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UNDERGROUND RAILROAD STOPS No 1 TOWN CENTER No 2 LEXINGTON ROAD 5 John Jack’s Grave - Old Burying Ground, Monument Square (1635) Born in Africa, John Jack was enslaved until his early forties, when 1 Town Hall - Mon umen t Square his owner died. John Jack worked various jobs saving enough money 8 Robertson James House - 70 Lexin g ton Rd. The first Eur opeans transported enslaved persons with them to buy 8.5 acres of land. He was the first former enslaved person to In 1860, author Henry James ’ teenage brothers Garth when they incorporated Concord in 1635. Bills of sale of Africans purchase land in Concord (see #25). Before his death in 1773, John Wilkin son “Wilky” an d Robertson “Bob” J ames were sen t were also accessible in town records.These records are currently Jack bequeathed land to his female partner, who was forced to turn to Fran k San born’s sch ool , wh ere th ey were in fluen ced by housed in Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library. the land over to her white master. Daniel Bliss, Esq., a local Tory from Sanborn’s ardent . Two years later, Wilky served 2 Old Jail site a slaveholding family composed an epitaph for John Jack that i n t h e 5 4 t h r e g i m e n t a n d B o b e n l i s t e d i n t h e 5 5 t h r e g i m e n t Th oreau spen t th e n igh t in jail for failure to pay a poll tax in castigated local Patriots for calling themselves Britain’s slaves even – t h e 2 b l a c k C i v i l Wa r r e g i m e n t s i n M a s s a c h u s e t t s . I n 1 8 9 2 , prot est again st th e war with Mexico an d th e pot en tial spread as they, themselves, were slaveholders. artist Roberston James returned to Concord where he used of slavery. H e later wrot e th e b ook Civil Disobedience. 6 Concord Art Association/Owned by Jonas Lee, State th is h om e a s a studio, a n d died h ere in 1910. Wayside - 455 Lexin g ton Rd. (ca. 1714) 3 Mary Rice House - 44 Bedford St. (ca. 1840) Representative in early 19th C. - 37 Lexington Rd. 9 Hom e to Samuel Wh itn ey, muster master of th e Con cord Ma ry Rice was a station master on th e Un derg rou n d Railroa d Has been recognized as an official stop on the . Mi n utemen in 1775 , an d h is en slaved man Casey Feen . In wh o h elped replace an d reg ularly put flowers on Joh n J ack’s You can see a closet inside believed to have been used to hide the woods to the left of the Wayside, Casey’s plaque states, g rave. Alon g with Ma ry Peabody Ma n n , Ma ry Rice gath ered enslaved people on their way to freedom, with a displayed fork and candle snuffer found in the closet. In the backyard, on the right, is “In 1775, Casey was Samuel Whitney ’s enslaved person. 195 school children’s signatures on a petition to President Wh en th e Revolution ary war came, h e ran away to war, Lincoln, asking him to free slave children. Copies of this petition the opening to a tunnel or hiding place also thought to have been used by escaped slaves. fi g h tin g for th e col on ies, an d return ed to Con cord a free and Lincoln’s response now hang in Concord’s 3 public man.” When the Alcotts lived here from 1845-48, according elemen tary sch ool s. 7 First Parish Church - 20 Lexington Rd. to the plaque to the right of the house, “The Wayside 4 Cemetery - Bedford St. (1823) Commonly used for public discourse on slavery in the 1800’s. Many sh eltered two self-eman cipated slaves durin g th e win ter Both Peter Hutchinson (descendent of former slaves) and famous self-emancipated enslaved persons, such as of 1846-47 as they fled north to freedom in Canada. A young Pruden ce Ward (abol ition ist) are buried h ere. Th e Th oreaus, and , gave speeches there. Many Middlesex County Lou isa Ma y Alcot t learn ed fi rst h an d lesson s abou t slavery Emerson s a n d Alcot ts a re b uried on Auth or’s Ridg e. Antislavery Society meetings were held at the church. h ere th at wou ld in fluen ce h er life a n d writin g.” 10 Alcott ‘Orchard’ House - 399 Lexington Rd. Th e Alcot ts were dedicated abolition ists. It’s pos sible