I have to confess to lifting this from the Saratoga National Military Parks’ facebook page but I thought it interesting and worth sharing in light of Kevin’s post.
This is Peter Salem day in Framingham MA. The town declared this so in 1882 and has celebrated it annually since. He is described as a soldier of the Revolution having fought in most of the major battles in the northern theater from Lexington and Concorde to Monmouth and Stony Point. He died in the early 1800s in the Framingham Poor House.
This is the inscription on his grave marker:
Peter Salem
Soldier of the Revolution
Concord
Bunker Hill
Saratoga
Died August 16, 1816
Erected by the Town 1882
What this does not say is he was born into slavery in MA in 1750 and emancipated early in the Revolutionary War, this information comes from the NPS at the Saratoga National Military Park.
I think it matters that this person was a free Black Man serving, I assume, initially in the MA Militia and later in a regiment of the Massachusetts Line.
I think the same is true with the Faneuil Hall structure and the person it is named after. Understanding the complete role both played in the development of Boston is important to what the community is today.
Interesting. Those are facts I've either never known or completely forgotten about. I lived in Boston for two years while at Sloan for my master's degree (TMI? eh ...). I visited Faneuil Hall a couple of times. I don't remember there being any noticeable plaque about the Hall's history as a place where humans were bought and sold. I think it's a history (and Faneuil's) that deserves to be preserved and posted throughout the structure, almost like a stations of the cross, but stations of the slave trade. I'm sure there's a more elegant way to phrase that. Keep Faneuil's story alive by telling displaying that story within (also outside!) the very walls where the tragedies took place. This is American history.
I began this by stating I may have forgotten about Faneuil Hall's history in the slave trade. I'm sure that might be surprising to some. Let me share this -- as a Black person who has studied slavery as a college student and simply living in this skin and culture, the number of places and spaces of significance to the slave trade in places I've lived is innumerable. For the record, those are Washington, DC; VIrginia; New Orleans; Boston; New York City (my father is from southern Maryland and I'm a 3rd gen property owner there). This history is everywhere. Forgetting isn't remarkable, especially for someone my age -- that's why we need those damned plaques. LOL!
Thanks for the comment, Lisa. The NPS could do a better job of highlighting the stories of how African Americans appropriated the site for their own purposes throughout the nineteenth century. Like you I welcome the number of places across the country that now tell the complicated stories of the enslaved and the broader history of slavery in this country.
I have to confess to lifting this from the Saratoga National Military Parks’ facebook page but I thought it interesting and worth sharing in light of Kevin’s post.
This is Peter Salem day in Framingham MA. The town declared this so in 1882 and has celebrated it annually since. He is described as a soldier of the Revolution having fought in most of the major battles in the northern theater from Lexington and Concorde to Monmouth and Stony Point. He died in the early 1800s in the Framingham Poor House.
This is the inscription on his grave marker:
Peter Salem
Soldier of the Revolution
Concord
Bunker Hill
Saratoga
Died August 16, 1816
Erected by the Town 1882
What this does not say is he was born into slavery in MA in 1750 and emancipated early in the Revolutionary War, this information comes from the NPS at the Saratoga National Military Park.
I think it matters that this person was a free Black Man serving, I assume, initially in the MA Militia and later in a regiment of the Massachusetts Line.
I think the same is true with the Faneuil Hall structure and the person it is named after. Understanding the complete role both played in the development of Boston is important to what the community is today.
Thanks for the reminder re: Peter Salem Day and for the comment as well. Well said.
Interesting. Those are facts I've either never known or completely forgotten about. I lived in Boston for two years while at Sloan for my master's degree (TMI? eh ...). I visited Faneuil Hall a couple of times. I don't remember there being any noticeable plaque about the Hall's history as a place where humans were bought and sold. I think it's a history (and Faneuil's) that deserves to be preserved and posted throughout the structure, almost like a stations of the cross, but stations of the slave trade. I'm sure there's a more elegant way to phrase that. Keep Faneuil's story alive by telling displaying that story within (also outside!) the very walls where the tragedies took place. This is American history.
I began this by stating I may have forgotten about Faneuil Hall's history in the slave trade. I'm sure that might be surprising to some. Let me share this -- as a Black person who has studied slavery as a college student and simply living in this skin and culture, the number of places and spaces of significance to the slave trade in places I've lived is innumerable. For the record, those are Washington, DC; VIrginia; New Orleans; Boston; New York City (my father is from southern Maryland and I'm a 3rd gen property owner there). This history is everywhere. Forgetting isn't remarkable, especially for someone my age -- that's why we need those damned plaques. LOL!
Thanks for the comment, Lisa. The NPS could do a better job of highlighting the stories of how African Americans appropriated the site for their own purposes throughout the nineteenth century. Like you I welcome the number of places across the country that now tell the complicated stories of the enslaved and the broader history of slavery in this country.