African Meeting House | |
 | |
| Location | 8 Smith Court, Boston, MA |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°21′35.94″N 71°3′55.73″W / 42.3599833°N 71.0654806°W |
| Built | 1806 |
| Architectural style | Federal |
| Part of | Beacon Hill Historic District (ID66000130) |
| NRHP reference No. | 71000087 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 7, 1971[1] |
| Designated NHL | May 30, 1974[2] |
| Designated CP | October 15, 1966 |
The African Meeting House, also known variously as First African Baptist Church, First Independent Baptist Church and the Belknap Street Church, was built in 1806 and is now the oldest black church edifice still standing in the United States. The church also established a school, at first holding classes in its basement. After serving most of the nineteenth century as a church, it then served as a synagogue until 1972 when it was purchased for the Museum of African American History. It is located in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, adjacent to the historically Black American Abiel Smith School, now also part of the museum. It is a National Historic Landmark.
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Transcription
George Middleton had led the regiment, the Bucks of America in the American Revolution. In 1806, Middleton went to the Old South Meeting House and was asked by the other members of the congregation not to sit on the main floor. They no longer wanted African-Americans participating so visibly in the life of the church. So, Middleton, who lived about a block from this space on the north slope of Beacon Hill, and the other members of the black community in Boston which lived here on the north slope of the hill, organized their own meeting house, and in 1806 they built this building, the African Meeting House, on the north slope of Beacon Hill. And the African Meeting House became a centerpiece, a meeting place for the entire African-American population of Boston. It was a Baptist meeting house but it was open to all. In the basement, Prince Hall and his son Primos opened a school for black children. Meetings on every imaginable subject were held here, and lectures on every imaginable subject. And in 1831 William Lloyd Garrison stood at this podium and in this room organized the New England Anti-slavery Society, and he said that, "The words we speak here will shake the nation. Now we are a few, but Faneuil Hall will soon ring with this clause." Frederick Douglass spoke from this podium and in 1863, the 54th Massachusetts regiment was recruited in this building. So, the African Meeing House becomes a center place, a meeting place for Boston's black community from its inception in 1806. A school in the basement, a meeting house here, lectures, discussions, every issue of the day would be argued within these halls, including the issue of slavery, which is going to transform American society in the nineteenth century. This is the centerpiece of the anti-slavery movement in New England and in North America. Bob: So, Beverly Morgan Welch is the executive director of the Museum of African-American History, and she has welcomed us here today. Beverly, thank you for letting us come in and see the museum and the African Meeting House. Beverly: Always, Bob. Bob: Now what can you tell us about this space? What's your favorite story about the museum? Beverly: What is my favorite story? I suppose one of my favorites is of Frederick Douglass speaking at Tremont Temple, and a group of Boston gentlemen run him out of Tremont Temple. This is a speech that has to do with John Brown, it is a time when abolitionists, black and white, are coming together to talk about the raid on Harpers Ferry and Brown's subsequent hanging, and the care and nurture of his wife, and the struggle for freedom as it moves forward. And they are run out of Tremont Temple and come here to the meeting house to continue the meeting. And the Boston police hold off the crowd, and Douglas is here and he holds forth. Later on there are blacks who talk about this like John Jay Smith, who's on our Black Heritage Trail, and he says, "There is never a time that this meeting house was overrun. People knew better than to try to come in here," and it would have been a very bad scene. And once Douglas does that, they continue the meeting and talk about what is coming, what is inevitable, as in the Civil War. He then gives a speech in another locale about a week later, and talks about free speech and he says a few things that are important, not the least of which is, one, many have told him not to speak about this, because, as a black man let others address it. And he says, "I'm the one who's been denied speech, so I am the one to defend myself." This notion that black people should not speak on issues that involve race is not going to just stand with him, and he's quite eloquent about why. Secondly, he says that, let's be clear, this isn't a bunch of tough guys who did this act, it isn't a bunch of people who are whipped up by a wild politician, these are gentlemen. The same people who hold forth on Independence and the Constitution, and are the ones who are doing it. And finally, he also says that, "Free speech is also denying people the right to listen, and then the discourse that follows from that listening." So, that would be one of my favorite moments of not backing down. People see black people at that time and think that everyone must have been cowed and afraid, and it wasn't just that it was Douglas, it's the whole group of people who are gathered there, it's the people of this church, it's black and white abolitionists, and they will be heard.
History
Church
Before 1805, although black Bostonians could attend white churches, they generally faced discrimination. They were assigned seats only in the balconies and were not given voting privileges.
Thomas Paul, a Black American preacher from New Hampshire, led worship meetings for blacks at Faneuil Hall. Paul, with twenty of his members, officially formed the First African Baptist Church on August 8, 1805. In the same year, land was purchased for a building. The African Meeting House, as it came to be commonly called, was completed the next year. At the public dedication on December 6, 1806, the first-floor pews were reserved for all those "benevolently disposed to the Africans," while the black members sat in the balcony of their new meeting house.