th at o th ey h id escaped en slaved peop le at th e Orch ard h ou se, N 3 ABOLITIONISTS NEIGHBORHOOD where they lived from 1857-77. They held antislavery meetin g s h ere, h os ted a h ug e reception for Joh n Brown the raid on Harper’s Ferry. Sanborn ran a school with Mary Mann and the “regular anti-slavery set”, gave ’s 2 15 Concord Free Public Library - 12 9 Ma in St. (also an abolitionist, see #3), and after Brown was hanged for the daugh ters a h om e after J oh n was h an ged for h is raid on Repository of the original documents telling of Concord’s Harper’s Ferry raid, Brown’s daughters moved to Concord in 1860 Harper’s Ferry, and the Alcott girls organized a play to raise an tislavery efforts an d earliest African an d African American and attended Sanborn’s school. mon ey for th e Con cord An tislavery Soc iety. residen ts. Original site of Mary Merrick Brook’s House (see #17). 20 Abiel Heywood Wheeler House - 387 Sudbury Rd. (ca.1829-35) 11 Benjamin Barron House - 2 45/249 Lexin gton Rd. 16 Bigelow/Shadrach Minkins House - 19 Sudbury Rd. (ca. 1840-50) Abiel Heywood Wheeler transported escaping slaves to train Here the enslaved person John Jack purchased his freedom An important haven on the Underground Railroad: one enslaved connections. as a sh oemaker. His epitaph in th e Old Hill Buryin g Grou n d man th e Big elows assisted was Sh adrick Mi n kin s, an escaped 21 Thoreau House - 255 Main St. (ca. 1820) is world famou s (see #5). slave working in Boston who was captured for return to Virginia The entire Thoreau family was instrumental in the antislavery 12 Concord Museum - 200 Lexin g ton Rd. after the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. Vigilance Committee member movement. It was here that Thoreau wrote about lodging Through original artifacts associated with Thoreau, Emerson Lewis Hayden lead th e crowd th at rescued Mi n kin s from h is self-emancipated slave Henry Williams and putting him on a train to and other antislavery activists, the Museum galleries h earin g in Bos ton , an d brou g h t h im to th e Big elows at 3 am on Canada in his Journal, 10/1/1851. examine the concept of liberty and the ability of individuals February 16, 1851, on his way to Canada, where Minkins became 22 Col. William Whiting House - 169 Main St. (ca. 1800-10) to a ffect c h an g e. a restauran t ow n er a n d b arber. Col. Whiting was vice president of the state Antislavery Society, and 13 Emerson House - 28 Cambridg e Turn pike 17 Brooks House - 45 Hubbard St. (ca. 1740 ) sheltered runaway enslaved people as an active participant in the was an abolitionist who was A slave-owner’s daughter, Mary Merrick Brooks was Underground Railroad. Abolitionists (who persuaded to speak ou t publicly by h is wife Lydia, h is Aun t undoubtedly Concord’s leading abolitionist, and sold her published the antislavery newspaper The Liberator), Mary and his friend Mary Brooks. He supported the signature ‘Brooks Cake’ to raise money for the cause.Her house and John Brown were all guests in this house. con troversial a bol ition ist J oh n Brown . was moved 23 Samuel Hoar House - 158 Main St. (ca. 1810/1819) 14 Reuben Brown House - 77 Lexington Rd. from the Concord Free Public Library site to 45 Hubbard Street One of Concord’s leading politicians and chair of the Free Soil Party Wh en Ralph Waldo Emerson h ad too man y visitors to fi t in in 1872, and was originally the Black Horse Tavern. (opposed to expansion of slavery into western territories), Samuel h is h om e, h e put th em up at th e Reuben Brown Hou se. In 1857, one such visitor was the fiery abolitionist John Brown. Trinitarian Congregational Church - 54 Walden St. Hoar was a moderate senator sent to South Carolina to protest the 18 Two years later Joh n Brown led th e attack on th e federal Reveren d Joh n Wilder regularly in vited abolition ists to speak arrest of African American seamen who were jailed arsen al a t Harper’s Ferry. in h is ch urch . His wife, Ma ry Wilder, was th e fi rst Presiden t of when they disembarked their ships in South Carolina ports. He was th e Con cord Female An tislavery Soc iety. run out of town in South Carolina, which aroused greater abolitionist 19 Franklin Sanborn House & Schoolroom - 49 Sudbury Rd. (1850) support in Concord, and helped persuade Ralph Waldo Emerson to Fran klin San born was on e of th e ‘Secret Six’ wh o raised fun ds speak out against slavery. 4 MONUMENT STREET, GREAT MEADOWS & BEYOND

