MHS Calendar of Events - November and December 2022

RSVP

Late

www.masshist.org/events.

Visitor Information

MHS galleries and library are open Monday, and Wednesday through Friday, from 10:00 am to 4:45 pm; Tuesday from 10:00 am to 7:45 pm; and Saturday from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm.

Please note that the last admission for exhibi tion visitors will be 45 minutes prior to closing. Learn more at www.masshist.org/visit.

Researchers are strongly encouraged to request an appointment. Visit www.masshist.org/library for more information.

RSVP Information

Visit www.masshist.org/events for additional event information, updates, cancellations, and registration.

Hybrid programs and seminars occur in person and virtually, so be sure to register how you will attend. Please note that events listed as “hybrid program” have a reception that begins 30 minutes prior to the program start time. Face masks are optional inside the building. Please visit www.masshist.org/ COVID-protocols to find the most up-to-date information.

EVENTS, AUTHOR TALKS, AND SERIES

For more information or to register visit www.masshist.org/events.

WORKSHOPS

Visit www.masshist.org/teaching-history for more information. Register online at www.masshist.org/events.

BROWN-BAG LUNCH PROGRAMS

Brown-bags provide an informal opportunity for visiting researchers to discuss their work, field questions, and receive new ideas. Please visit www.masshist.org/events for more information or to register for an online brown-bag.

SEMINARS

Seminars bring together a diverse group of scholars and members of the public to workshop a precirculated paper. After brief remarks from the author and an assigned commentator, the discussion is opened to the floor. There is a subscription fee for advance access to support ing materials. For more information, please visit www.masshist.org/research/seminars; register online at www.masshist.org/events.

Past Programs

If you missed a program, would like to revisit the material presented, or are interested in viewing past programs, visit www.masshist.org/video. A selection of past programs is just a click away.

1 TUESDAY | 5:00 | HYBRID SEMINAR

A “Free Lance” & Diplomat: S. G. W. Benjamin & the Promotion of Persian Art for an American Nation

Roxanne Goldberg, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Comment: Ross Barrett, Boston University; Farshid Emami, Rice University

2 WEDNESDAY | 6:00 | HYBRID EVENT

Teaching White Supremacy: America’s Democratic Ordeal & the Forging of Our National Identity

Donald Yacovone, in conversation with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

In-person reception begins at 5:30 PM.

Free for MHS Members. $10 per person (in person). No charge for virtual or Card to Culture participants.

$250 to attend a Special Reception with the speakers starting at 5:00 PM.

5 SATURDAY | 9:30-4:30 | TEACHER WORKSHOP

Black Abolitionists & New Bedford’s Underground Railroad

In partnership with the New Bedford Whaling Museum & the New Bedford Historical Society

Location: New Bedford Whaling Museum

7

MONDAY | 5:00 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR

The Strange History & Career of Drapetomania: The Mania That Caused Enslaved Blacks to Escape & the Man Behind It

dann j. Broyld, University of Massachusetts—Lowell

Comment: Deirdre Cooper Owens, University of Nebraska Lincoln

9 WEDNESDAY | 6:00 | HYBRID EVENT

Book Madness: A Story of Book Collectors in America

Denise Gigante

In-person reception begins at 5:30 PM.

Free for MHS Members. $10 per person (in person). No charge for virtual or Card to Culture participants.

10 THURSDAY | 6:00 | HYBRID EVENT

The Great Boston Fire: The Inferno That Nearly Incinerated the City Stephanie Schorow

In-person reception begins at 5:30 PM.

Free for MHS Members. $10 per person (in per son). No charge for virtual or EBT cardholders.

12 SATURDAY | 2:00 | HYBRID EVENT

Inferno: The Great Boston Fire of 1872 Anthony Sammarco

In-person reception begins at 1:30 PM.

Free for MHS Members. $10 per person (in person). No charge for virtual or Card to Culture participants.

16

WEDNESDAY | 6:00 | HYBRID EVENT

Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life

Lydia Moland, Colby College, in conversation with Megan Marshall

In-person reception begins at 5:30 PM.

Free for MHS Members. $10 per person (in person). No charge for virtual or Card to Culture participants.

