Historic Northampton's exhibit gallery
will be closed for the winter season from January 1 - February 28, 2025
will be closed for the winter season from January 1 - February 28, 2025
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Upcoming EventsSee Events Calendar
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Slavery and Freedom in Northampton and in the Colonial North Lecture Series
Dr. Charmaine A. Nelson
An Introduction to Transatlantic Slavery and Canadian Slavery Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at 7 pm on Zoom |
Dr. Christy Clark-Pujara
Living and Laboring in the Business of Slavery in Rhode Island Thursday, April 10, 2025 at 7 pm on Zoom |
Staged Readings by Plays in Place
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Blood on the Snow
March 5 & March 6, 2025 at 6:30 pm
Unitarian Society of Northampton & Florence |
A Light Under the Dome
April 2 & April 3, 2025 at 6:30 pm
Unitarian Society of Northampton & Florence |
Slavery and Freedom in Northampton and in the Colonial North Lecture Series: Lecture 3
An Introduction to Transatlantic Slavery and Canadian Slavery
Dr. Charmaine A. Nelson, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Slavery North
Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at 7 pm
On Zoom
Dr. Charmaine A. Nelson, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Slavery North
Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at 7 pm
On Zoom
THE PRINTER (William Brown),
"RANAWAY from the Printing-office," Quebec Gazette, 27 November 1777, no. 639, p. 3 |
If you're unfamiliar with slavery in Canada, you’re not alone. Most people have never had the opportunity to learn about the 200-year history of Canadian participation in Transatlantic Slavery under the British and the French. This lack of knowledge is principally because scholarship on Canadian Slavery falls far short of the research that has been produced about the U.S. South, the Caribbean, and northern South America.
This talk explores various dimensions of Canadian Slavery within the broader context of transatlantic histories with attention to how scholars conduct research on unfree people using archival and cultural sources. It also connects the dots between histories of slavery and ongoing anti-Black racism. |
In Partnership with the Northampton Reparations Study Commission
Slavery and Freedom in Northampton and in the Colonial North Lecture Series: Lecture 4
Living and Laboring in the Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
Dr. Christy Clark-Pujara
Thursday, April 10, 2025 at 7 pm
On Zoom | Registration will be forthcoming
On Zoom | Registration will be forthcoming
Dr. Christy Clark-Pujara will speak via Zoom on April 10, 2025. Clark-Pujara is professor of history in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Dark Work: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island (NYU Press, 2016).
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The Business of slavery—specifically the buying and selling of people, food, and goods—shaped the experience of slavery, the process of emancipation, and the realities of Black freedom in Rhode Island from the colonial period through the American Civil War. In the colonial period, Rhode Islanders dominated the American trade in African slaves and provided the slave-labor-dependent West Indies with basic necessities. In the post-colonial period, as slavery was legally dismantled, Rhode Islanders became the leading producers of slave clothing. Black people resisted their bondage, fought for their freedom, and strove to build a community in a racially hostile colony and state; their assertions of humanity shaped Rhode Island society, politics, and economy. The erasure of this history has allowed for a dangerous myth—that the North has no history of racism to overcome and that white northerners had no substantive investments in race-based slavery.
Registration will be forthcoming |
In Partnership with the Northampton Reparations Study Commission
Blood on the Snow: A Staged Reading
A play by Patrick Gabridge, Producing Artistic Director, Plays in Place
A play by Patrick Gabridge, Producing Artistic Director, Plays in Place
Wednesday, March 5, 2025 or Thursday, March 6, 2025 | 6:30 pm
Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, 220 Main Street, Northampton, MA
Reservations are strongly recommended. Sliding scale admission.
Historic Northampton, in collaboration with Plays In Place and in partnership with the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, proudly
presents two staged readings of Blood on the Snow. |
On March 5, 1770, British soldiers in Boston killed four unarmed civilians and wounded eight more in what is known today as the Boston Massacre. This play focuses on the events that took place the day after--March 6, 1770—when the leaders of Boston gathered in the Council Chamber of what is now the Old State House and made decisions that placed Massachusetts on the road to revolution. These live readings will be the first time this play has been performed outside of Boston.
The live performance will be directed by Brianna Sloane and feature local professional actors, many of whom performed in Pulling at the Roots at Historic Northampton in 2023 and 2024. The actors include: Matt Haas, Bill Stewart, Gabriel Levey, Andrew Roberts, Marcus Neverson, Lindel Hart, Scott Braidman, Luke Haskell, Rich Vaden, and Patrick Toole. Each hour-long performance will be followed by a discussion with the playwright and a historian. |
A Light Under the Dome: A Staged, Dramatic Reading
A play by Patrick Gabridge, Producing Artistic Director, Plays in Place
A play by Patrick Gabridge, Producing Artistic Director, Plays in Place
Wednesday, April 2, 2025 or Thursday, April 3, 2025 | 6:30 pm
Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, 220 Main Street, Northampton, MA
Historic Northampton, in collaboration with Plays In Place and in partnership with the Racial Justice Team of the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, proudly presents two staged, dramatic readings of A Light Under the Dome.
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On February 21, 1838, exiled Southerner Angelina Grimke became the first American woman to address a legislative body when she delivered a speech about abolition and the full citizenship of American women at the Massachusetts State House.
A Light Under the Dome brings us to this moment in history, showcasing Grimke and taking us inside the minds and hearts of four abolitionist and suffragist leaders--Maria Weston Chapman, Susan Paul, Julia Williams, and Lydia Maria Child, who in 1838 was living in Northampton. As Grimke readies herself for this moment, her four friends help support and guide her through this pressure-packed moment. A few years later, Grimke would give a similar speech here in Northampton. Each hour-long performance will be followed by a post-show discussion with the playwright and a historian. |
Reservations Strongly Recommended | Available seats: 150
All reservations are for general seating | Sliding Scale Admission
The readings will not be recorded.
All reservations are for general seating | Sliding Scale Admission
The readings will not be recorded.
Road Trip!
A Visit to The New York Historical museum, with a Special Tour of the exhibition Real Clothes, Real Lives: 200 Years of What Women Wore, featuring clothing from the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection
Date: Saturday, March 15, 2025
7:30 AM Departure from Northampton’s Sheldon Field (26 Old Ferry Road, Northampton, MA)
5:30 PM Depart from New York City, arriving in Northampton by 9:00 PM
7:30 AM Departure from Northampton’s Sheldon Field (26 Old Ferry Road, Northampton, MA)
5:30 PM Depart from New York City, arriving in Northampton by 9:00 PM
Price: $100 per person. Pre-registration is required.
Sold out! Learn more about the waitlist.
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Join Historic Northampton co-directors and Kiki Smith, Smith College professor of theatre, clothing historian, and author, on a special visit to the exhibition Kiki Smith conceived and curated: Real Clothes, Real Lives: 200 Years of What Women Wore at The New York Historical museum.
Featuring garments from the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection, the exhibit reveals the history, economics, and stories behind the everyday fashion worn by women over the last two centuries. Since its opening last September, reviewers have spotlighted Real Clothes, Real Lives as one of the most important new exhibits on display. It will close in June 2025. Our group will be treated to private, docent-led tours of the exhibit. There will be time to view other exhibitions at The New York Historical museum and explore New York City on your own. |
Acknowledging Indigenous history
Acknowledging Indigenous History
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.
Learn More
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.
Learn More
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for new ways to stay connected to Historic Northampton.
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