Six Months of Open Notebook

In case you missed it. . .

Welcome readers, both new and day ones. I’ve been writing Open Notebook for six months and am quite proud of this work. To all my readers, thank you for engaging with and sharing my work. Your word-of-mouth recommendations have helped this newsletter grow. And to paid Open Notebook subscribers at each level, your contribution is appreciated; it’s so gratifying when someone believes in your work enough to support it financially.

I’m sharing a roundup of some of my favorite editions to mark Open Notebook's six-month anniversary. I’ve gained many new subscribers recently, and encourage new readers to explore the archives. If you have a favorite edition of my newsletter, will you mention it in the comments section? - Wayne

November 21, 2022

Wayne William Tucker

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November 21, 2022

Deyaha Moussa was a Muslim kidnapped in West Africa, purchased in Saint-Domingue by T.H. Perkins of the eponymous School for the Blind, and who witnessed the Haitian Revolution combust. Perkins’ brother trafficked Moussa to Boston in 1793. He died in 1831 and now rests anonymously in Mattapan under a giant Celtic cross. In November of 2022, the Boston Atheneum displayed Moussa's silhouette for the first time.

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November 29, 2022

Wayne William Tucker

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November 29, 2022

The North River in Plymouth County, Massachusetts has strong connections to shipbuilding and slavery. In this newsletter, I share some preliminary research into the river's ties to the business of slavery in the Atlantic World. I further dive into the life of Edward Wanton, a "founding father of slavery in New England."

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December 6, 2022

Wayne William Tucker

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December 6, 2022

Capt. John Williams' left a curious legacy in his 1694 will: “I Give and Bequeath to my two Boys and children George and Thomas, Whome I obtained with my Sword and with my Bow and Whome I Will that they be sirnamed after my name viz George Williams and Thomas Williams." These were likely Wampanoag children captured and enslaved during King Philip's War. What's more, he left George and Thomas land in Boston.

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December 13, 2022

Wayne William Tucker

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December 13, 2022

Early Plymouth and Bridgewater deeds document ancestors of pioneering New England civil rights activists Sarah and Benjamin Roberts, James and Hosea Easton.

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January 17, 2023

Wayne William Tucker

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Jan 17

Is slavery the "Spirit of Abington"? There's a popular refrain: “I didn’t know slavery was so common in Massachusetts! I was never taught this.” Yet, here’s a hyper-local historical pageant in 1930 that wedged a skit highlighting slavery between depictions of the arrival of the Pilgrims and the Revolutionary War. Why was slavery important for the pageant’s author to include?

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PYRATICALLY AND FELONIOUSLY: The Taking of Joachim/Cuffee

Wayne William Tucker

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Feb 9

It's always exciting when new evidence unlocks details of a once-obscure life. This is especially true in the case of an enslaved boy trafficked off John Quelch's pirate ship by Gov. Joseph Dudley and his son Paul. Now, for the first time, we can remember him by his African name, Cuffee, and his Portuguese name, Joachim.

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The Sylvester Family, Slavery, and Early Civil Rights Activism in Norwell, Mass.

Wayne William Tucker

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Feb 15

Records show Black families were deeply embedded in and contributing to Plymouth County for decades before the Boston Tea Party. These Black families sent children to the Revolution, labored on shipyards, toiled as housewrights and maids, established a tight-knit free Black community, and sent great-grandsons to the Civil War at a higher rate than white Norwelleans. And the Sylvesters were there every step of the way.

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