$250 to attend a Special Reception with the speakers starting at 5:00 PM.

17 THURSDAY | 6:00 | HYBRID EVENT

William Hickling Prescott Award for Excellence in Historical Writing presented to Heather Cox Richardson & Joanne Freeman

In partnership with The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America Massachusetts

In-person reception begins at 5:30 PM.

Free for MHS Members and Colonial Dames Members. $10 per person (in person). No charge for virtual or Card to Culture participants.

20 SUNDAY | 6:00 | HYBRID EVENT

Parlor Politics

David Rubenstein interviews Catherine Allgor

In-person reception begins at 5:30 PM.

Free for MHS Members. $10 per person (in person). No charge for virtual or Card to Culture participants.

PROGRAMS

29 TUESDAY | 5:00 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR

“In the interest of the American people”: The Advertising Industry & Sponsored Economic Education Media, 1947 1952

Caroline Jack, University of California, San Diego

Comment: Ted Miller, Northeastern University

29 TUESDAY | 6:00/7:30 | VIRTUAL EVENT

American Inspiration: Stacy Schiff with The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams

Stacy Schiff

Moderator: Ryan Woods, American Ancestors/New England Historical Genealogical Society

Presented by the American Inspiration Series of American Ancestors/NEHGS in partnership with the MHS, Porter Square Books, and GBH Forum Network

Writing History: An Extended Q&A

Stacy Schiff

Moderators: Ryan Woods, American Ancestors/ New England Historical Genealogical Society, and Catherine Allgor, MHS $50 per person, includes personalized book sent in time for the holidays.

30 WEDNESDAY | 6:00 | VIRTUAL EVENT

MHS Film Club: Good Night & Good Luck

Larry Tye

5 MONDAY | 6:00 | HYBRID EVENT

The Pirate’s Wife: The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd

Dr. Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos

In-person reception begins at 5:30 PM.

Free for MHS Members. $10 per person (in person). No charge for virtual or Card to Culture participants.

6 TUESDAY | 5:00 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR

Indigenous Identity & King Philip’s War

Ruth Herndon, Bowling Green State University, and Joanne Jahnke-Wegner, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire

Comment: David Silverman, George

Washington University

8 THURSDAY | 5:30 | IN-PERSON EVENT

MHS Members & Honorary Fellows

Holiday Party

Open only to MHS Members & Honorary Fellows

12 MONDAY | 5:30 | IN-PERSON EVENT

Boston Massacre: A History in Objects & Documents Boston University Student Presentations

12 MONDAY | 6:00 | VIRTUAL EVENT

MHS Film Club: Good Will Hunting

Tim Grafft, former deputy director of Massachusetts Film Office, and Missy Stewart, film production designer

13 TUESDAY | 5:00 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR

Earthquakes & End Times: Global Disasters & Apocalyptical Predictions in the Early Modern English Atlantic Jennifer Egloff, New York University, Shanghai

Comment: Conevery Bolton Valencius, Boston College

14 WEDNESDAY | 6:00 | HYBRID EVENT

The Grimkes: A Legacy of Slavery in an American Family Kerri Greenidge

In-person reception begins at 5:30 PM. Free for MHS Members. $10 per person (in person). No charge for virtual or Card to Culture participants.

15

THURSDAY | 5:00 | HYBRID SEMINAR

The Marriage Defense

Marcia Zug, University of South Carolina

Comment: TBA

Founded in 1791, the MHS is an invaluable resource for American history, life, and culture. Our extraordinary collections tell the story of America through millions of rare and unique documents, artifacts, and irreplaceable national treasures. Please check the website for up dates and, once registered, your e-mail before attending the program.

NOVEMBER 1 TUESDAY | 5:00 | HYBRID SEMINAR

Malgeri Modern American Society & Culture Seminar

A “Free Lance” & Diplomat: S. G. W. Benjamin & the Promotion of Persian Art for an American Nation Roxanne Goldberg, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Comment: Ross Barrett, Boston University, and Farshid Emami, Rice University

When the first US diplomat to Iran, S. G. W. Benjamin, returned to the United States in 1885, he urged Americans to study Persian art. Through lectures and publications, he made the case that Persian art was the ideal model for American artists developing a national school of art appropriate for the modern age. Analysis of Benjamin’s writing, sketchbooks, and the objects he sold to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, reveals that his theories about and sale of Persian art were supported by the new academic disciplines of sociology and anthropology; postbellum doctrines of individualism; and debates over the forms appropri ate for a modern American art with the capacity for moral uplift. This is a hybrid event. The in-person reception begins at 4:30 PM.

