About Hidden Jamaica Plain
Who Are We?
Hidden Jamaica Plain is an ad hoc group of volunteers who are researching the history of land theft, enslavement, resistance and community in Jamaica Plain. We are also community activists and members of the Jamaica Plain Historical Society, Loring Greenough House, The Eliot School, First Church in Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist and First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain. Our members are White, Black, some with family connections to Indigenous and Black communities, and some with colonial settler ancestry.
Advisors to Hidden Jamaica Plain are Christle Rawlins-Jackson and Byron Rushing.
What Are Our Goals?
Our project seeks to bring to light what has been forgotten or hidden:
Understand both the history of the Indigenous people who, for millennia, lived in reciprocity with the land we call Jamaica Plain, and how Europeans claimed that land for private use and extraction.
Identify enslaved people and enslavers from the 1600s/1700s in Jamaica Plain and develop a picture of the lives of enslaved people.
Illuminate the economic system and societal institutions that supported slavery in Jamaica Plain and New England.
Develop a history of the abolitionist movement in Jamaica Plain.
Research Black, Indigenous, and People of Color movements and activities in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries that made an impact on our Jamaica Plain community and beyond.
Coordinate with neighboring communities to share awareness and knowledge.
Our research will be shared publicly through the websites of and presentations for the Jamaica Plain Historical Society and other JP institutions. Hidden JP plans to develop an on-line walking tour in the future.
How Do We Inform Our Work?
Writing this history provides an opportunity to broaden the narrative. In our articles, we reexamine the colonial settler versions of New England history and attempt to approach the material in ways that reflect and respect the Black and Indigenous people who were part of that history.
To guide our work, our Advisors play a key role by raising awareness about implicit bias and highlighting informed approaches to our goal of broadening the historical narrative. Our Advisors help us to focus on the most critical issues, identify research gaps, suggest additional resources and review articles prior to publication.
Join Us!
We welcome you to assist in pursuing this research. Please contact: HiddenJamaicaPlain@gmail.com or leave a message at 732-371-3261.