#Blacknewenglandhistory #Blackrevolutionarywarsoldiers #historicipswich #mixedracehistory #NativeAmericanHistory #mostlywhitenovel #Blackhistoryisamericanhistory #atlanticblackbox
(Photo courtesy of Gordon Harris)
It has taken nine generations to uncover our family history in New England. My ancestors the Freeman's were enslaved in the mid-1700s in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Jane Freeman was enslaved by Philip Lord, and her husband Peter Freeman by Thomas Staniford. In 1777, their son John Freeman fought in the American Revolutionary War. (For more into go to Black Revolutionary War soldier. ) In 1784, the family moved to East Brunswick, Maine starting the Freeman family line.
Growing up we had no sense of belonging in colonial New England. We were the first mixed-race family to live in the small New England town of Lincoln, steeped with history that we felt separate from. Our mother, born in Portland, Maine was African American, Native American, and Irish, our father a Scottish, English, Irish southerner from Arkansas. They fell in love when in many states interracial marriage was illegal, prior to Loving vs. Virginia, 1967 legalizing interracial marriage United States.
Our family’s history was purposefully erased from the colonial settler narrative in New England. “Slaves were treated well, and Natives became extinct” was the history we learned in school: we essentially did not belong or exist. In the 1980’s my mother and older sister Lisa started digging, which began decades of research of our Black and Native American ancestors. This research inspired my first novel Mostly White (Torrey House, 2018) a historical-based family saga of my mother’s Black, Native American, and Irish ancestors from Maine. Crafting together this narrative led to others, and the story widened.
We uncovered the story of Peter Freeman who was enslaved in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and discovered John Freeman, his son fought in the American Revolution. Lisa contacted Gordon Harris, the Ipswich town historian and this collaboration spearheaded an ongoing collaborative effort to uncover our family's story resulting in a plaque erected in Ipswich, Massachusetts honoring the Freeman family nearby where they lived. A plaque for John Freeman, honoring Black Revolutionary War soldiers will be erected in the near future by Essex County.
(Special thanks to Aimee Keithan from The Pejepscot History Center historians James Tanzer and Kate McMahon for sharing their findings, Atlantic Black Box for their ongoing work uncovering Black and Native New England history, and the book by Talbot and Price Maine's Visible Black History (Tilbury House, 2006)
The history of slavery and the genocide of Native Americans is too much for one person to bear and digest. These stories are meant to be witnessed and shared in community, piercing through the cultural amnesia of the dominant colonial settler narrative, to create a more inclusive and truthful origin story of America for all.
Below is my epic poem about my family history:
circumference
standing on the edges of
circles
always
the witness
rarely
the center
respectfully ambiguous
holding
loving ancestors close
Mali, Ghana, Nigeria,
Cameroon, Congo,
Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England,
Passamaquoddy Native American
“Where are you from?”
My ancestors Jane and Peter Freeman were
enslaved in Ipswich, Massachusetts Bay Colony
in the mid 1700’s
John Freeman their eldest son, Black/Native
fought in the Revolutionary War
In 1784 the Freeman family
moved to Brunswick, Maine
The Freemans are listed in the Maine censuses as:
Negro, Mulatto, Black, Colored, White
but never Native American
because they weren’t supposed to exist
George Augustus Freeman
enlisted in the Civil War
when Lincoln allowed Blacks to join Union ranks
wounded in the battle of Spotsylvania
fighting was in his blood
following the footsteps of his
grandfather, John.
“Where are you from?”
I am history that was never meant to be discovered
an inconvenient narrative
pushing the edges of a circle
open…
In 1911 residents of Malaga Island
an interracial fishing community
of Black, Irish, and Native Americans
founded by Ben Darling, a Black Revolutionary War Veteran
were evicted by the state of Maine
The “degenerate colony of half-breeds”
notoriety became an embarrassment
to the state
must get rid of this eye sore
build a vacation paradise
residents broke down their homes and used them as rafts
floating down the New Meadows River
denied entry on shores
a great sport of entertainment for mainlanders
jeering
as a Black man lost his furniture
in the rush of the current
laughter swelled in amusement
nobody helped him
Who let them land?
some were taken by state officials
to be confined at the
Maine’s Institute for the Feeble Minded
men separated from women
separated from children
they dug up the
bones of the ancestors graves on Malaga
sent them to Maine’s Institute for the Feeble Minded
thrown together in unmarked graves
“Where are you from?”
blood spilled wars fought bones rattle
My father a white southerner from Arkansas
crossed the Jim Crow color line
and fell for my mother
A Black, Native American, Irish woman
from Maine.
All hell broke loose
both families resisted the union
almost a decade before Loving vs. Virginia, 1967
They met in Boston
while out in public
bottles were thrown at them, racial epithets
their union was not safe
dangerous in fact
they began to date in churches
where they wouldn’t be harassed
Where can we have children?
they asked each other
in letters back and forth
weighing the consequence of
bringing mixed children into the world
Where would they be safe?
Where would they belong?
Will our love make up for the harm society may heap on them?
A unitarian church in Massachusetts said
yes, yes we accept you.
and so, they dared to love
dared to have children
dared
“Where are you from?”
I am earth sky fire water
standing
with deep roots
on the circumference
of circles
I didn’t create
walls
I didn’t build
each brick an
algorithmic separation
I am
a union that dared to happen.
Copyright © 2023 Alison Hart