A Short History of Boston
Professor Robert J. Allison reviews the history of Boston, focusing on major events and historical figures in the city's past.
Audio and video options are available.
Professor Robert J. Allison reviews the history of Boston, focusing on major events and historical figures in the city's past.
Audio and video options are available.
A panel discusses the history of Chinese immigration and Chinese Americans and their experiences in Boston from the 1800s onwards.
Professor Marla Miller discusses the falling out of use of the term "mantuamaker" by female dressmakers in Boston and the transition to the term "dressmaker." Miller focuses on the history of dressmaking and of women as dressmakers, beginning in the colonial era and continuing to the 1800s. Her presentation includes slides.
Audio and video options are available.
Scholar Ellen Smith traces the history of Jewish immigrants and the Jewish community in Boston from the colonial era in the 1700s to the present day.
Scholars P. Gabrielle Foreman and Reginald H. Pitts reveal historical details previously lost to time about the life of Harriet Wilson, author of the 1859 novel Our Nig; Or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black. Considered by some to be the first North American African-American novelist, Harriet Wilson largely disappeared from the historical record in 1863 until the discovery of new information.
Executive Director of the Museum of Afro-American History Beverly Morgan-Welch discusses the history of the Museum's meeting house and of the museum itself.
Stephen Kendrick, author of Sarah's Long Walk, traces the history of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education landmark decision in favor of school desegregation back through American history to a court case in 1848. In 1848, African-American attorney Robert Morris supported a Boston African-American man in suing for his daughter's right to go to a desegregated school close to her home.
A panel of scholars responds to the second part of the PBS miniseries Slavery and the Making of America, which focuses on the Northeast, and includes the story of Mum Bett, who sued for her freedom in Massachusetts and whose victory led to the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1783.
NPR senior news analyst Cokie Roberts tells the stories of women who supported and took part in the Revolutionary War on the colonial side.
Director of the National Center for History in the Schools Gary Nash examines the stories of African Americans during the Revolutionary War and the early years of the United States. Nash focuses on the search to define identity by these African Americans, whether slave or free.