Black Walden: Slavery and Its Aftermath in Concord, Massachusetts

by Elise Lemire

Concord, Massachusetts, has long been heralded as the birthplace of American liberty and American letters. It was here that the first military engagement of the Revolutionary War was fought and here that Thoreau came to "live deliberately" on the shores of Walden Pond. Between the Revolution and the settlement of the little cabin with the bean rows, however, Walden Woods was home to several generations of freed slaves and their children. Living on the fringes of society, they attempted to pursue lives of freedom, promised by the rhetoric of the Revolution, and yet withheld by the practice of racism. Thoreau was all but alone in his attempt "to conjure up the former occupants of these woods." Other than the chapter he devoted to them in Walden , the history of slavery in Concord has been all but forgotten. In Black Slavery and Its Aftermath in Concord, Massachusetts , Elise Lemire brings to life the former slaves of Walden Woods and the men and women who held them in bondage during the eighteenth century. After charting the rise of Concord slaveholder John Cuming, Black Walden follows the struggles of Cuming's slave, Brister, as he attempts to build a life for himself after thirty-five years of enslavement. Brister Freeman, as he came to call himself, and other of the town's slaves were able to leverage the political tensions that fueled the American Revolution and force their owners into relinquishing them. Once emancipated, however, the former slaves were permitted to squat on only the most remote and infertile places. Walden Woods was one of them. Here, Freeman and his neighbors farmed, spun linen, made baskets, told fortunes, and otherwise tried to survive in spite of poverty and harassment. With a new preface that reflects on community developments since the hardcover's publication, Black Walden reminds us that this was a black space before it was an internationally known green space and preserves the legacy of the people who strove against all odds to overcome slavery and segregation.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2009

About the author

Elise Lemire is a Professor of Literature at Purchase College.

Reviews

[Doria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel impelled to write this review in part as a response to an earlier review posted here on Goodreads, in which a reader complained that this book "was too long, too detailed, and had WAY to many leaps of logic in it when it comes to identifying particular ex-slaves or their relationships with each other." I disagree with this reviewer on every point. To my knowledge, this is the first and only book ever written on the subject of slavery and the post-slavery era in Concord; as such, I found it to be quite compact in length, while simultaneously containing a wealth of information, no mean feat on the part of author Elise Lemire. It is clear that more books and more scholarship are needed on this important topic, perhaps even a textbook. Or perhaps current textbooks on American colonial history need to be amended or revised in accordance with Lemire's findings.

Black Walden is one of the most moving and well-written works of scholarship I have ever read. It is a meticulously researched book, with facts and information culled from an extraordinarily wide variety of sources, ranging from literature (most notably Thoreau's "Walden") to court records, period arts and crafts, diaries, wills, etc. Lemire has created a spare yet nuanced account of the lives of both slaves and slave-owners in Concord and it's environs during the colonial era, firmly rooted in the facts available. And despite the fact that there is a paucity of information relating directly to the lives of African Americans during this period, in contradiction to the assertion made by the reviewer I quoted above, Lemire has resisted the lure of inventing or extrapolating beyond what the few facts actually reveal, concerning the lives of Brister Freeman, Zilpah White, Case Feen and other individuals. She neither romanticizes nor trivializes the harsh lives led by those who endured slavery and its aftermath in Concord and Lincoln. She does, however, take issue with the fact that local historians of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have re-framed and re-interpreted the evidence so as to paint an inaccurate picture of what life was like for African Americans in the "Cradle of Liberty".

On only one point to I agree with the other reviewer, namely that Black Walden could have benefitted from more illustrations, maps and/or drawings. However I know that obtaining permission to use and print these can often add substantially to the length and cost of making and pricing scholarly books, which may or may not have been a consideration. The endpaper of the book does include an excellently detailed and labelled map of the area described, which I referred to often and which enhanced my experience of reading Black Walden.

This book challenges the long-cherished but false belief that Concord was always an abolitionist community, and provides the evidence to support a contrary view. As Lemire writes, "Preferring to hail from the birthplace of liberty, residents allowed Concord's own long and brutal history as a slave town to fade away." We should not allow this history to continue to fade away, and Lemire deserves our thanks for attempting to preserve a necessary piece of the American experience.

[Sjancourtz · Rating 2 out of 5]

My Concord, MA book club chose this, and initially, it's interesting. Most of us never considered that slavery existed in the North, even in the Cradle of Liberty. Yet wealthy individuals DID own slaves. It was those slaves that allowed Concord's early leaders to become ministers, lawyers, writers, politicians--instead of working with the mule on the Back 40 to put food on the family table. The book traces the story of what happened to the Concord slaves, some of whom were born in Africa and remembered it well, once they were released from servitude. It ain't a pretty picture.

BUT--maybe I'm ADD, but the book was too long, too detailed, and had WAY to many leaps of logic in it when it comes to identifying particular ex-slaves or their relationships with each other. The author uses "presumably" way too often. The whole thing read like a doctoral thesis and would have been a lot more powerful with a better writer at the helm. It could also have profited from a few more maps, drawings, and photos. (People unfamiliar with Concord, especially early 19th century Concord, would find it hard to visualize just where all thee folks lived.

