The Easton Family of Southeast Massachusetts: the Dynamics Surrounding Five Generations of Human Rights Activism 1753--1935
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University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 2006 The Easton family of southeast Massachusetts: The dynamics surrounding five generations of human rights activism 1753--1935 George R. Price The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Price, George R., "The Easton family of southeast Massachusetts: The dynamics surrounding five generations of human rights activism 1753--1935" (2006). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 9598. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/9598 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Maureen and Mike MANSFIELD LIBRARY The University of Montana Permission is granted by the author to reproduce this material in its entirety, provided that this material is used for scholarly purposes and is properly cited in published works and reports. **Please check "Yes" or "No" and provide signature** Yes, I grant permission No, I do not grant permission ___________ Author's Signature: Date: 7 — 2 ~ (p ~ O b Any copying for commercial purposes or financial gain may be undertaken only with the author's explicit consent. 8/98 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE EASTON FAMILY OF SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS: THE DYNAMICS SURROUNDING FIVE GENERATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISM, 1753-1935 By George R. Price M. A. University of Montana, 1996 B. S. University of Oregon, 1981 presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Montana July, 2006 Approved by: Chairperson Dean, Graduate School " l - 2.Q. - Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3231691 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ® UMI UMI Microform 3231691 Copyright 2006 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Price, George R., Ph.D., July, 2006 Interdisciplinary The Easton Family of Southeast Massachusetts: The Dynamics Surrounding Five Generations of Human Rights Activisjp, 1753-1935 Chairperson: Tunde Adeleke Although there have been plenty of notable individual human rights activists in American history, rarely do we see examples of entire families of notable activists, or a significant activist tradition continuing in one family over several generations. The Eastons are an exception to that rule, producing five successive generations of notable human rights, anti-racism, and anti-slavery activists. How this tradition of activism was encouraged and maintained for five generations, spanning a period of nearly two hundred years, is the most important subject of this dissertation. The first chapter of this dissertation explores the social and experiential context that formed the Easton family and initiated their activist tradition. The dynamics that are examined there include: the relations between Africans and Native Americans in early colonial Massachusetts; their response to the English assertion of dominion and claimed superiority over people of color in the colony; and the struggle of Caesar Easton (the father of James and Moses Easton) and his Titticut Wampanoag Indian community to keep their remaining lands in the mid-18th century. Chapters two through five each focus on the life of one particular Easton family member, while demonstrating the connecting threads of influence and tradition between that particular person and other members of the extended family, across the five generations. These focal individuals include: Revolutionary War veteran, iron products manufacturer, and leader of the first sit-in protests in American history, James Easton (1754-1830); noted abolitionist and author, Hosea Easton (1799-1837); abolitionist, school integration activist, and printer/publisher, Benjamin F. Roberts (1815-1881); and teacher, playwright, and political activist William Edgar Easton (1861-1935). As a case study, seen in changing contexts over time, the Easton family of southeastern Massachusetts provides us with particular examples of some elements and processes by which determined parents, families, and communities have successfully encouraged and nurtured the character traits necessary to help people to respond to social injustice with opposing action, and to believe that they actually possess the power to become agents of major social change. It is hoped that this study can provide some insight into how such processes have actually functioned in historic circumstances. li Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Preface The ways in which racial ideologies have shaped the structure of American society are diverse, multi-layered, inconsistent, and often modified by factors not related to race or racism. At various times and locations in U.S. history, social hierarchies have been assembled, dismantled, and reassembled, with the primary classification criteria shifting back and forth between race, class, ethnicity, economic status, and, to some degree, level of acquired education. The only constant in this dynamic process throughout U.S. history is that wealthy males who could be classified as “white persons” have consistently been positioned at the top of the hierarchy. At the national level, nearly all of the U.S. presidents have been white males of considerably more than average wealth, and so have the overwhelming majority of state governors, and the majority of owners of nationwide or multi-state businesses. But at the local town and city level there have always been more exceptions to this rule. Although most of the exceptions have occurred since the early 1960s, such as the advent of Afro-American mayors of major U.S. cities and the slowly increasing number of women and minority corporate executives and academics, we can find exceptional examples as far back as the early colonial era. A descriptive list of such examples of non-white-male members of the upper- middle and higher strata of American and colonial English society, dating back to the 17th century, could include: Anthony Johnson, an African indentured servant of Jamestown, Virginia colony, who, by 1651, had become a free owner of 250 acres of Virginia land and had five servants of his own.1 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Paul Cuffe, son of an African father and a Wampanoag Indian mother, bom free in Massachusetts in 1759, who became a sea captain and owner of a successful transatlantic shipping business, which he built from scratch. Cuffe used some of his wealth to establish a school in the town near his residence, and to carry a shipload of African American citizens who desired to emigrate to Africa to Sierra Leone, in 1815.2 James Forten, a Philadelphian of African descent, who, after being held captive by the British during the American Revolution, worked his way up in a sailmaker’s shop to become foreman and, at the age of thirty-two, bought the business from his employer. His success in the sailmaking business allowed him to become relatively wealthy for an American of any color in the early republic, and he became a well-known philanthropist, donating thousands of dollars over the course of his life, primarily to ■y abolitionist causes. James Easton, a Revolutionary War veteran of mixed African and Wampanoag Indian descent (and a key figure in this study), who, with the help of his sons, established an iron implement manufacturing business and a small academic and vocational school in North Bridgewater (now Brockton), Massachusetts, during the first two decades of the 19th century. He and his sons also farmed 120 acres of land in the same location.4 George Washington Bush, a “mulatto” who became a very successful butcher and cattle trader in 1840’s St. Louis. He used some of his accumulated wealth to help finance a wagon train expedition of midwestem American citizens who desired to iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. emigrate to the Oregon Territory, including himself and his “white” wife, in 1844. Bush was the only man of color in the wagon