slavery in Boston

A Jamaica Plain community group exploring the neighborhood’s ties to enslavement and enslavers presented preliminary findings to a local audience this past Sunday.

Mayor Michelle Wu took another step toward reparations this week, announcing the group of academics and history experts who will lead research efforts into Boston’s role in the transatlantic slave trade and the city’s more recent history of discrimination.

Volunteer researchers have identified at least 27 people who were enslaved in Jamaica Plain as farmers or domestics during the 1700s.

Members of the city’s newly formed Task Force on Reparations discussed recruiting a professional researcher to document and explain the history and impact of Boston’s role in the Atlantic slave trade.

The recently appointed members of the Boston Reparations Task Force now have the report commissioned by the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry (UUUM) to guide their inquiry on slavery in colonial Roxbury.

When the Boston City Council voted unanimously last week to establish a task force to study reparations for Black Bostonians they had to be concerned about something other than slavery. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts outlawed slavery in 1783, so the City of Boston has no liability for damages inflicted by slavery.

Massachusetts became one of the first states to end slavery. This act should earn Boston residents applause rather than criticism.

Across the street from the enormous Shirley-Eustis estate in Roxbury, the “outbuilding,” as it’s referred to, at 42-44 Shirley Street, has come into its own as a 18th-century landmark — prompting an investigation by the city archaeologist into what secrets may be hiding underground.

The notion that Boston should apologize for the slave trade is misguided. And to suggest that Boston might be at all liable for reparations is absurd.

Deyaha Moussa was a Muslim kidnapped in West Africa, purchased in Saint-Domingue by T.H. Perkins of the eponymous School for the Blind, and who witnessed the Haitian Revolution combust. Perkins’ brother trafficked Moussa to Boston in 1793. He died in 1831 and now rests anonymously in Mattapan under a giant Celtic cross.

The ‘outbuilding’ as it’s referred to, at 42-44 Shirley Street, blends into the other residential structures on the street with modern roofing and windows, and a plain beige exterior. However, after speculation based on archival records of the Shirley-Eustis property, an investigation by Harvard scholar Aabid Allibhai revealed the unassuming building may be holding valuable historic secrets.