To reserve: Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

NOVEMBER 2 WEDNESDAY | 6:00 | HYBRID EVENT

Teaching White Supremacy: America’s Democratic Ordeal & the Forging of Our National Identity Donald Yacovone in conversation with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

In Teaching White Supremacy, Donald Yacovone shows us the clear evidence of white supremacy’s deep-seated roots in our nation’s education system using an in-depth examination of a wide assortment of texts, from primary readers to college text books and other higher-ed course materials. Sifting through a wealth of materials, from the colonial era to today, Yacovone reveals the systematic ways in which white supremacist ideology has infiltrated American culture and how it has been at the heart of our collective national identity. He argues that it is the North that bears the greater responsibility for creating the dominant strain of race theory, inculcated throughout the culture and in school textbooks that restricted and repressed African Americans and other minorities. He will be joined by Harvard professor,

historian, and filmmaker Henry Louis Gates, Jr. for a probing look at this work and a dis cussion of how we can use this history to improve our futures. This is a hybrid event. The in-person reception begins at 5:30 PM.

To reserve: FREE for MHS Members. $10 per person fee (in person). No charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare). Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

To make this special evening even more memorable, register for our exclusive Celebrity Speaker Reception with featured speaker Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Tickets are $250 each and include admission to the program and reserved seating. Advance registration is required and space is extremely limited. Learn more and register at www.masshist.org/celebrity-receptions.

NOVEMBER 5 SATURDAY | 9:30 to 4:30 | IN-PERSON TEACHER WORKSHOP

Black Abolitionists & New Bedford’s Underground Railroad

In partnership with the New Bedford Whaling Museum & the New Bedford Historical Society

Location: New Bedford Whaling Museum, 18 Johnnycake Hill, New Bedford, Mass.

Join colleagues from across the region for a one-day, in-person educator workshop exploring the historical impact of Black abolitionists in New Bedford, a whaling community that was a critical stop on the maritime Underground Railroad. In addition to prominent figures like Frederick Douglass, there were many Black women and men fighting for free dom in New Bedford such as Martha Bailey Briggs, Polly Johnson, and Jane Jackson. Dur ing this workshop, we will explore this history and its impact. This workshop will feature a visit to the special exhibition SailingtoFreedom:MaritimeDimensionsoftheUnderground Railroad; curricular resources from Lighting the Way: Historic Women of the South Coast; and primary sources from the Massachusetts Historical Society, New Bedford Historical Society, and New Bedford Whaling Museum’s archival collections. We will be joined by guest scholar Lee Blake, President of the New Bedford Historical Society. This is an inperson teacher workshop. This program is open to all who work with K–2 students. Teachers can earn 22.5 professional development points or 1 graduate credit (for an additional fee).

To reserve: Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

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African American History Seminar

SEMINAR

The Strange History & Career of Drapetomania: The Mania That Caused Enslaved Blacks to Escape & the Man Behind It dann j. Broyld, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

Comment: Deirdre Cooper Owens, University of Nebraska Lincoln

In 1851, Dr. Samuel Adolphus Cartwright invented “Drapetomania” to describe the “psycho logical disorder” that caused a phenomenon of enslaved Blacks to run away from bondage before the Civil War. He spent enormous energy to research, diagnose, and suggest cor rective treatments to mitigate the deviant tendency of Blacks to escape. This paper will address Drapetomania as “folk biology” propagated to the public and professionals by Cartwright, an authority in medicine, as truth and objective scientific inquiry. Of course, it was not. The paper will conclude with an examination of Drapetomania’s afterlife and its treatment in popular culture including in film and literature. This is an online event.

