The African Meeting House is the final stop on Boston’s Black Heritage Trail. The structure was built in 1809 to house the first African Baptist Church of Boston, making this the oldest surviving African American church building in the United States. The church also served as a school and a gathering place for Boston’s Black community. Famous abolitionists and leaders such as William Lloyd Garrison, Maria Stewart, and Frederick Douglass spoke to audiences assembled within these walls. Since 1972, The African Meeting House houses the Boston's Museum of African American History. Two years later, the building became one of the first National Historic Landmarks for its connection to the anti-slavery movement and African American religious history.
The Abiel Smith School is one of the oldest buildings constructed solely for the education of African American children. Its establishment was the result of years of concerted efforts from activists and parents in the Boston community. After several decades of petitions, the Boston School Committee agreed to provide partial funding for the African School that had been established in 1798. At the time, the African School was being held on the first floor of the African Meeting House, but the school was in poor condition. Funding for the Abiel Smith School came from the will of a white businessman and the school’s namesake, Abiel Smith, and the school was opened in 1835. While its construction marked a huge step forward for African American education, the Abiel Smith School eventually came to exemplify the inequality in Boston's school system.
Owing to the historic significance of many of the residents of Smith Court, including William C. Nell who fought for racial equality in 19th century Boston, the buildings of Smith Court are part of the Black Heritage Trail in Boston. These dwellings date back to the early 1800s and a majority of the residents of Smith Court were Black by the 1830s. Residents include James Scott, who assisted runaway slaves and author William Cooper Nell who also led the Boston Vigilance Committee who assisted fugitive slaves. These notable homes stood at the center of Boston’s Black community during the middle and late nineteenth century. Prominent Black business leaders such as Joseph Scarlett lived on Smith Court until 1898.
The John Coburn House is the seventh site on the Black Heritage Trial that goes through Boston, Massachusetts. Coburn was a businessman and a community activist who made it his mission in life to help escaped slaves find freedom and safety from pursuing slave catchers. He was also involved in the desegregation movement and fighting for equal rights for African American citizens. Coburn is famously known for co-founding the Massasoit Guards and serving as the Treasurer of the New England Freedom Association.
The Lewis and Harriet Hayden House is the sixth stop on the Black Heritage Trail on Beacon Street in Boston, Massachusetts. Both Lewis and Harriet were escaped slaves who managed to get free thanks to the Underground Railroad and bought a house in Boston once they got the chance. This house would be used to serve as an Underground Railroad house for many escaped slaves to use in their pursuit of freedom.
The Charles Street Meeting House is the fifth stop on the Black Heritage Trail in Boston. Built in 1807 by the Third Baptist Church, the Charles Street Meeting House, then called the Charles Street Baptist Church, is significant as the location of many anti-slavery meetings in the decades prior to the Civil War. During its first decades, the church practiced racial segregation with Black attendees being relegated to the gallery and generally barred from many of the privileges of full membership in the congregation. In 1836, abolitionist Timothy Gilbert was expelled from the church for inviting African Americans to sit beside him in his regular pew. In subsequent decades, the congregation took a stand against slavery and African Americans like Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth delivered speeches alongside white abolitionists like Charles Sumner. White membership in the congregation dwindled and the congregation sold the building to the Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1876. That congregation had been formed in 1833 and had grown to become the largest Black congregation in Boston after the Civil War. The congregation sold the building in 1939 owing to the declining number of African American families in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.
The fourth stop on the Black Heritage Trail in Boston, this historic home was the property of John J. Smith, an African American abolitionist who helped slaves in the Underground Railroad. Smith also recruited soldiers for the all-Black 5th Cavalry during the Civil War, an important regiment in the fight for equality in the military given the prestige of the cavalry in the mid-19th century. After the war ended, Smith served three terms in Massachusetts House of Representatives.
The Phillips School is the third stop on the Black Heritage Trail in Boston. The school was opened in 1824 and only allowed white children to attend its classes. Black children at the time had to attend classes in either the first floor of the African Meeting House or the Smith School after 1834. During 1855 the Phillips School became one of the first schools in Boston to accept Black and white children together.
The house that stands at 5 Pinckney Street, Boston is the second site of the Black Heritage Trail and served as the home of George Middleton. His house is the oldest home still standing on Beacon Hill. It was built in 1786-1787, just after the American Revolution. Its wooden construction is typical for new homes going up during the late eighteenth century. Middleton was the Colonel of the Bucks of America, a founder of the Boston African Benevolent Society, and a Grand Master of the Prince Hall African Lodge of Freemasons.
The 54th Massachusetts Regiment Memorial features Colonel Robert Gould Shaw leading the men of the 54th Regiment. The monument's emphasis on a white officer reflects the racial mores of the era when the monument was created, as well as the tendency for military memorials to feature commanding officers. The 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was the most well-known African American regiment to serve the Union owing to the prominence of many of the Black men who recruited, led, and served in the regiment. The monument is the first site on Boston's Black Heritage Trail, which takes visitors through sites of historic significance to the African American experience in central Boston between 1800 and 1900.
This Tour is a Walking Tour.
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This short walking trail includes over a dozen monuments, historic buildings, and other sites related to the experience of African Americans in Boston from the colonial era to the Civil War. The tour includes sites within the Boston African American National Historic Site and was developed partly as a response to the exclusion of African Americans and their history from Boston's Freedom Trail.
