History Blog

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