The Revolution was for white people

By adamg - 3/15/08 - 1:51 pm

Mark posts a copy of a Boston newspaper ad from Sept. 25, 1777 offering a reward for the return of a slave who escaped from her master in Jamaica Plain.

Comments

The revolution was for all

By Anonymous (not verified) - 3/15/08 - 6:02 pm

The revolution was for all of as we are ALL free now and that was the past. It's time to move on.

Many locals, Boston and New England, also like to forget or never knew that we have a strong and long history of slavery — owning, buying, selling, and supporting slave owners as well. We like to tell about the abolitionists here, but not so much about the ship owners and others who prospered from slaves. Up into the Civil War, Boston has a spotty and often shameful history.

If we're touting Paul Revere and the Adams boys, we need to be straight about the rest.

Why teach the history at all?

By tblade - 3/16/08 - 12:37 am

That was the past, move on! No need to quibble with truth.

If the Revolution was truly for all, we never would have had the Civil War.

True but we freed the

By Anonymous (not verified) - 3/16/08 - 1:42 pm

True but we freed the country as a wholle from the British which then gave way for us to quibble with things like slavery - hence the civil war. I don't think that would have happened under British rule.

The British abolished slavery before the US did

By Ron Newman - 3/16/08 - 1:57 pm

in 1833

Quibble? That's a remarkable

By Mark (not verified) - 3/16/08 - 3:37 pm

Quibble? That's a remarkable way to put it. During the war the British offered freedom to slaves - the Americans fought to keep their slaves. Washington refused to allow blacks to serve in the army - he was afraid to arm them.

The Revolution ...

By SwirlyGrrl - 3/16/08 - 2:18 pm

Will Not Be Colorized.

Another ad

By adamg - 3/15/08 - 9:28 pm

Mark posts one from one of the Welds for whom Weld Street is named (and so an ancestor of our own Bill Weld), offering four whole dollars for the return of a slave in 1769.