24 Old Manse - 269 Mon umen t St. (1770 ) of Fatima and Almira, purchased the Robbins house, and lived Garrison moved out of the Robbins house in 1837 to was built by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s here with three generations of his large family. John Shepard live in the old mill building, and later built the present g ran dfath er, th e Reverend William Emerson , in 1770 . Th e Keyes bought the farm in 1868, and the house was moved to cottage. Old Manse housed 4 enslaved people in the early 1770s; 27 324 Bedford Street in the winter of 1870-71, to become a home 31 Barrett House - 448 Barrett’s Mill Rd. Cate, Phyllis and her daughter Phylis Bliss, and Frank for Irish immigrants Bartholomew and Margaret Barry. As of Col. James Barrett was like many other wealthy and Emerson . Caesar Robbin s’ gran dson J oh n Garrison h elped 2011, the Robbins house is located across from the Old North titled Concord men in the 1700s in that he owned put in the original garden as a wedding 28 Bridge, to be restored as The Robbins House Interpretive humans, including a young man named Philip who is gift to Nathaniel and in 1842. John Brown Center. This project has been generously supported by the Town listed in a 1775 militia roll call. For a school assignment, spoke in th e larg e parlor of th e Ma n se on h is secon d visit of Concord Community Preservation Fund. one of James’s sons drew up a mock bill of sale in which to Con cord in April 1857; Fran k San born , on e of th e ‘secret Garrisons - Caesar Robbins’ daughter Susan Garrision was a he imagined selling Philip to a Cambridge resident. six’ supporters, lived at th e Ma n se in 1863 (Th e Old Ma n se founding member of the Concord Female Anti-slavery Society 32 John Cuming House - 998 Elm St. (ca. 1750) h as som e of San born ’s p apers i n th eir c ol lection ). and her husband Jack Garrison was a self-emancipated slave John Cuming was a country doctor, Lt. Col. in the 25 The Edge of the Great Field from NJ. A photograph of Jack Garrison hangs in the Concord French and Indian War, and presided over 70 town Orig in al site of th e Rob bin s farm a n d J oh n J ack’s h om e. Museum. Their son, John Garrison, was a tythingman and for meetings before and during the Revolution. He could The Robbi ns Farm - In th e late 1770 s, Pa triot an d slavery many years the custodian of the Town House. Their daughter not have done this without help to run his farm, which survivor Caesar Robbin s h ad a hou se on th e edg e of th e Ellen grew up to teach the freedmen in the South after the Civil he found in his enslaved men Jem and Brister (Brister Great Field n ear Joh n Jack (see#5). Caesar lived h ere with War. proclaimed his freedom after serving in the the permission of wealthy landowner Humphrey Barrett. A Peter Hutchinson - Thoreau wrote about his knowledge of Revolutionary War alongside John Cuming). Concord’s 26 second home was built here circa 1823 for Caesar’s son Peter woods and wildlife, and Emerson wrote a poem called Peter’s Brister’s Hill and Spring were named after Brister (see Robbins. Peter’s sister Susan and her husband Jack Garrison Field. Soon his unmarked gravesite in Brister and Fenda Freeman under Walden Pond). lived in th e east h alf of th e h ou se with at least 3 of th eir 8 will have a headstone. 33 Thoreau Birthplace House - 341 Virginia Rd. ch ildren wh o survived in fan cy. Peter lived in th e west h alf 29 Peter’s Spring Road & Path In 1880, Peter Huchinson and his grandson, William of th e h ou se with h is wife Fatima Oliver, n o ch ildren . After Named after Peter Hutchinson Bisbee were boarders in Thoreau’s birthplace house, 7 years, Peter moved to a nearby house with Fatima’s 30 Garrison House - 78 Monument St. (ca. 1850) where the owners moved it to 341 Virginia Rd. and took relative Almira and had 13 children, possibly returning around In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, a small brick yard was located in poor tenants. 1850 after Fatima left. In 1852 Peter Hutch in son , a relative on this site; in 1835 a windmill was present. Susan and Jack

