only to take up arms in the fight against slavery and its most fervent supporters, but to prove their mettle as soldiers and as men.

Colonel Robert Shaw, photographed by Whipple of 96 Washington Street, Boston, circa 1863. Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Still, some white Northerners were still unsure whether black men could be as disciplined and effective as their white counterparts. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the 25-year-old white man leading the Fifty-fourth, harbored his own racist fears. At first, Shaw declined the appointment.

"Shaw...questioned the wisdom of having African American soldiers fight in the Civil War," said Judith Dupré, author of Monuments: America's History in Art and Memory.

But he eventually accepted the position at the urging of his mother, a staunch abolitionist.

So it came to be that on this morning, Shaw rode his horse down the streets of Boston, leading the way for 1,007 black soldiers, all handsomely dressed in their clean, new uniforms and marching in step behind him.

As Shaw rode by his family home, he raised and kissed his sword in a salute to his parents, his sister, and his new bride, whom he had married less than a month before.

Sergeant William Harvey Carney, photographed by John Ritchie, circa 1864. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Later that day, he and his troops boarded a steamship bound for Charleston, South Carolina. Many of them would never return.

The Fifty-fourth Regiment had a legendary tour. Among its ranks was William H. Carney, who became the first black soldier to be awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor. Shaw, according to reports from survivors, soon developed a deep respect for his men.

The regiment saw its bloodiest battle in July 1863, when it stormed Fort Wagner on Morris Island, South Carolina, just outside of Charlestown. Nearly 50 of the men from the Fifty-fourth died in that battle, and many more were wounded or captured. Colonel Shaw was among the fallen.

Mural at the Recorder of Deeds building in Washington, D.C. of the Battle of Fort Wagner and the death of Col. Shaw. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith. Courtesy of the Library of Congress

To show contempt for the white officer who had led black troops into South Carolina, Confederate General Johnson Hagood refused to return the colonel's body to the Union army, instead ordering his men to bury him in a mass grave with his troops.

But his family was undaunted. Later, when the Union army offered to remove Col. Shaw's remains and provide him with a proper burial, they refused the offer.

"We can imagine no holier place than that in which he lies," his father said.

As word of the siege of Fort Wagner spread, the Fifty-fourth became a symbol of bravery, dignity, and patriotism. Soon an effort arose to commemorate and honor the story of the men and their sacrifice.

Soon after the war, the survivors proposed a memorial to Shaw near Fort Wagner and their fellow soldiers' burial site. But due to local opposition, that memorial was never built. The funds raised as part of that effort went instead to create the first free school in Charleston for African American children; the school was named for Shaw.

Portrait of Augustus Saint-Gaudens by Kenyon Cox in 1908. Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Joshua B. Smith, a black businessman, former slave, and former employee of the Shaw family, initiated a second campaign. It wasn't until 1883 that enough funds were raised to hire a sculptor. Renowned American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens took the job, but the process took him another decade.

Saint-Gaudens's initial sketches, which were modeled after a famous painting of Napoleon on a horse, put the white colonel front and center and were harshly criticized by Shaw's family. His final design gave the troops greater prominence and humanity. However, he stopped short of giving them their true identities. Although there were several photos available of the actual soldiers of the Fifty-fourth, Saint-Gaudens recruited African American men from the streets outside his New York studio to serve as models for the monument.

Still, in an era rife with racist stereotypes, Saint-Gaudens's monument was revolutionary - not just for whom it honored, but how. The prominence and humanity of the black troops was a radical departure from contemporary depictions of African Americans. They were all depicted as individuals, not the stereotypical caricatures that were common at the time.

Meet the 54th Regiment Reenactors
Benny White of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry talks with Geoffrey Baer about the experience of being a Civil War reenactor in the 54th Regiment. "You feel the history of what our ancestors did," he says.

The memorial became extremely important for African Americans throughout the U.S., particularly those who had made their own sacrifices during the war. The Fifty-fourth Regiment was one of the first units of African American soldiers, but it was not the last. By the end of the Civil War, nearly 179,000 black men served as soldiers in the Union army, making a crucial contribution to the North's ultimate victory.

"Perhaps the greatest monument to what the Fifty-fourth accomplished is that they were the first regiment to fight in the Civil War, and they proved that they were loyal to a country that had not treated them well," said Dupré. "They were loyal unto death and that opened the door for...more African American soldiers to fight in that war and really hastened the end of the war."

Dedication of the Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment in Boston on May 31, 1897. Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

The monument was finally unveiled on May 31, 1897. It depicts the men of the Fifty-fourth Regiment marching proudly down Boston's Beacon Street and stands where they once passed the State House on their way to South Carolina.

Sixty-five surviving members of the Fifty-fourth Regiment were present for the unveiling, and Saint-Gaudens was deeply moved by their presence. He later wrote:

Many of them were bent and crippled, many with white heads, some with bouquets...The impression of those old soldiers, passing the very spot where they left for the war so many years before, thrills me even as I write these words. They faced and saluted the relief, with the music playing 'John Brown's Body'....They seemed as if returning from the war, the troops of bronze marching in the opposite direction, the direction in which they had left for the front, and the young men there represented now showing these veterans the vigor and hope of youth. It was a consecration.

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Robert Gould Shaw and the Fifty-fourth Regiment Memorial

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10 That Changed America | 10 Monuments | Robert Gould Shaw and the Fifty-fourth Regiment Memorial 4 Robert Gould Shaw and the Fifty-fourth Regiment Memorial Boston, Massachusetts 1897 The charge of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment and death of Colonel Robert G. Shaw at Fort Wagner, Morris Island, near Charleston, South Carolina, on July 18, 1863.

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Boston Uncovered: The Black Heritage Trail

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Boston Uncovered: The Black Heritage Trail

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Boston Uncovered: The Black Heritage Trail

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“THE AFRICAN MEETING HOUSE: A LIVING ANCESTOR” by Regie Gibson