To reserve: Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

NOVEMBER 9 WEDNESDAY | 6:00 | HYBRID EVENT

Book Madness: A Story of Book Collectors in America

Denise Gigante

Charles Lamb’s library sixty scruffy old books singed with smoke, stripped of illustrations, and bescribbled by the essay ist and his literary friends caused a sensation when it sold in New York in 1848. The transatlantic book world watched as the relics of a man revered as the patron saint of book collectors were dispersed. In Book Madness, Denise Gigante follows those books through the stories of the bibliophiles who shaped intel lectual life in America, and brings to life a lost world of letters at a time when Americans were busy assembling the country’s major public, university, and society libraries. This is a hybrid event. The in-person reception begins at 5:30 PM.

To reserve: FREE for MHS Members. $10 per person fee (in person). No charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare). Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

MHS Celebrity Speaker Receptions

Be one of 35 guests to enjoy libations, hors d’oeuvres, and conversation with luminaries at a series of cocktail receptions prior to engaging public programs. Each ticket of $250 includes a reception with the speakers, as well as reserved seating for the program to follow.

Your ticket supports the MHS’s public programs, K 12 educational initiatives, collection and conservation efforts, and stewardship of the primary resources that are the backbone of civic and historic scholarship.

Receptions begin at 5:00 PM; programs follow at 6:00 PM.

Upcoming Receptions

November 2

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Donald Yacovone

At the program, Gates will ask Yacovone about his latest book, Teaching White Supremacy.

more on page 7.

November 16

Megan Marshall and Lydia Moland

At the program, Marshall will interview Moland about Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life. Learn more on page 12.

10 THURSDAY | 6:00 | HYBRID EVENT

The Great Boston Fire: The Inferno that Nearly Incinerated the City

Stephanie Schorow

For two days in November, 1872, a massive fire swept through Boston, leaving the downtown in ruins and the population trau matized. Coming barely a year after the infamous Chicago fire, Boston’s inferno turned out to be one of the most expensive fires per acre in US history. Yet today few people are aware of how close Boston came to destruction. Author Stephanie Schorow masterfully recounts the fire’s history from the foolish decisions that precipitated it, to the heroics of firefighters who fought it. Illustrated with period artwork and photographs and published just before the fire’s 150th anniversary, The Great Boston Fire captures the drama of a catastrophic battle in the heart of the city. This is a hybrid event. The in-person reception begins at 5:30 PM.

To reserve: FREE for MHS Members. $10 per person fee (in person). No charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare). Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

NOVEMBER 12 SATURDAY | 2:00 | HYBRID PEVENT

Inferno: The Great Boston Fire of 1872

Anthony M. Sammarco

Inferno: The Great Boston Fire of 1872 commemorates the 150th anniversary of a devastating fire that destroyed 65 acres of land in the city, from Washington Street, between Summer and Milk Streets, fanning eastward toward the wharves projecting into Boston Harbor. The fire was said to have destroyed 776 down tonw buildings, causing over $73 million (1872 dollars or $1.68 million in 2022 dollars) in damage, killing an estimated 20 peo ple and leading to stricter building regulations. Fires have always been a constant source of anxiety, but Anthony Sammarco sheds light on the way this inferno was cataclysmic and beyond the comprehension of many people. This is a hybrid event. The in-person reception begins at 1:30 PM.

To reserve: FREE for MHS Members. $10 per person fee (in person). No charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare). Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS

16 WENESDAY | 6:00 | HYBRID EVENT

Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life Lydia Moland, Colby College, in conversation with Megan Marshall

Best known today for the poem “Over the River and through the Wood,” Lydia Maria Child became famous at an early age for spunky self-help books and charming children’s stories. But in 1833, she shocked her readers by publishing the first booklength history of slavery in the United States a book so radical in its commitment to abolition that friends abandoned her, pa trons ostracized her, and her book sales plummeted. Yet Child soon drew untold numbers to the abolitionist cause, becoming one of the foremost authors and activists of her gen eration. Philosopher Lydia Moland asks questions just as pressing in our own time: What does it mean to change your life when the moral future of your country is at stake? When confronted by sanctioned evil and systematic injustice, how should a citizen live and act? This is a hybrid event. The in-person reception begins at 5:30 PM.