5 WALDEN WOODS 6 WEST CONCORD

34 Brister’s Hill Rd. over a secure financial future and Duncan thus abandoned him 39 Thomas and Jennie Dugan - Th om as Du gan was Na med a fter Brister Freeman to his freedom, providing him only with a small house and a self-eman cipated slave from Virg in ia, an d was th e 35 Brister and Fenda Freeman Hou se Site - After 25 years of permission to live in it on an acre of sandy land in Walden Woods. th ird slavery survivor to own lan d in Con cord. He an d enslavement, Brister Freeman became the second formerly In Walden, Thoreau bemoans Cato’s early death. He and his family his first wife Catherine had five children. When en slaved person to own lan d in Con cord. Brister’s Hill is died of diseases associated with malnutrition. Thoreau was Catherine died, Thomas married Jennie Parker of named after the area where he and another formerly inspired to live in Walden Woods due to these courageous Acton, and after whom Nut Meadow Brook was en slaved person purch ased an acre of “old fi eld.” Brister individuals. ren amed Jen n ie Du g an ’s Brook. Th om as an d J en n ie an d h is wife Fen da, wh o tol d fortun es, h ad th ree ch ildren . 37 Zilpah (or Zipha) White House Site - Formerly an enslaved h a d t h r e e c h i l d r e n . O n e o f t h e m , E l i s h a D u g a n , l o s t h i s Brister worked as a day laborer and endured frequent woman, Zilpah White lived in a one-room house on the common fath er’s lan d an d subsequen tly lived in th e wood s. He h arassmen t from loc als an d loc al offi cials. Impressed by land that bordered Walden Road. She made a living spinning was memorialized by Thoreau in his poem The Old wh at Brister h ad been able to accom plish in such a h os tile flax into linen fibers. In Walden, Thoreau notes that, like other Mar lborough Road. Th om as Du g an in troduced th e rye en viron men t, Th oreau com pares h im in Walden to Scipio former enslaved persons, she too was harassed. He describes cradle to Con cord an d taug h t loc al farmers to graft African us, th e g reat Roman g en eral. her living conditions as “somewhat inhumane.” And yet her apple trees. George, their youngest son, enlisted inthe MA 54th Black regimen t of th e Civil War at th e age of 3 Cato and Phyllis Ingraham Hou se Site - Wh en loc al squire ability to provide for herself at a time when few if any other 6 44 in 1863. Du n can In grah am moved to Medford in 1795, h is man Cato Concord women lived alone was a great accomplishment. asked if he could marry a local (currently or formerly) 38 Rachel Le Grosse House Site - A poor white widow and neighbor 40 Damon Mill - 170 0 Ma in St. enslaved person named Phyllis and bring her along. Duncan of Brister, Rachel Le Grosse lived on land rented from Peter On e of th e earliest cot ton mills in th e n ation op en ed replied th at Cato cou ld marry but on ly if h e stayed beh in d Wheeler. It seems likely that Brister and Rachel had a relationship here in 1808. Calvin Damon bought the mill in 1834, and i n C o n c o r d , s e v e r e d h i s t i e s w i t h h i s m a s t e r , a n d s o u g h t n o after Brister’s wife died; Brister sold his acre of land to Rachel developed a new cloth combining cotton and wool furth er fi n an cial a ssistan ce from h im. Cato c h ose Ph yllis for $20 so that she would have property after he died, since it called “domet”, eventually used for Civil War uniforms. was illegal for them to marry. With th is Con cord mill, wh ich op erated in to th e 20th century, employees and customers supported the slave econ om y of sou th ern c otton plan tation s.