[Rucha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a little conflicted on how to rate this book. Lemire has thoroughly documented as much as she could about the lives of enslaved people in Concord, MA and surrounding towns between the early 1600's and 1800's. However, this book is incredibly dense and most of the details are actually about the enslaved people's owners. I'm guessing this is due to the fact that there's more documentation on the owners, which is unfortunate. Overall, this book got me to see Concord, MA and surrounding towns in a different light. The book also heavily documents the geography of the town and it was interesting to see how the town has changed over the years. It was cool to read about who lived in the colonial houses that still exist today and their personalities and everyday dealings. I think this is a good read if you live near Concord, MA. I don't know if I would recommend all 200 pages of this book, but certain excerpts are very interesting.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for my Concord-Carlisle book club. It was a very interesting and informative read. American History has taught us a lot about slavery in the South but I was astonished to read about Slavery in the North. I guess one could say that I was naïve. Looking back I knew slavery in the North occurred. Look at the Salem witch trials - The slave Tituba was being accused as being a witch. But I guess it never occurred to me that slavery happened in other parts of MA especially in an area that I lived in. . Henceforth the naiveté. Having said that, I knew of the location or could drive to many of the locations mentioned in the book. It made the topic feel even more real to me. I also never knew that Slaves fought in the Revolutionary War. They were sent by their owners to fight for them. That was one thing that stayed with me the most. We learn so much in American History but not nearly enough.

I really enjoyed this book. It felt a little long winded in parts. There were a lot of facts and sometimes it was hard to wade through all of them. But this book was a very worthwhile and educational read for me.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always admired Thoreau's "Walden", and so I have consequently been extremely interested in the history of Concord, MA. Thoreau's rural home town played a major role in the founding of our country and the birth of the American abolitionist movement. It is often held up as the quintessential example of an enlightened New England township. In this book, Lemire reminds us of the initial presence and later exodus of a small but highly significant enslaved black population, one whose unpaid labor ironically made the intellectual fermentation of liberty and rebellion possible. She speculates about factors which contributed to their immediate post Revolutionary War emancipation, bringing up the high probability that whites needed to be coerced into these actions by the blacks themselves. Through amazingly thorough research into town records and resident's memoirs, she paints a picture of Concord life, for both the "haves" and the "have nots". We discover that formerly enslaved families were immediately marginalized and ultimately nudged out of town by their wealthy neighbors, leaving us with a lily white rural enclave where the concept of slavery could be condemned as a faraway evil.
By it's very nature, a book like this is more speculative than the typical historical project. It deals with the history of a community that left very few personal records of their thoughts and actions. Lemire is forced to piece together and defend a narrative gleaned from secondary sources. Consequently, there is always the danger that her evidence is insufficient to support her conclusions. At times, I found myself thinking that she was a little too quick to moralize and judge. Then again, her most prominent points seem to be based on indisputable, common sense reasoning of how normal people with and without power would behave in a small, rural town. Still, there was unquestionably something different going on in this place! I wish that she had followed her well researched reasoning even further, delving into the question which always comes into my head when I think about Concord. How did this typical small New England town end up having such an indisputable positive influence on the world? That's a ridiculously big question, and it makes me think that I should just be extremely thankful that Elise Lemire took the time to give us more extremely valuable insight and background while we all attempt to find our own answers.

[Steven Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m so glad I finally read this book. Filled with stories, facts and color about people I never knew had lived and struggled in the landscape of my teenage years in Acton and Concord, and decades of sharing my love of Walden Pond and the history of Concord. Ms Lemire has clearly done a heroic amount of research to resurrect these lives and help us understand the context and significance of African-American history within the American history. I gave this book only 4 stars because it takes some patience to read given the less than concise approach to story-telling and the unnecessarily repetitive themes, such as how slavery enabled owners to pursue higher status lives. That’s one of the many tragedies of slavery as an institution, and a better editor would have helped reduce the repetitive and distracting language after the first 3-4 uses of it. The Dramatis Personae at the end certainly helped keep the reader oriented, although the storytelling in the body of the book could also benefit from an editor focused on communicating to the reader why they are reading the many extended digressions. The nugget at the end is often worth it, but I’d like more of a guide by my side. This kind of history is enormously difficult to research and write, and it’s well worth your time to learn these stories. My walks in and talks about those times and places will be forever enriched.

[Hubert · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a rich long overdue history of the role of slavery in the American Northeast, debunking the oversimplified myth of Massachusetts as a place of enlightenment, unique, a place where freedom, and the emancipation movements that would later follow, were born.

The writing was focused on stories of Brister Freeman, John Cuming, Zilpah White, how they endured slavery, and how they managed life after they were legally (if not de facto) freed. The sentence structure can be a bit convoluted, but this writing style is employed, with a purpose, primarily to provide the stronger level of context in which to understand these characters' histories and how they intertwine with the larger societal forces at play.

Keep flipping to the dramatis personae at the back of the book, as it'll be easier to keep track of the characters.

