Show notes
In June 1700, a brief pamphlet titled The Selling of Joseph was published in Boston. It’s considered the first abolitionist tract to be published in what’s now the United States. Authored by Salem witch trial judge Samuel Sewall, the three page pamphlet uses biblical references to argue that enslaving another person could never be considered moral. Listen to find out what motivated Sewall to write the tract, how his peers in Boston reacted to it, and what its effect was on the wider world. In light of recent events, we’ll also consider the current debate around statues and their removal.
Please check out the transcript and full show notes at: http://HUBhistory.com/191/
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The Selling of Joseph
- Read the only surviving first edition of Samuel Sewall’s Selling of Joseph, or this well-put together transcription that keeps the feel of the original.
- A transcription of John Saffin’s response to Sewall.
- The 1641 Massachusetts Body of Liberties, which provides the dodgy legal framework for slavery in the Bay Colony.
- Towner, Lawrence W. “The Sewall-Saffin Dialogue on Slavery.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 21, no. 1, 1964
- Peterson, Mark A. “The Selling of Joseph: Bostonians, Antislavery, and the Protestant International, 1689-1733.” Massachusetts Historical Review, vol. 4, 2002
- Von Frank, Albert J. “John Saffin: Slavery and Racism in Colonial Massachusetts.” Early American Literature, vol. 29, no. 3, 1994
- Allegro, James J. “‘Increasing and Strengthening the Country’: Law, Politics, and the Antislavery Movement in Early-Eighteenth-Century Massachusetts Bay.” The New England Quarterly, vol. 75, no. 1, 2002, pp. 5–23
- JL Bell ran a series of posts at Boston1775.net recently that focused on Cotton Mather’s attitudes toward slavery: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.
- Professor Kevin Levin on the controversy around Boston’s Emancipation Memorial.
- Frederick Douglass’ address at the 1876 dedication of the identical memorial in DC.
Boston Book Club
Our pick for the Boston Book Club this week is a documentary called Birth of a Movement. William Monroe Trotter has made a few appearances on the podcast. Most recently, I interviewed Professor Kerri Greenidge about her biography of Trotter, Black Radical. Before that he made an appearance in my interview with Millington Bergeson-Lockwood. His first appearance on the show was as the organizer of Black Boston’s protests against the racist movie Birth of a Nation in 1915.
The fight against Birth of a Nation is also the topic of Birth of a Movement, which first aired on PBS in 2017. DW Griffith’s movie Birth of a Nation, which was based on an earlier book and play by Thomas Dixon called “The Clansman,” was widely praised for innovative new filmmaking techniques like close up shots of an actor’s face and fadeouts where a shot slowly dissolved into darkness. It had a revolutionary score, blending original musical compositions with works from the classical canon like Ride of the Valkyries and traditional heartland music like Dixie. It was anchored by thrilling action scenes shot on a never-before-seen scale, with thousands of actors and extras, hundreds of horses, and battlefield effects like real cannons. It quickly became the biggest blockbuster the movie business had ever seen, and it was the most popular movie in Boston when it was released here.
Birth of a Nation is also essentially a love note to the KKK. Set in the South during the Civil War and Reconstruction, it reenacted battle scenes from the war, portrayed the Confederate cause as morally superior to the Union, and showed Union soldiers indiscriminately burning and destroying civilian property in the South. In the postwar scenes, it portrayed newly emancipated African Americans as the embodiment of every stereotype and secret white fear. They were depicted as slothful, bent on revenge against their former owners, and lust crazed for white women. Scenes of rape, forced marriage, and lynching are portrayed in loving, almost pornographic detail. Against this chaotic background, the Ku Klux Klan is portrayed as the heroic saviors of white southern womanhood, and the uniters of White Americans, north and south, in shared violence against African Americans.
The Birth of a Movement is a modern response to Birth of a Nation, and an examination of the protest movement against it. The documentary is narrated by Danny Glover, and the description on the PBS website says “Birth of a Movement features interviews with Spike Lee (whose NYU student film The Answer was a response to Griffith’s film), Reginald Hudlin, DJ Spooky, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Dick Lehr, while exploring how Griffith’s film — long taught in film classes as an innovative work of genius — motivated generations of African American filmmakers and artists as they worked to reclaim their history and their onscreen image.”
Upcoming Event(s)
Have you ever noticed how many movies set in Boston have a certain feel to them? I love the fact that filmmakers have fallen in love with this city, but if Boston was an actor, it would complain about being typecast. Just seeing the skyline, the State House dome, or the Zakim bridge in a movie trailer pretty much guarantees that the reviews are going to include the phrase “a grim and gritty drama about…” Without seeing any more, you can guess that the plot is going to be about cops, mobsters, or working class whites struggling to keep their heads above water.
Sponsored by the Brattle Theater, Emerson College, and the Massachusetts Historical Society, a talk titled “Boston in Film, from Eddie Coyle to Manchester by the Sea,” will examine some of those tropes, and the roots of Boston’s cinematic stereotyping. Here’s how the MHS website describes it:
The 1973 film The Friends of Eddie Coyle was not a box office smash but it became a cult classic and was particularly popular among film makers and film critics. The movie may have been the first to depict Boston as a working class and violent city but it certainly was not the last. With Academy award-winng films including The Departed, Mystic River, Goodwill Hunting, and Manchester by the Sea, one might say there is a gritty Boston genre. Our discussion will explore what these films say about Boston and what the city represents nationally.
The event will be a panel discussion headed by Professor Robert Allison of Suffolk University and Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr. It’s an online event at 5:30pm on July 9, so be sure to register in advance to get the connection details.
Bonus event: The Executive Director and Adult Program Director of the Paul Revere House will be leading a virtual public forum hosted by the Concord Museum this Wednesday, July 1 at 7pm. The subject of the talk is separating fact from fiction in the stories surrounding Paul Revere and his famous ride.
Here’s how the Concord Museum describes it:
Paul Revere and his midnight ride—immortalized as the harbinger of the dramatic escalation of the American colonial rebellion against the British Empire—has been celebrated in tales and songs throughout the centuries. But what really happened on April 18, 1775? Experts shed light on the legendary ride and the man behind it, revealing the fascinating life of a fabled national hero who witnessed the birth of a nation.
Reserve your tickets from the Concord Museum. The suggested donation is $10.
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