360 Slavery and Freedom in Massachusetts

Ben Franklin's World

Liz Covart

History, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2023

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Juneteenth is a holiday that celebrates and commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. We choose to reflect on the end of slavery in the United States on June 19, because, on June 19, 1865, United States General Gordon Granger issued his General Order No. 3 in Galveston, Texas, informing Texans that all slaves are free. Juneteenth may feel like it is a mid-19th-century moment, but the end of slavery didn’t just occur on one day or at one time. And it didn’t just occur in the mid-19th century. The fight to end slavery was a long process that started during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Kyera Singleton, the Executive Director of the Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford, Massachusetts, has spent years researching the lives of the enslaved people who lived and worked on the Royall Plantation and the significant contributions they made to ending slavery in Massachusetts. Kyera joins us to investigate the story of slavery and freedom within the first state in the United States to legally abolish slavery. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/360 Complementary Episodes 🎧 Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston 🎧 Episode 170: Wendy Warren, New England Bound 🎧 Episode 194: Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters, NHS 🎧 Episode 220: Margaret Newell, New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of Slavery 🎧 Episode 304: Annette Gordon-Reed: On Juneteenth 🎧 Episode 324: Andrea Mosterman, New Netherland and Slavery 🎧 Episode 329: Mark Tabbert, Freemasonry in Early America 🎧 Episode 351: Nicole Maskiell, Wealth and Slavery in New Netherland REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 Topic Request Form 📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com WHEN YOU'RE READY 🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter👩‍💻 BFW Listener Community🌍 The History Explorers Club LISTEN 🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music 🛜 Pandora CONNECT 🦋 Liz on Bluesky 👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn 🛜 Liz’s Website SAY THANKS 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an airwave media podcast.
0:04.0	Ben Franklin's world is a dedicated to helping you learn more about how the people
0:25.8	and events of our early American past have shaped the present day world we live in.
0:29.7	And I'm your host, Liz Kovart.
0:33.0	Juneteenth is a holiday that celebrates and commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.
0:38.0	We choose to reflect on the end of slavery in the United States on June 19,
0:42.0	because on June 19, 1865, United States General
0:46.0	Gordon Granger issued his General Order Number 3 in Galveston, Texas, informing Texans that
0:51.7	all slaves are free.
0:53.0	Now the way we study historical periods may make Juneteenth feel like it's a mid-19th century moment,
0:59.0	a moment that is beyond the scope of Ben Franklin's world.
1:02.0	But the end of slavery didn't just occur on one day
1:05.2	or at one time. It didn't even just occur in the mid-19th century. The fight to end slavery
1:11.0	was a long process that started during the 17th and 18th centuries.
1:15.6	Kiara Singleton is the executive director of the Royal House and Slave
1:19.7	Quarters in Medford, Massachusetts. She's also a historian who's finishing her doctoral degree in American culture
1:26.0	at the University of Michigan.
1:28.0	Kiera and her colleagues have spent years researching the lives of the enslaved people who lived and worked on the Royal
1:34.0	plantation and the significant contributions those people made to ending slavery in Massachusetts, which was the first
1:40.9	state in the United States to legally abolish slavery in 1783.
1:46.1	Now during our investigation of slavery and freedom in Massachusetts,
1:49.5	Kierer reveals the story of the Royal House and Slave Quarters and White is such a unique historic site.
	...

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