What a gem of a contribution to early American and Massachusetts history, to complicate the mythology of Walden Pond, Concord, and the American Revolution.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

One reason we must never stop questioning and learning is that what we were taught in school is often more propaganda than history. Until I picked up this book, I had no idea how extensive slavery was in New England. As the former slaves died, Concord white washed its history and our understanding of the early years of the nation is poorer for that. There are some pieces of this I would love to have teased out further - especially the roots of the divide in women's lives between white and black, rich and poor. Because of the source information availability there is more of this book that is about the white owners rather than the black slaves but that only reinforces the point.

[Don Schmidt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first became aware of this book when I traveled to the Lincoln-Concord area almost two years ago when I was doing research on my own family history in the area. While exploring the Lincoln Historical Society's website, I came upon a recorded Zoom of the first Bemis Lecture that is sponsored by the Society. Dr. Lemire was the guest speaker, and the topic was this history of slavery in Lincoln, MA. The lecture was an eye opener, and it led me to Dr. Lemire's book, "Black Walden".

Most of of us grew up being taught North good, South bad, but as the narratives of American history are changing, we now know that the entire country was involved in slavery, either directly or indirectly. Having grown up in Concord, Dr. Lemire was quite familiar with the iconic Walden Pond. What she discovered through her research was that there was a small, Black community of "emancipated", former slaves in the area that Henry David Thoreau would occupy a few decades later.

To give a large picture of the conditions in the Concord area in the mid-18th Century, Dr. Lemire delves into the specifics of its slave holding families and how they acquired their wealth, and owning slaves was front and center of that wealth building. What changed in that formula was the American Revolution, which for many reasons, ushered in the beginning of the end of slave holding in New England, and indeed started the seeds of the abolitionist movement in the North.

Dr. Lemire tells the personal stories of families that settled near the pond (along with the few families that settled north of Concord not too far from the North Bridge, which creates its own contradictions). This community endured after their enslavement by pure will, getting next to no help from the nearby community of Concord.

Some of the stories are extremely disturbing, so be prepared. Also, through no fault to Dr. Lemire, it is sometimes challenging to follow all the inter-connected relationships. Lemire does provide a "Who's Who" at the back of the book of each slave holding family and who they held at slaves, which is a good reference on keeping everything clear. Also, Dr. Lemire provides three maps of the area at the beginning of the book that are immensely helpful.

One piece of advice, please read all of her footnotes, especially the one for the Epilogue. That on warrants an academic paper, at the very least.

I recently traveled to the area and visited The Robbins House, built by Ceasar Robbins. It was moved from its original location to near the parking lot for the North Bridge. I urge everyone to go see it and take a tour. Pay close attention to Ellen Garrison, a descendant of Mr. Robbins. She was a trailblazer during her time and worked as a teacher. Currently, there is a movement in the Town of Concord to name its new middle school after her.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent and insightful overview of the history of slavery in Concord and the enslaved people and communities that lived there. An important work to highlight how Walden and Concord were Black spaces before they were green spaces. More emphasis and information on the slave owners than necessary, in my opinion. This was written in 2009, so I'd love to see more on the Black communities of Concord past the Revolutionary period and how enslavement was written out of Concord history, which was only briefly touched on near the end.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Vert, very dry. And too detailed as not directly related to slaves in Concord, MA. You would think for a literature professor, the author would be able to spin an interesting non-fiction take. But no. It was a slog.

[T Crockett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am learning so much about an area and time I thought I was knowledgable about. I didn't finish it because I had to return it to the library, but I will certainly get it out again to read the rest.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was quite impressed with this work. The author has really applied an enormous body of background knowledge of farming, trade, and the town to work in interpreting persuasively the poorly documented lives of the slaves and ex-slaves of Concord and environs. It was recommended to me by a Concord resident who was reading it for a bookclub, but I have to say, it is of wider interest than to just Concordians. It seems to be an important addition to our understanding of northern revolutionaries and the federal period. And Anyone reading Walden at an advanced level might want to take a look for the very close reading she gives the sections treating of the former inhabitants of his woods.

My one issue with the book it that the profusion of families and characters does become a bit unclear at times, so I would have appreciated a bit more help in the text to ensure keeping folks straight, and the dramatis personae ought to be up front for continued reference rather than buried in the back.

[Nancy Piccione · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first, I was skeptical of this book, but Lemire won me over. Her writing transformed my thinking, especially the following segment: "[slaves} never exceeded 2 to 3 percent of the local population. But Concord was a slave town nonetheless. Every inhabitant who was not enslaved, whether a slaveholder or not, agreed to uphold the institution, watching slaves as they went about their masters' business and questioning them if there was any reason to suspect they were intent on running away."
Lemire uncovers powerful local history and elegantly challenges assumptions at the same time.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very important book for those of us working with Concord's History. Elise Lemire discovers clues of the lives of blacks (slave and free) during the colonial period, and weaves them into an engaging narrative.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to read about the slaves in Concord which we never learned about despite growing up there.

[Geoff Wisner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a scholarly but readable examination of a little-known aspect of 19th century Concord, and the "former inhabitants" of Walden Pond that Thoreau described in Walden.