Join Susan Harvey for this presentation on the history of slavery in Newburyport and New England. 

The research she conducted at the Newburyport Public Library Archival Center represents the core material used for her master’s thesis in history from Fitchburg State University:  Slavery in Massachusetts: A descendant of Early Settlers Investigates the Connections in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Mrs. Harvey believes we have been asking the wrong questions about slavery in New England because we had no slave plantations here as existed in the southern states. It is our economic ties to the transatlantic slave trade that implicates New England in the monumental tragedy that took the lives of millions of human beings and, in doing so, formed the basis of America’s economy. As Susan approached the topic of northern slavery, her initial questions were: was my family in Newburyport involved in the slave trade, and if so, how? These are questions that people all over New England are beginning to ask themselves as new information comes to light and new scholarship on the topic of northern slavery is published. Seats fill up fast!