To reserve: FREE for MHS Members. $10 per person fee (in person). No charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare). Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

To make this special evening even more memorable, register for our exclusive Celebrity Speaker Reception with featured speaker Megan Marshall. Tickets are $250 each and include admission to the program and reserved seating. Advance registration is required and space is extremely limited. Learn more and register at www.masshist.org/celebrity-receptions.

THURSDAY | 6:00 | HYBRID EVENT

In partnership with The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America Massachusetts

Dr. Heather Cox Richardson and Dr. Joanne Freeman use their sweeping knowledge of history to help explain the politics and peculiarities of America today. Together they host a weekly podcast titled Now & Then, where they help listeners make sense of the news through understanding the historical con text. In recognition of their scholarship and their “wide lens of history” that reflects on and informs our society, they will be presented with the William Hickling Prescott Award for Excellence in Historical Writing by the Massachusetts Soci ety of The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America and the MHS. This award

William Hickling Prescott Award for Excellence in Historical Writing Presentation Presented to Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman

has been conferred biennially since 2014 by the Massachusetts Dames and recognizes literary accomplishments and contributions in the field of historical writing. Following the presentation, the speakers will have a conversation. This is a hybrid event. The in-person reception begins at 5:30 PM.

To reserve: FREE for MHS Members and Colonial Dames Members. $10 per person fee (in person). No charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare). Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

SUNDAY | 6:00 | HYBRID EVENT

Parlor Politics

David Rubenstein interviews Catherine Allgor

Philanthropist David M. Rubenstein is the co-founder and cochairman of one of the world’s largest and most successful pri vate investment firms, The Carlyle Group; a television host on both PBS and Bloomberg TV; the author of four books; and a passionate devotee of American history. He travels the country interviewing leading historians. His skillful questioning of ac claimed writers like Joseph Ellis, Annette Gordon-Reed, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Joanne Freeman, and many others allows view ers both new insights into the American story and a real sense of how history gets made. In his New England appearance this fall, Mr. Rubenstein will interview MHS president and acclaimed historian Catherine Allgor about her award-winning book Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government. This is a hybrid event. The in-person reception begins at 5:30 PM.

To reserve: FREE for MHS Members. $10 per person fee (in person). No charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare). Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

FALL PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS

29 TUESDAY | 5:00 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR

Dina G. Malgeri Modern American Society & Culture Seminar

“In the interest of the American people”: The Advertising Industry & Sponsored Economic Education Media, 1947 1952

Caroline Jack, University of California, San Diego, with comment by Ted Miller, Northeastern University

In the years after World War II, sponsored “economic education” media industrial pub licity programs that linked democracy and civil liberties to the ideal of private enter prise flourished in the United States through such mediums as slideshows, informa tional leaflets, and public service advertising campaigns. Drawing upon archival records of a collaboration between the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers, this paper argues that mid-century managerial folk knowledge about capitalism, democracy, and the persuasive power of mass media en abled advertising leaders to imagine their industry as the cornerstone of democracy, and themselves as economic experts. This is an online event.

To reserve: Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

NOVEMBER 29 TUESDAY | 6:00 | VIRTUAL EVENT

American Inspiration: Stacy Schiff with The Revolutionary:SamuelAdams

Moderator: Ryan Woods, American Ancestors/New England Historical Genealogical Society

Presented by the American Inspiration Series of American Ancestors/NEHGS in partnership with the MHS, Porter Square Books, and GBH Forum Network

Pulitzer Prize winning author Stacy Schiff shares her revela tory biography of Samuel Adams and restores this revolution ary to the pantheon of the most critical Founding Fathers on the 300th anniversary of his birth.

Thomas Jefferson once asserted that if there was any leader of the Revolution, “Samuel Adams was the man.” His cousin John Adams said that without him “the true history of the American Revolution could not be written.” Now Stacy Schiff reveals how Adams rose to be come one of the most successful revolutionaries of all time; accounting for Adams’s trans formation from aimless son of a wealthy family into the tireless revolutionary who rallied the likes of John Hancock and John Adams in the conflict with Great Britain. A singular figure at a singular moment, Adams packaged and amplified the Boston Massacre. He helped to mastermind the Boston Tea Party. For his efforts, he became the most wanted man in America. This is an online event.

