Massachusetts has always had a rich and significant role in the story of the United States, and that history has been built by people of many colors, backgrounds, and experiences.
In celebration of Black History Month, this article looks at five historical figures who exemplify black excellence in Massachusetts. When you are done reading, consider making a trip to Boston, Northampton, Stockbridge, or other cities where you can see and experience black history and the Bay State in a new way.
1. Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)
Phillis Wheatley was brought to America by a slave ship in 1761 from her home in West Africa, and purchased by the Wheatley family in Boston, Massachusetts. The Wheatley family taught Phillis to read and write, and let her study English literature, Latin, Greek, and the Bible after witnessing her writing on a wall with chalk.
According to PBS, “Phillis Wheatley was the first African American, the first slave, and the third woman in the United States to publish a book of poems.” She earned international renown and traveled to London in 1773 to promote her book “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral” and when she returned to Boston she was freed by her masters.
Phillis passed away in 1784 in poverty before she could publish a second volume of poetry and letters, and her final manuscript was never found.
2. W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was a civil rights activist, sociologist, writer, poet, historian, Pan-Africanist, and more. He was born and raised in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He graduated valedictorian in high school, earned his bachelor of arts from Fisk University in Nashville in 1888, then his bachelor of arts cum laude at Harvard in 1890.
He went on to get a master of arts and a doctorate, making him the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in history from Harvard. The NAACP notes on their site that his dissertation “The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America” has “yet to be surpassed”.
Du Bois was the voice of the black community for many young African Americans from 1910-1930 according to PBS, and fought for black people’s right to education and civil rights.
Du Bois resigned from the NAACP in 1934 after a dispute over voluntary segregation, joined the communist party in 1961, and passed away in Ghana in 1963.
3. Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)
Sojourner Truth is one of the more well-known black activists who had a presence in Massachusetts, though she was born in New York. A former slave, she led an incredible life as a powerful leader and speaker, feminist and abolitionist. She fought for freedom and gender and racial equality with strength from her religious faith.
Truth came to Northampton, Massachusetts in 1843 to join the abolitionist group Northampton Association for Education and Industry, and connected with abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass and Wendell Phillips. The Historic Northampton site claims these connections led to her fame in both the anti-slavery movement, women’s rights movement, and the temperance movement.
Truth was perhaps most known for her “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech at the Ohio Women’s Convention in 1851 and for her work resettling freed slaves.
4. Elizabeth Freeman (1742- 1829)
Elizabeth Freeman, also known as “Mumbet”, “Bet”, and “Mum Bett” was born a slave and sold to the Ashley family in Sheffield Massachusetts as a teenager, as stated by the Elizabeth Freeman Center site. She was one of the first slaves in Massachusetts to sue for her freedom, and win.
In what is known as the Brom and Bett vs. Ashley, Freeman and another slave Brom sued the Ashley family in 1781 in the Court of Common Pleas in Great Barrington for their freedom from the family after being abused by them. Freeman approached her lawyer Theodore Sedgewick because she recognized the implications of Article 1 of the Massachusetts Constitution after hearing it read aloud: “All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights.”
After earning her freedom she worked as a governess for the Sedgewicks before moving into her own house in Stockbridge, Massachusetts where she lived as a healer, midwife and nurse before passing in 1829. She is buried in the Stockbridge Cemetery.
5. William Harvey Carney (1840-1908)
Sergeant William Harvey Carney was a soldier in the American Civil War and the first African American to earn the Medal of Honor, though he received it almost 37 years after the fact. Carney was born into slavery in Norfolk, Virginia but by most accounts and the Center for African American Genealogical Research, escaped to Massachusetts through the Underground Railroad like his father.
Carney joined the 54th Massachusetts Infantry to fight in the Civil War, the first black Union Army unit to be raised in the Northern States after the Emancipation proclamation, according to the New Bedford Historical Society site. During the Battle of Fort Wagner in July 1863, John Wall, the color bearer of the Union Army was struck down. Carney took up the flag and held it high through the battle, even as he was shot several times, returning it back to Union lines.
He famously said, “The Old Flag never touched the ground!” He was discharged soon after. On the day of his death in 1908, the flag at the Massachusetts state house was flown at half-mast in remembrance, an honor that has never before been paid an ordinary citizen and African American.