BOOK CLUB: Belonging: An Intimate History of Slavery and Family

The Partnership of HIstoric Bostons tells the story of early Boston, Massachusetts, and the wider 17th century world. Join our public history events to explore topics from myths about Puritans to early anti-vaxxers to the fate of Native peoples incarcerated during King Philip's War.

Partnership of Historic Bostons

Join us in reading Gloria Whiting's searing, insightful account of families enslaved in early New England and how they maintained kinship.

Your summer season is here!

Heading for the beach, but need a bit of history heft? We've got you covered. From walking tours to book clubs to watch parties on Bluesky and YouTube, we're making 17th century New England both fun and fascinating. Join us!

PLEASE only sign up if you really plan to come. Places are limited and it's disappointing to people if they can't register and equally disappointing to us if there are empty spots and people could have joined us. You don't have to read every page, but do try to read as much as you can. The conversation is so much better if you do! How did Black New Englanders maintain a sense of belonging among their kin in the face of slavery? Join us in reading and discussing Gloria Whiting's award-winning Belonging: An Intimate History of Slavery and Family in Early New England. As winter turned to spring in the year 1699, Sebastian and Jane embarked on a campaign of persuasion. The two wished to marry, and they sought the backing of their community in Boston. Nothing, however, could induce Jane’s enslaver to consent. Only after her death did Sebastian and Jane manage to wed, forming a long-lasting union even though husband and wife were not always able to live in the same household. New England is often considered a cradle of liberty in American history, but this snippet of Jane and Sebastian’s story reminds us that it was also a cradle of slavery. From the earliest years of colonization, New Englanders bought and sold people, most of whom were of African descent. In Belonging, Gloria McCahon Whiting tells the region’s early history from the perspective of the people, like Jane and Sebastian, who belonged to others and who struggled to maintain a sense of belonging among their kin. Through a series of meticulously reconstructed family narratives, Whiting traces the contours of enslaved people’s intimate lives in early New England, where they often lived with those who bound them but apart from kin. Enslaved spouses rarely were able to cohabit; fathers and their offspring routinely were separated by inheritance practices; children could be removed from their mothers at an enslaver’s whim; and people in bondage had only partial control of their movement through the region, which made more difficult the task of maintaining distant relationships. But Belonging does more than lay bare the obstacles to family stability for those in bondage. Whiting also charts Afro-New Englanders’ persistent demands for intimacy throughout the century and a half stretching from New England’s founding to the American Revolution. And she shows how the work of making and maintaining relationships influenced the region’s law, religion, society, and politics. Ultimately, the actions taken by people in bondage to fortify their families played a pivotal role in bringing about the collapse of slavery in New England’s most populous state, Massachusetts. Join us for an engaging discussion on Gloria Whiting's historical methodology and storytelling, and how active, public demonstrations of resistance effectively broke the institution in eastern Massachusetts by the early 1770s.Gloria McCahon Whiting is E. Gordon Fox Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Belonging is the winner of the John Winthrop Prize awarded by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.What the reviewers say"Gloria McCahon Whiting’s extraordinary and deeply moving first book turns early American history inside out. Painstakingly researched and elegantly composed, Belonging recounts, in a thousand quiet, telling moments—the baptism, the marriage proposal, the death-bed wish—how the intimate lives of Black families, the shattering story of America, is threaded through the archives, each passionate attachment and every wrenching separation."—Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States “Belonging is social history at its best, exploring issues of family formation, personal and community resistance, and the struggle for freedom in eastern Massachusetts in the 150 years leading up to the Revolution. Gloria McCahon Whiting reaches deep into the lives of the enslaved, covering startlingly new ground while at the same time providing us with sophisticated methods to access the records they left of their efforts to build and protect their families. It is a remarkable achievement that will force us to reconsider the ways we have looked at slavery and abolition."—Richard J.M. Blackett, author of Samuel Ringgold Ward: A Life of Struggle Evana Rose Tamayo developed an interest in colonial American history and early American literature while studying history and English at the University of South Florida. Since 2006, she has taught literature at the high school level, where her passion for storytelling continues to shape both her teaching and creative work. She holds an Ed.S. in Curriculum and Instruction and am currently pursuing an M.Div. in biblical studies. Her first novel, which is set in 1920s Michigan and inspired by the moral tension in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, is currently in development.Evana not only runs our book club but our "book of the month" book reviews. Contact her at phbostons@gmail.com if you've got a book you'd like to write about. The Partnership of Historic Bostons is an all-volunteer organization. As always, our public history events are free. But to make events such as this one - as well as our Metcom's Resistance series, we need your help! Please <a href="https://historicbostons.org/donate" title="https://historicbostons.org/donate" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">donate now</a> to support real history.Image: Cover image of Gloria Whiting's Belonging: An Intimate History of Slavery and Family in Early New England (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024).

BOOK CLUB: Belonging: An Intimate History of Slavery and Family

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BOOK CLUB: Belonging: An Intimate History of Slavery and Family

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