To reserve: Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

NOVEMBER 29 TUESDAY | 7:30 | VIRTUAL EVENT

Writing History: An Extended Q&A with Stacy Schiff

Moderators: Ryan Woods, American Ancestors/New England Historical Genealogical Society, and Catherine Allgor, MHS

Following the program at 6:00 PM, join us for an extended Q&A session. Stacy Schiff will engage in further conversation and exploration answering your questions about her inspirations, research, and process behind writing The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams and her other works of history.

To reserve: $50 per person, includes personalized book sent in time for the holidays. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

NOVEMBER 30 WEDNESDAY | 6:00 | VIRTUAL EVENT

MHS Film Club: GoodNight&GoodLuck

Larry Tye

Join historian Larry Tye as we discuss 2005’s Good Night & Good Luck, featuring David Strathairn, Patricia Clarkson, Jeff Daniels, George Clooney, and more. The film portrays the conflict between veteran radio and television journalist Edward R. Murrow and US Senator Joseph McCarthy, especially relating to the anti-commu nist senator’s actions with the Senate Permanent Subcommit tee on Investigations. Watch the film at home and discuss your thoughts with us. Good Night & Good Luck is available through Amazon Prime, Hoopla, YouTube, iTunes, and other streaming sites. This is an online event.

To reserve: Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

DECEMBER 5 MONDAY | 6:00 | HYBRID EVENT

The Pirate’s Wife: The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd

Dr. Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos

Captain Kidd was one of the most notorious pirates to ever prowl the seas. But few know that Kidd had an accomplice who enabled his plundering and helped him outpace his enemies. Operating within the strictures of polite society in 17th- and 18th-century New York, his wife, Sarah Kidd, secretly aided and abetted her husband. Sarah not only survived the tragedy wrought by her in famous husband’s deeds, but went on to live a successful and pro ductive life as one of New York’s most prominent citizens. Utiliz ing newly discovered primary-source documents, Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos uncovers a rare example of the kind of life that pirate wives lived during the Golden Age of Piracy. Thisisahybrid event. The in-person reception begins at 5:30 PM.

To reserve: FREE for MHS Members. $10 per person fee (in person). No charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare). Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

6 TUESDAY | 5:30 | IN-PERSON EVENT

MHS Holiday Party

This special event is open only to MHS Members and Honorary Fellows.

Let’s celebrate the holidays together! Back by popular demand, our annual holiday party features libations, hors d’oeuvres, and mingling. This is an in-person event.

To reserve: Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

DECEMBER 6 TUESDAY | 5:00 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR

Pauline Maier Early American History Seminar

Indigenous Identity & King Philip’s War

Ruth Herndon, Bowling Green State University, and Joanne JahnkeWegner, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire

Comment: David Silverman, George Washington University

This panel discusses the cultural and racial identities of Indigenous people during King Philip’s War (1675 1676). Ruth Herndon’s paper studies a group of 32 Indigenous children, raised as “praying Indians,” who were eventually surrendered to the English at the end of the conflict. This particular group’s binding stresses the children’s association with pray ing towns and shows how those towns were replaced by individual English households, where the work of cultural conversion continued under new colonial supervision. Joanne Jahnke-Wegner’s paper examines how the English process of enslaving Indigenous people contributed to their racialization during King Philip’s War. Jahnke-Wegner argues that English colonists used a combination of material and intellectual practices to facilitate and justify enslavement of Indigenous peoples. Colonizers combined martial violence with legal, biblical, and cultural discourses, as well as the logic of the market, to create a system of enslavement that enabled the English to transform Native trading partners, political allies, students, and Christian converts into servants, slaves, commodities, and racialized others.This is an online event.

To reserve: Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

DECEMBER 12 MONDAY | 5:30 | IN-PERSON EVENT

Boston Massacre: A History in Objects & Documents

Boston University Student Presentations

Boston University students will make brief presentations of objects and documents from the MHS collection related to the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770. Light refreshments served. This is an in-person event.

To reserve: Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

Image:

by W.