“FOLLOW THE DRINKING GOURD” MISSION STATEMENT

When the sun comes back The Drinking Gourd Project is a newly formed Concord-based And the first quail calls n on profi t org an iz ation foc used on raisin g awaren ess of Con cord’s Follow the Drinking Gourd. African and Abolitionist history from the 17th through the 19th For the old man is a-waiting for to carry cen turies. Our mission is to s h in e a lig h t on th is h istory a n d make it you to freedom even more accessible to residen ts an d visitors in a way th at will add If you follow the Drinking Gourd. a new layer to our understanding of our past and a deeper appreciation for th e com plexity of Con cord an d its rol e in creatin g The riverbank makes a very good road. a diverse America. The dead trees will show you the way. Th is i s b ein g a ccom plish ed th rou gh : Left foot, peg foot, traveling on, • education al p rog rams Follow the Drinking Gourd. • maps a n d tou rs of th e early African a n d Abol ition ist sites • th e establish men t of th e Rob bin s Hou se In terpretive Cen ter, The river ends between two hills th an ks to t h e g en erou s support of Con cord’s Com mun ity Follow the Drinking Gourd. Preservation Com mittee (see # 28) There’s another river on the other side • framed c op ies of a n 1864 petition to t h e Presiden t from Follow the Drinking Gourd. Con cord sch ool c h ildren to f ree slave c h ildren tog eth er with Lin col n 's respon se, wh ich h an g i n Con cord’s th ree p ublic When the great big river meets the elemen tary sch ool s (see # 3) little river • c om memoratin g early African a n d African American forg ot ten Follow the Drinking Gourd. h om e sites with ston e b en ch es For the old man is a-waiting for to carry • p rovidin g en g raved h eadston es for th e u n marked g raves of you to freedom African American s a n d Abolition ists If you follow the Drinking Gourd. • fun draisin g even ts to p rom ot e a n d in form a udien ces a bou t th is a spect of Con cord’s h istory Concord’s Perhaps no song is more closely associated with the • workin g c los ely with man y en tities i n town , i n cludin g th e Underground Railroad than this one. sch ool s, museums, town a g en cies a n d org an iz ation s African American & Abolitionist History In this spiritual, escape instructions and a map are We thank and recommend the following embedded as a code to enable enslaved persons to make Authors and their books: their way North to freedom by following the points of the Big Dipper star formation, which points to Polaris, the Pole Elise Lemire, Black Walden: Slavery and Its Aftermath in Concord, Star, and North. Massachusetts, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009. Sandra Petrulionis, To Set This World Right: The Antislavery The escape route traveled North to the headwaters of the Tombigbee River, through the divide, and then down the Movement in Thoreau’s Concord, Cornell University Press, 2006. Tennessee River to the Ohio River. This journey to freedom Barbara Elliott and Janet Jones, Concord: Its Black History took most refugees a full year. 1636-1860, Concord Public Schools, 1976

The DGP Robbins House Interpretive Center for raising Special Thank You to Leslie Wilson, Curator of Special Collections awareness around Concord’s African and Abolitionist History at the Concord Free Public Library. has been generously supported by the Town of Concord Community Preservation Fund. This map does not include all Underground Railroad stops in Donations are gratefully accepted to expand our work on the Concord. We are working to collect, verify, and add these in African American and Abolitionist History of Concord, the future. Building orientation is representational. and preserve the Robbins house as an African and Abolitionist Research and substantiation is ongoing. Interpretive Center.

The compilers of this map welcome your comments & The Drinking Gourd is another name for the Big and corrections. Email us at www.drinkinggourdproject.org Checks can be made out to Drinking Gourd Project, Inc., and sent to: Little Dippers. The North Star pointed out by these Please contact the Concord Chamber of Commerce for Drinking Gourd Project, Inc. constellations was a guiding light for travelers heading tours; we thank them for supporting our mission. P.O. Box 506 Concord, MA 01742 North to freedom on the Underground Railroad. 2010 The Drinking Gourd Project & Paperfish Design Thank you! 4.2013