Historic Northampton will close at 1:00 on Saturday, October 3 for an event.
Welcome to Historic Northampton
CURRENT EXHIBITION
Slavery and Freedom in Northampton,
1654 to 1783
1654 to 1783
For at least 129 years, slavery was part of the fabric of everyday life in Northampton. At least 50 enslaved individuals lived here from the town’s English settlement in 1654 until 1783 when slavery was abolished in Massachusetts.
This exhibit features 34 life-sized silhouettes of men, women, and children who were enslaved. On each silhouette are details about individual lives based upon information gleaned from historic documents. Their histories reveal aspects of enslavement and examples of freedom, and resistance to oppression.
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Exhibit Information
Dates
Open through December 11, 2026
Hours
Wednesday - Sunday
11 am to 4 pm Where
Historic Northampton Main Gallery
46 Bridge Street Northampton, MA 01060 Admission
By Donation |
Sold Out
Rhythm & Rails:
Northampton and the Railroad – A Social History in Tales and Tunes
Rhythm & Rails:
Northampton and the Railroad – A Social History in Tales and Tunes
Tuesday, October 6 and Tuesday, October 20, 2026 at 7:00 pm
Union Station
125 Pleasant Street, Northampton, MA 01060
125 Pleasant Street, Northampton, MA 01060
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After a sold-out performance this spring, we're proud to bring Rhythm & Rails back for two more performances at the perfect venue: Northampton's Union Station.
Rhythm & Rails is a multimedia performance that animates the complex history of railroads in America with narration, theatrical cameos, archival images, and railroad-themed music. Here in Northampton and across the country, railroads changed the pace of life, the movement of people and goods, and the country's economic and social history. These changes were recorded in letters, photographs, literature, and in thousands of songs—from American roots, folk and rag time to blues, jazz, pop, and rock. Come hear this social history in tales and tunes performed by some of the Valley’s most talented musicians and actors! Learn More & Register |
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Acknowledging Indigenous History
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Here, we acknowledge that we stand on Indigenous land, inhabited by Native American people for roughly 11,000 years, since the glaciers receded. This place that we now call Northampton was known to Native people as Nonotuck or Norwottuck. Nonotuck homelands stretched across both sides of the Kwinitekw (now called the Connecticut River), including the present-day towns of Amherst, Hadley, Hatfield, South Hadley, Northampton, and Easthampton.
Nonotuck people were closely connected, through trade, diplomacy, and kinship, to other Native communities in the region: the Quaboag in present-day Brookfield; the Agawam in present-day Springfield; the Woronoco in present-day Westfield; the Pocumtuck in present-day Deerfield; and the Sokoki in present-day Northfield. During the early 1600s, these Native groups engaged in reciprocal trade relations with English colonial settlers and with other Native nations. |
By the late 1600s, however, the pressures of colonial warfare forced many Native families to relocate, taking shelter in other Native territories. We offer condolences for the Nonotuck people who were forced to leave their homeland, while also offering gratitude for the Native communities that took them in.
Despite the loss of land due to colonial settlement, a number of Native nations have persisted across the territory that we now call “New England.” These include: the Nipmuc to the East; the Wampanoag and Narragansett to the Southeast; the Mohegan, Pequot, and Schaghticoke to the South; the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican to the West; and the Abenaki to the North, among others. Recognizing that the entirety of the North American continent constitutes Indigenous homelands, we affirm, honor, and respect the sovereignty of these and hundreds of other Indigenous Native American and First Nations peoples who survive today. |
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