12 MONDAY | 6:00 | VIRTUAL EVENT

MHS Film Club: Good Will Hunting

Tim Grafft, former deputy director for the Massachusetts Film Office, and Missy Stewart, film production designer

Join MHS and professionals involved with the making of the film, as we discuss 1997’s Good Will Hunting, featuring Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, and more.

The film follows Will Hunting, a janitor at M.I.T., who has a gift for mathematics, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life. Watch the film at home and discuss your thoughts with us! Good Will Hunting is available through HBO Max, Amazon Video, DI RECTV, Redbox, Vudu, YouTube, and other streaming sites. This is an online event.

To reserve: Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

DECEMBER 13 TUESDAY | 5:00 | HYBRID SEMINAR

Environmental History Seminar

Earthquakes & End Times: Global Disasters & Apocalyptical Predictions in the Early Modern English Atlantic

Jennifer Egloff, New York University—Shanghai

Comment: Conevery Bolton Valencius, Boston College

Throughout early modern Europe and the Atlantic World, individuals recorded details of earthquakes in diaries and letters, contemplated meanings in sermons, and learned about distant disasters via broadsides and pamphlets. Highlighting the contemporary providential worldview, this paper argues that numbers contained in earthquake reports were particularly significant. By recording precisely when earthquakes occurred and making correlations with distant earthquakes individuals interpreted God’s messages apocalyptically, arguing that particular earthquakes correlated with those described in Revelation. Some people combined this with additional chronological information to predict when Judgment Day would occur. This paper explores the extent to which New Englanders were unique in their providential and apocalyptical interpretations of global disasters, compared to their Atlantic counterparts. This is a hybrid event. The in-person reception begins at 4:30 PM.

To reserve: Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

Give to the MHS Fund, become a Member

MHS Members are the heart of our community! Join today and enjoy a full year of social, cultural, and educational experiences including invitations to our annual Holiday Party and Member Week perks. Members receive FREE admission to most events.

Membership begins with a fully tax-deductible contribution of $250 or more to the MHS Fund. Learn more and give now at www.masshist.org/support.

Casner & Edwards, llp 303 Congress Street, Boston, MA 02210 | 617.426.5900 casneredwards.com

Casner & Edwards proudly supports the MHS in its mission to promote understanding of the history of Massachusetts and the nation.

| 6:00 | HYBRID EVENT

The Grimkes: A Legacy of Slavery in an American Family

Kerri Greenidge

Sarah and Angelina Grimke are revered figures in American his tory, famous for rejecting their privileged lives on a plantation in South Carolina to become firebrand activists in the North. Yet retellings of their epic story have long obscured their Black relatives. In The Grimkes, Kerri Greenidge presents a parallel narrative, shifting the focus from the white abolitionist sisters to the Black Grimkes and deepening our understanding of the long struggle for racial and gender equality. Greenidge’s narrative centers on the Black women of the family, from the brilliant intellectual and reformer Charlotte Forten, to Angelina Weld Grimke, who channeled the family’s past into pathbreaking modernist literature during the Harlem Renaissance. In a grand saga that spans the 18th and 20th centuries and stretches from Boston and beyond, Greenidge reclaims the Black Grimkes as complex, often conflicted individuals shadowed by their origins. This is a hybrid event. The in-person reception be gins at 5:30 PM.

To reserve: FREE for MHS Members. $10 per person fee (in person). No charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare). Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

DECEMBER 15 THURSDAY | 5:00 | HYBRID SEMINAR

History of Women, Gender & Sexuality Seminar

The Marriage Defense

Marcia Zug, University of South Carolina

Some people marry for love, others marry to avoid prison. This paper explores the latter. There is a long history of men and women marrying to evade criminal prosecution and, in the past, this connection was often beneficial. The marriage defense protected couples from the prying eyes of the state and helped discourage the seduction and abandon ment of women. Unfortunately, by shielding the married from prosecution, the marriage defense also protected abuse. Today, prosecutions for crimes like fornication and seduc tion are rare, however, the marriage defense lives on in the judicial reluctance to treat non-marital and marital crimes with equal concern. Understanding the history of the marriage defense helps explain this disparity and, also, why it must end. This is a hybrid event. The in-person reception begins at 4:30 PM.

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