History Blog

Join Libricola in exploring how modern authors bring the eighteenth century to life through historical fiction. Earlier this month, the Hub Town Tours blog considered how the Abolitionist and Suffrage movements inherited the American Revolution. When no actual participants were left living, the language of that first Revolution inspired and guided the later ones. Writings from earlier times connected people with the past. I love 18th-century writing, and I’ve read a lot of

Reading of the Declaration of Independence from the Old State House, July 18, 1776 Three Hearty Cheers Soon after the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, it was widely circulated. Once the first copies of the document arrived in Boston eleven days later, it was reprinted in the American Gazette, a Salem newspaper. On July 18, Colonel Thomas Crafts read the Declaration aloud from the Town House’s balcony (today's Old State House) to a

Join Anticus in remembering America’s birthday and the history leading up to this momentous event. Though we call July 4, 1776 the nation’s birth date, the creation of a new nation is not the work of a day. On that singular summer day, more than a year after the Revolutionary War had started, delegates from thirteen of Britain’s North American colonies ratified the Declaration of Independence. (Britain’s American colonies farther to the north on the continent and in the Carib

By 1:30 p.m., the first wave of British boats had been loaded with regulars at Long Wharf and the North Battery and had begun to row across the harbor toward the Charlestown peninsula. Generals Clinton and Burgoyne had positioned themselves…on Copp’s Hill. They were not the only spectators that day…on top of every hill, roof, and steeple, the inhabitants of Boston looked to the north. They were a community in the sky, their eyes trained across a quiet and, except for the wars

General Sir Henry Clinton, c. 1762-65 In June of 1776, Bostonians marked one year since the carnage at Breed’s Hill. But the horrors of that battle were just as fresh in the memory of the British soldiers who fought there. In particular, General Henry Clinton remembered the day keenly—how he had objected to General Howe’s plan for a frontal assault and had been overruled, and how he had intervened during the final attack to drive the rebels off the hill, at great risk to hims

Join our blog writer, Memoria, in going beyond the statistics of Bunker Hill and exploring how those who died at the battle lived. June 17, 2026, marks the 251st anniversary of what has become known as the Battle of Bunker Hill. Battles are often discussed primarily in numbers: how many soldiers were in each army, and how many of those soldiers died over the course of the fighting. There were approximately 2,400 soldiers from the British army at Bunker Hill against roughly 1,

Jon Libricola in exploring how Ida B. Wells transformed the act of recordkeeping into a powerful indictment of racial violence in America. This month our blog looks at how abolition and women’s rights overlapped in the 19th century. It prompted me to revisit Ida B. Wells (1862-1931), a Black investigative journalist, writer, newspaper owner, suffragist, activist, and co-founder of the NAACP. I have taught her powerful work, Mob Rule in New Orleans, about a police manhunt that

A New Women’s Era Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin was a pioneering Black suffragist, journalist, and activist in Boston. In 1895, she founded the Woman’s Era Club, one of the first Black women’s clubs in the United States, creating a space for activism, education, leadership, and anti-lynching campaigns. Her advocacy work, focused on community advancement and women’s reform in Boston, reflected her commitment to expanding opportunities for Black women and advancing racial and gen

If we had to date the convergence of the women's rights movement with the anti-slavery movement in the United States, 1837 is a strong candidate. Of course, that confluence of 1837 did not come out of nowhere. A number of Black and white women, sometimes allied and sometimes independently, became involved in anti-slavery activism earlier in the 1830s. When their activism took the form of speaking about political matters to large audiences, especially when those audiences were

Join Libricola in exploring The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution by William Cooper Nell! Beacon Hill’s north slope, the heart of Boston’s Black community in the 1800s, has a block-long street of historic buildings called Smith Court. One pale yellow 18th-century (private) house, with a tall, twisting magnolia tree now in bloom, was probably an Underground Railroad site. It was also the home of the Black abolitionist William Cooper Nell, who in the 1850s wrote The C

Rachel’s Revolution Paul Revere’s involvement in the Revolution often kept him away from home. But while he and his co-conspirators were engaged in devising a rebellion, women like Rachel Revere were responsible for managing and maintaining the homestead. By April 1775, Rachel found herself caring for 7 children—6 from Paul’s previous marriage and 1 from her own. Late on the 18th, Paul rushed from his home to warn the countryside of an impending British raid, and for an ag

Join one of our blog writers, Memoria, in remembering the iconic Midnight Ride as a fuller historical narrative, while also touching on Sybil Ludington, another icon of the Revolutionary War that has seeped into public memory. Join Memoria in exploring these two examples of public memory and how it impacts the way we learn history and let it define us today. Paul Revere has been an iconic figure in Boston ever since Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s immortal 1861 poem “Paul Revere

Join Libricola once a month in assessing literature that is connected to our monthly themes and the historical narrative you’d encounter on one of our historic tours of Boston. This month, delve deeper with Libricola on Elizabeth Murray Campbell Smith Inman. I will use a chunk of my allotted words here to name one of the 18th century occupants of Boston’s oldest burying ground: Elizabeth Murray Campbell Smith Inman. Patricia Cleary's biography, Elizabeth Murray: A Woman's P

Playing Both Sides At this time 250 years ago, Provincial guns placed on Dorchester Heights threatened British positions in Boston, compelling General William Howe to evacuate his forces on March 17. Meanwhile, the merchant John Rowe was in a state of vexation. On March 11, in preparation for their departure, British authorities raided his warehouse and took what provisions they wanted. While uneasy with British policies in Massachusetts, Rowe’s business stood to gain by m

The King and the ministers who managed the British Empire had one central goal: enriching England. The Industrial Revolution began in the English textile industry even before the American Revolution.