Dorcas de Blackmore - the full story shall emerge. You'll learn more about the first Africans in Boston on the ship named Desire. What were their names? Dorcas from Angola was one of them. Her English name DORCAS was given by the Boston man who bought her. She learned English and spoke it as good as anyone in Early Boston. She became a highly respected black woman in the church the man's family belonged to. Back then, everybody had to belong to a church and pay dues, no exceptions. Her baptism record can be found at First Church of Dorchester today.
The Dorcas biographic sets up how Africans became the New England Black Yankees, the Negroes, the African Americans. Her boyfriend had a lot to do with it. There were not that many Africans in all of Massachusetts in the 1630s. The few that were here had babies and the babies had babies and they had babies and their babies had babies and now many of them are us. Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate William Weld claims to be a direct descendant from the Plymouth Rock Pilgrims as does former President George Bush. Henry Louis Gate on his PBS tv show proved to Senator Newt Gingrich that he comes from the ancestral line of first President George Washington.
A woman who sailed over on the Mayflower is tied to 2,200 offspring from the 10 kids she had during the voyage before she died at sea, wrote Ric Burns into the script of his TV documentary titled "The Pilgrims," which aired on Thanksgiving day 2015. The film set the record straight once and for all about the origin of the Thanksgiving America celebrates.
At what point did the Africans leave? Never! There was a continuing life force birthing Black Boston. The ancestors are not that far behind us. When the unfortunate were expelled from native villages by the chief, little did they know or did anyone know at the time, that they would be dropping seedlings in Early America that would become the African American experience.
This is a historic scene from the original dedication ceremony of the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial monument located on Boston Common.
The Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial, located across Beacon Street from the State House, serves as a reminder of the heavy cost paid by individuals and families during the Civil War.
In particular, it serves as a memorial to the group of men who were among the first African Americans to fight in that war. Although African Americans served in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, northern racist sentiments kept African Americans from taking up arms for the United States in the early years of the Civil War. learn more
African Burial Ground opens in Portsmouth NH
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Dudley Square Roots
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