Ministers
- Thomas Paul, c. 1805–1829
- John Peck, c. 1830
- Washington Christian, c. 1831
- Thomas Ritchie, c. 1832
- Samuel Gooch, c. 1833–1834
- John Given, c. 1835
- Armstrong W. Archer, c. 1837
- George H. Black, c. 1838–1840
- John T. Raymond, c. 1841–1845
- William B. Serrington, c. 1848–1849
- William Thompson, c. 1851–1853
- Thomas Henson, c. 1856–1858
- J. Sella Martin, c. 1860–1862
- H. H. White, c. 1864[3]
School (1806–1835)
In the early 1800s, Primus Hall had established a school in his home. He sought funding from the community, including Black American sailors, to pay for expenses to run the school. Unsuccessful in attempts to establish a public school with the city of Boston in 1800, he moved his school to the African Meeting House by 1806. Hall continued fund-raising to support the Black American school until 1835.[4]
Besides inspiring Boston's Black Americans to pursue justice and quality in education, the school offered them opportunities for employment and economic growth, which in turn provided funds for future generations of Black American Bostonians to pursue higher education.[4]
The Abiel Smith School was built in 1834 following the donation of $2,000 (~$62,933 in 2022) by Abiel Smith. The primary and grammar school was the first building built as a public school for Black Americans in the country.[5] In 1835, all Black American children in Boston were assigned to the Smith school, which replaced the basement school in the African Meeting House.
Civic activities (1832 and Civil War)
The African Meeting House became known as the Black Faneuil Hall during the abolitionist movement. On January 6, 1832, William Lloyd Garrison founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society here. During the Civil War, Frederick Douglass and others recruited soldiers here for the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Regiments.
Synagogue (late 19th century – 1972)
At the end of the 19th century, when the black community began to migrate to the South End and Roxbury, the building was sold to a Jewish congregation, Anshei Lubavitch. They were the new immigrants in the city and living on Beacon Hill and in the North End. It served as a synagogue until 1972, when it was acquired by the Museum of African American History and adapted as a museum.
Museum (c. 1972–present)
It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974.[2][6]
The African Meeting House houses the Museum of African American History, which is a museum "dedicated to preserving, conserving and accurately interpreting the contributions of African Americans in New England from the colonial period through the 19th century," according to the museum's website.[7] The African Meeting House is open to the public. This site is part of Boston African American National Historic Site.
Adjacent to the African Meeting House, is the Education and Technology Center. The Trust for Public Land assisted in the acquisition of the building when the museum needed space to expand.[8]
Construction and remodeling
Funds for the African Meeting House were raised in both the white and black communities. Cato Gardner, a native of Africa, was responsible for raising more than $1,500 toward the total $7,700 to complete the meeting house. A commemorative inscription above the front door reads: "Cato Gardner, first Promoter of this Building 1806." Scipio and Sylvia Dalton also helped organize and raise money to build the church.
Although the building committee was able to secure $2,500 for the church, the congregation and the committee were compelled to ask the Massachusetts legislation for funds to complete construction. This funding request required an accounting of persons who worked on and supplied materials to the construction project and documents that both African-American and white laborers contributed to it. This accounting lists, for example, that the white carpenter Amos Penniman worked on the African Meeting House. This research has not yet located this document, but it does substantiate that Abel Barbadoes did masonry work on the building, as Chloe Thomas, then a resident of the Home for Aged Colored Women, told George Ruffin in 1883:[9]
I heard from the lips of some of our most honored fathers, Cato Gardner, Father Primus Hall, Hamlet Earl, Scipio Dalton, Peter G. Smith, G.H. Holmes, that George Holmes made the first hod to carry bricks and mortar that was ever used in Boston. He invented it for the purpose of carrying bricks and mortar to build our meeting house with as he was a mason and calculated to do his part to the best of his ability. And Boston Smith, father of P.G. Smith, with the rest of his devoted brothers, was anxious to do all in his power. As Boston Smith was a master builder, he led the carpentry department...Abel Barbadoes, being a master mason also assisted. He was the father of Mrs. Catherine Barbadoes at 27 Myrtle Street.
The façade of the African Meeting House is an adaptation of a design for a townhouse published by Boston architect Asher Benjamin. In addition to its religious and educational activities, the meeting house became a place for celebrations and political and anti-slavery meetings. The African Meeting House was remodeled by the congregation in the 1850s.
See also
- List of museums focused on African Americans
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Boston
- National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Boston, Massachusetts
- Thomas Dalton
- James George Barbadoes
- Twelfth Baptist Church, Boston
- History of African Americans in Boston
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
- ^ a b "African Meeting House". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on June 6, 2009. Retrieved February 1, 2008.
- ^ Levesque. 1975; p. 520+
- ^ a b Faustine C. Jones-Wilson (1996). Encyclopedia of Black American education. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-313-28931-6. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
- ^ James Oliver Horton (March 24, 2005). Landmarks of Black American History. Oxford University Press. pp. 59. ISBN 978-0-19-514118-4. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
- ^ Carol Ann Poh and Robert C. Post (October 29, 1973). "African Meeting House, National Register of Historic Places Inventory (with photo)". National Park Service.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ "Museum of African American History Boston – Welcome". Archived from the original on May 6, 2021. Retrieved February 12, 2006.
- ^ "African American Meeting House". The Trust for Public Land.
- ^ Grover, Kathryn and Janine V. de Silva, "Historic Resource Study Boston African American National Historic Site, 31 December 2002."
Further reading
- Paul Dean. A discourse delivered before the African Society, at their meeting-house, in Boston, Mass. on the abolition of the slave trade by the government of the United States of America, July 14, 1819. Boston: Nathaniel Coverly, 1819.
- George A. Levesque. "Inherent Reformers-Inherited Orthodoxy: Black Baptists in Boston, 1800-1873". Journal of Negro History, Vol. 60, No. 4 (October 1975), pp. 491–525.
External links
- African Meeting House
- Museum of African American History website
- New York Times article mentioning African-American history-oriented tourism in Boston
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This page was last edited on 29 December 2023, at 20:57