What Happened Here? | Evicting Black Salem in 1790

Atlantic Black Box is a 501c3 nonprofit committed to grassroots historical recovery work. We empower communities throughout the Northeast to research and reckon with the region’s active role in colonization and slavery while recentering the stories of its historically marginalized groups.

Atlantic Black Box

In probing the archives, historian Beth Bower has made made discoveries that fundamentally change our understanding of Salem, Massachusetts

<h1>Evicting Black Salem in 1790</h1><h2>Probing the Archives with Beth Bower</h2><p>In December of 1790 the Selectmen of Salem, Massachusetts directed the town constable to notify or “warn” a list of 103 Black Salem households that if they were not “lawful” inhabitants of Salem they must depart within 15 days. The original manuscript of the Constable’s report back to the selectmen provides information on the noticed individuals, their families, and their places of origin. The presentation will include a comparison of the purpose and content of the 1790 census and warning documents; their value to reconstructing individual biographies, family histories and community; and under-used archival resources.</p>

<h3>About the speaker</h3><p><strong>Beth Bower</strong> is an archivist and historian studying Massachusetts' early African-descended communities and relevant archival resources. Her current research focuses on Salem's African American community from the mid-18th to early 19th century.</p><p><em>________________________________________________________________________________________</em></p><p><a href="https://atlanticblackbox.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><strong>Atlantic Black Box</strong></a><strong> </strong>is a grassroots historical recovery project that empowers communities throughout New England to research, reveal, and begin reckoning with the region’s complicity in the slave trade and the global economy of enslavement.</p><p><strong>What Happened Here</strong> is a new speaker series from Atlantic Black Box featuring citizen historians and scholars doing groundbreaking research to reveal the suppressed history of New England.</p>

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What Happened Here? | Evicting Black Salem in 1790

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