The African Meeting House, A Beacon of Hope

The city of Boston is well known for its maritime life and its long history of piracy. Classical pirates invoked fear in the public and were heavily targeted by the law as evidenced by the number of execution sites on this trail. However, when discussing life at sea, there is another type of piracy that is often overlooked. The horrors of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the transportation of human cargo is a piece of Boston’s history that many would rather forget. Compared to classical pirates, slave traders were accepted as members of society and encouraged to traffic humans for the benefit of the economy. The international transportation of human cargo did not become illegal until 1808, at which moment the transport of Africans to the United States legally became piracy. Even then, trading and keeping enslaved people within the US remained legal.

You are currently standing underneath a sign and lantern marking the side of the African Meeting House. The exterior décor was most likely added when the building became part of the Museum of African American history in 1972, but the lantern holds symbolic meaning, as a light marking the entrance, seeing as the building was a place of hope and new beginnings for many Africans. The African Meeting House was constructed in 1806 through donations from African patrons and notably employed black craftsman in its construction. The building’s upper level was originally utilized as the First Independent Baptist church, while the ground-level room became the first school for blacks in Boston. The site is currently a national landmark and maintained by the National Park service. Visitors can pay to enter and take a tour of the building, or you can look at the images of the interior included here.

The New England Antislavery Society was formed in the African Meeting House during January of 1832, under the guidance of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. At the time, Garrison was co-editor of The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper published weekly in Boston. Garrison, a devout Christian, used his paper to appeal to people’s morals, rather than political views and urged the public to demand an immediate emancipation of all slaves. The Liberator closely monitored the 1839 story of the Amistad, a slave ship, which was taken control of by the African captives. The ship was eventually overtaken by a U.S brig, and the Africans were taken into custody in New Haven, Connecticut. A debate ensued whether, although they had been kidnapped from their home, the Africans could be charged for piracy (given their seizure of the ship) and whether they were now legally property. The Antislavery Society and The Liberator felt strongly that the Africans should be released as free citizens. In an article published in September 1839, the paper wrote, “These Africans are not guilty of piracy. By the laws of civilized nations, as well as the laws of nature, these Africans by whomever they were seized and wheresoever held in bondage, had a right to assert their liberty, of which they had been deprived by force.”[1]

The Amistad was not the only issue that the Antislavery Society addressed in their fight for freedom. In the years of its activity, the society made tremendous efforts to sway public opinion about slavery. It worked to directly aid runaway slaves, spoke before legislators, and petitioned Congress on many occasions. One of the Antislavery Society’s greatest achievements came in helping to organize the “Latimer Petition” in 1843. The petition, which included over sixty-thousand signatures from those living in Massachusetts, was presented to state legislation and helped in the creation of the “Latimer Law.” This law prevented state officials in Massachusetts from apprehending suspected escaped slaves and returning them to their former masters. Famous abolitionists including Frederick Douglass often spoke in the African Meeting House and equated slave owning to piracy claiming that “Men…by the single act of slaveholding voluntarily [place] themselves beyond the laws of justice and honor, and have become only fitted for companionship with thieves and pirates--the common enemies of God and of all mankind.”[2] The Antislavery Society was highly successful in fighting this piracy and helping create protective legislation for African Americans within the state of Massachusetts. In the decades following the criminalization of the importation of human cargo, organizations like the Antislavery Society, meeting in social hubs like the African Meeting House, took up the mantle, advocated for the rights of Africans, and fought the piracy that was race-based slavery.

—Amanda Perry

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[1] William Lloyd Garrison, “The Amistad---Piracy” The Liberator (Boston, MA, September 13, 1939
[2] Douglass, Frederick. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Ware: Wordsworth American Library, 1996.

Pictured: View of the Main Meeting Room​,​ originally the worship space of the First Independent Baptist Church. View of the Main Meeting Room from the upper balcony. The Liberator masthead.

**To go to the Charlestown Ferry Site (Site 16), head east on Smith Ct. toward Joy Street. Take a left onto Joy Street. Turn right onto Cambridge Street. Turn left onto Staniford Street onto Causeway St. Make a slight left onto Commercial St. and the destination will be on the corner of Commercial Street and N Washington Street.**