Jane Lyden Rousseau led the team of archaeologists who studied the crypts at Old North Church during a 2023 restoration. While none of the burials were disturbed, her team was able to carefully study the contents of each crypt, learning more about death rituals and burial customs in colonial New England. In a talk she gave as part of the Old North digital speaker series in December, she shared more about the history of the Old North crypts, as well as what her team learned by looking within. Among the questions that will be answered are when Old North buried congregants beneath the floor of the church, how many people had their final resting places there, and how church sextons made room for a staggering number of burials in a very limited space.
Tag: old north
āThis Perilous Hour of Trial, Horror & Distressā: Loyalist Exile and Return in Revolutionary Massachusetts, with Dr. Patrick O’Brien (episode 285)
In this episode, professor Patrick OāBrien of the University of Tampa will be examining the loyalist experience of our Revolutionary War, mostly from the perspectives of women and enslaved African Americans. From our vantage point 250 years later, itās easy to view the War for Independence as a simple story of good and bad.Ā The good patriots battled the bad British from Lexington to Yorktown, until we had a country to call our own.Ā Look a little closer, however, and the story isnāt so simple.Ā Many of the tens of thousands of loyalists who were eventually forced to flee the new United States had roots that went back a century and a half in this country, every bit as long as the patriots who drove them out.Ā And, as Dr. OāBrien points out, many of those who left everything behind to start new lives in London or Halifax didnāt really have much say in the matter, as enslaved people, indigenous groups, and women were more or less forced to adopt the political positions of the white men in their lives.Ā Dr. OāBrien will bring those stories to light by focusing on a few prominent Boston loyalist families.
This talk was delivered as part of Old North Illuminated’s Digital Speaker Series.Ā Many thanks to ONI and Dr. O’Brien for sharing it with us.
Revolution’s Edge, with Patrick Gabridge and Nikki Stewart (episode 276)
The new play “Revolutionās Edge” will debut at Old North Church in June 2023.Ā It tells the story of three Bostonians and their families on the eve of the Revolution.Ā Mather Byles is the Loyalist rector of Old North Church, Cato is an African American man whoās enslaved by Byles, and John Pulling is a whiggish shipās captain and member of the Old North vestry.Ā The three men have very different stations in life, but they all have young families with intertwined lives, and on April 18, 1775, they all had very different decisions to make about those lives.Ā My guests this week are Patrick Gabridge, producing artistic director of the Plays in Place theater company, and Nikki Stewart, executive director of Old North Illuminated.Ā Together, they’ll tell us how this, um, revolutionary new drama came to be.
Continue reading Revolution’s Edge, with Patrick Gabridge and Nikki Stewart (episode 276)
Old North and the Sea (episode 255)
Independent researcher TJ Todd recently gave a presentation about Old North Church and the sea.Ā TJās talk focuses on two notable sea captains, both of whom longtime listeners will remember from past episodes.Ā Captain Samuel Nicholson was the first, somewhat hapless, captain of the USS Constitution, and Captain Thomas Gruchy was the privateer who captured the carved cherubs that keep watch over the Old North sanctuary from the French.Ā Exploring the lives of these two famous captains will reveal what life was like for the ordinary sailors and dockworkers who made up a significant portion of Bostonās population in the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as drawing connections to other incidents from Bostonās maritime past, including many that weāve discussed in past episodes.
Thanks to our friends at the Old North Foundation for allowing us to share this presentation with you.
Reading David Walkerās Appeal: The Pen as the Sword (episode 240)
This week, we’re trying something a little bit different.Ā This fall and winter, the Old North Church historic site has been hosting a series of conversations about radical Black abolitionist David Walker, and his book An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World.Ā As part of their Digital Speaker Series, education director Catherine Matthews moderated a discussion between artist, educator, and activist LāMerchie Frazier and playwright Peter Snoad on December 15.Ā This edition focused on the text of the Appeal as a piece of rhetoric that pointed out the brutality and hypocrisy of slavery and urged the enslaved to rebel by any means necessary.Ā Thanks to our friends at Old North for allowing us to share this panel with you.
Continue reading Reading David Walkerās Appeal: The Pen as the Sword (episode 240)