Slavery at the Loring Greenough House
Today we know the Loring Greenough House as a historic property located in the heart of Jamaica Plain’s Monument Square. It was constructed in 1760 by Commodore Joshua Loring and was owned by the Greenough family from 1784 until 1924. The Jamaica Plain Tuesday Club, a local women’s organization, purchased the house in 1924 and has stewarded it since then. The house is also intimately linked to the history of enslaved and indentured people since both the Loyalist Loring and the pro-Revolution Greenough families enslaved and indentured people.
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Flora and the Renaming of Bussey Street
Flora was a Black woman enslaved in what is now Roslindale when slavery was legal in 17th and 18th century Massachusetts. Many European white colonists of all classes enslaved Black and Indigenous people in small numbers to perform a range of household labor, including skilled work, such as carpentry, child care, spinning cloth, milking cows and domestic chores. While the colony did not have large agricultural plantations that required many enslaved people to work the fields, as in the South, there were quite a few small commercial farms that raised crops for market and extracted profit from the labor of enslaved people to enrich their enslavers.
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Slavery at the Loring Greenough House (Event Video)
A talk by Hidden Jamaica Plain - in the 18th and early 19th centuries, the families living at the Loring Greenough House and farming their estate in JP used the labor of enslaved and indentured people. Scant information has long been known about their presence; recent research has uncovered more details. This talk outlines these new findings and the ongoing study being conducted by volunteers. Video of a talk given on June 10, 2024
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Dick Morey/Welsh: Enslaved, Indentured, Freedom Seeker
Details of the life a young boy by the name of Dick Morey. On July 30, 1785, his enslaver John Morey sold Dick for five pounds to David Stoddard Greenough. On September 6, 1786, a year after Greenough purchased Dick, he changed the legal basis to a formal indenture. Dick presumably worked for Greenough in Jamaica Plain for the next twelve years. However, the evidence suggests that Dick ran away three years before the end of the indenture.
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Slavery in Jamaica Plain (Event Video)
A talk by Hidden Jamaica Plain about their research so far that covers the indigenous presence in the area, the details of 27 enslaved people that have been uncovered (along with their enslavers) and information about free Blacks who were associated with the First Church. Video of a talk given on January 28, 2024
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Prince, Thomas Smith, and Elizabeth Patten: Enslaved and Indentured by Eleazer Weld in Jamaica Plain
Eleazer Weld, was known as a Revolutionary War hero but there is a great contradiction in his life story. While serving his fledgling country and helping to found local institutions Eleazer Weld also enslaved and indentured people, both African and White for at least 28 years.
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Moussa Deyaha: Free in Africa, Enslaved in Haiti, Lifelong Service in Boston
Moussa Deyaha’s journey to Jamaica Plain started in Africa. His encounter with the slave-trading and enslaving Perkins family in St. Domingue (today’s Haiti) brought him to Boston for 39 years. We have no documentation of Moussa Deyaha in his own words. Instead, what we know of him is filtered through the biased narration of the Perkins family who enslaved him. But even viewed through the Perkins lens, Moussa Deyaha’s courage, resilience and survival skills shine through.
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Cuba: Petitioner for Freedom
Cuba, an African woman, was being held under house detention in Jamaica Plain in fall 1777 when she filed a petition for her freedom. Cuba had been a passenger aboard the British packet ship Weymouth [2,3] bound from Jamaica to London when it was captured by the Connecticut Navy Ship Oliver Cromwell on July 28, 1777 during the American Revolutionary War.
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Slavery in Jamaica Plain
In colonial times, the system of slavery was a primary economic driver in the Northern colonies including New England. Because colonists chose to grow their economy using enslaved labor, it was the standard practice of many New Englanders to enslave other human beings – both Indigenous and African people. New Englanders ran the Triangle Trade, enslaving, buying, and selling people. Jamaica Plain was part of all of this history and at least 27 people were enslaved here.
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James Perkins: Slave Trader, Enslaver and Opium Smuggler
The fortune of the Perkins family of Pinebank was deeply entrenched in the slave trade and products produced with enslaved labor before they moved over to the China Trade (which itself was dependent on the illicit importation of opium).
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Boston's Oldest Houses Book Talk (event video)
City of Boston Archaeologist Joe Bagley speaks about his latest book Boston’s Oldest Houses and Where To Find Them. Video of a talk that was held via Zoom on May 25, 2021.
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The China Trade (event video)
Prof. Dane Morrison speaks about the China Trade, with a focus on the travels of the Forbes family, from Jamaica Plain to China. Video of a talk that was held via Zoom on March 21, 2021.
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