MassachusettsHISTORY EXPLORERS GRADES 3–8
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evidence
Information from a source that helps us test a claim.
source
A document, object, image, or account we can examine.
inference
An explanation based on clues; it still needs checking.
migration
Moving from one place to another to live.
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estimate
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Family origins across generations.
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Evidence created by someone who experienced a time or event.

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Black lives in early Massachusetts

How did Black people build lives and challenge slavery?

Start here · grades 3–5
Historical portrait of Phillis Wheatley.
Historical portrait of Phillis Wheatley.

Free did not mean equal

Black people in early Massachusetts included free and enslaved people. They built families, worked, created art, and cared for communities. Massachusetts’s 1641 Body of Liberties allowed slavery under specified conditions. A person could become free through release by an enslaver, purchase, or a successful legal challenge. Freedom did not end racism.

Two meanings of “freeman”

A free person was not enslaved. But “freeman” in some colonial records meant a man admitted to political membership. It did not mean that every free person could vote. Women and many men were excluded from political power.

Phillis Wheatley: a writer

Wheatley was enslaved in Boston. Her book of poems appeared in 1773, and she became free afterward. Read her as an author with ideas, not only as a person who experienced slavery. Meet Phillis Wheatley

Prince Hall: a community builder

Prince Hall became free in 1770. He helped organize Black Bostonians and pressed for rights and education. His son Primus Hall served in the Revolutionary War and later supported schooling for Black children.

Belinda Sutton: a petitioner

Sutton had been enslaved by the Royall family in Medford. In 1783 she asked Massachusetts lawmakers for support from the Royall estate for herself and her daughter. Payments were unreliable, so she petitioned again. A petition is a written request to people in power.

Whose words survive?

A poem, a petition, and a court record tell different stories. Choose one. Who made it? Who was supposed to read it? What can it tell us—and what is missing?

Sources, grown-up reading & teaching notes

These are original reading companions. Follow the sources to check a claim. External pages and recordings keep their own languages.

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