Old North: Illuminating the Unseen

https://www.bostonpreservation.org/aw...

The buildings and places that survive from our shared history are a small, curated collection of the breadth of the human experience on this land. Most of the places that we think of as “historic” represent the stories of prominent white men and their families, but Old North Illuminated is dedicated to changing that. Stewards of Old North Church and its affiliated properties have kept the story of Paul Revere and his famous ride in 1775 alive for generations. But recent historical research unearthed connections between Old North Church’s congregants and a network of enslavers and human traffickers. These disturbing revelations prompted Old North Illuminated to reassess its approach to historic interpretation and adopt a new vision and commitment to actively engaging with the site’s history of slavery.

With this new mission, Old North Illuminated produced Illuminating the Unseen, a public history video series that launched in August 2022. The series shines a light on the stories of some of the Black and Indigenous Bostonians who were affiliated with Old North Church and the North End neighborhood in the 18th and 19th centuries. Dr. Jaimie D. Crumley, an Assistant Professor in the Ethnic Studies and Gender Studies Divisions of the School for Cultural and Social Transformation at the University of Utah, joined the team for a one-year Research Fellowship. Dr. Crumley holds a PhD in Gender Studies from UCLA and Master of Divinity and Master of Sacred Theology degrees from Yale Divinity School. The series is written and presented by Dr. Crumley and carefully crafted to explore high-level ideas about history, race, and gender. Each episode references different primary source documents such as pew deeds, wills, letters, Books of Common Prayer, and newspaper articles with an eye toward the people who might be overlooked. With this series, we begin to learn more about the deep complexities of life for congregants and Bostonians in a critical point in America’s history.

Filmmaker: Padriac Farma
Illustrator: Laurea McLeland
Producer: Matthew Dickey