More Lectures in Lexington

A few days ago I shared links to various organizations’ calendars for Patriots’ Day. Many of those events recur every year, but here are a couple of new presentations from the Lexington Historical Society.

Thursday, 14 April, 6:00 P.M.
Memorial Dedication to Jack and Dinah
Dr. Robert Bellinger
Lexington Depot

In 2019, Lexington Historical Society began the journey of researching the history of slavery in eighteenth-century Lexington, focusing on the Hancock-Clarke House, where the Hancock family enslaved two individuals named Jack and Dinah in the years leading up to the Revolution. Dr. Robert Bellinger of Suffolk University, consulting historian for this project, will present his research looking into the lives of black families in town, both enslaved and free, in the eighteenth century.

Then, as part of the reinterpretation of the house, the Society has partnered with Stopping Stones, an organization which creates memorials for enslaved people throughout the United States, to place such a memorial to Jack and Dinah at the Hancock-Clarke House site. Attendees will have the opportunity to walk through the museum following the dedication.

This museum will also be open for tours all Patriots’ Day weekend. The Hancock-Clarke House tour has been revamped to incorporate the new research about Jack and Dinah, enhancing our understanding of the complexities of the Revolution as people of all social classes, races, and genders debated the meaning of freedom and liberty here in Lexington and beyond.

This in-person event is free. Registration is recommended but not required.

Thursday, 21 April, 7:00 to 8:30 P.M.
“Your Petitioner Is So Much Hurted”: John Robbins and His Wound
Joel Bohy and Dr. Douglas D. Scott
online

After the smoke cleared on the evening of April 19th, the town of Lexington mourned its dead. Others who participated in the battle that morning survived with injuries that plagued them for the rest of their lives. View a presentation by historic arms expert Joel Bohy and archaeologist Dr. Douglas D. Scott as they discuss the struggles of John Robbins, a soldier in Captain John Parker’s militia company.

Robbins suffered horrific injuries in the battle, rendering him “truly Pitiable being unable to Contribute anything to the Support of a wife & five small Children.” Who was this man? How extensive were his injuries? And was he ever able to receive a pension? Afterward, participate in a live Q&A with the speakers to dive deeper into the ballistic history of the battle.

Register for this online program here.

Judge Jacobs and His Dinah

Reading about Harvey Amani Whitfield’s new book on slavery lingering in Vermont even after being banned in the new republic’s 1777 constitution led me to this Vermont Today article from 2006 about a court case in the early 1800s.

All the parties agreed that Stephen Jacobs had bought a woman named Dinah as a slave in 1783, the same year he moved to Windsor, Vermont. A Yale-educated lawyer, Jacobs prospered eventually became a member of Vermont’s supreme court. As for Dinah, by the end of the century she had become “infirm, sick, and blind,” needing support.

But who had the responsibility to provide that support? New England towns had funds for their poor citizens, but Windsor felt that Dinah should be Jacobs’s charge alone. He insisted that he would pay his share of taxes for her support but no more.

In 1800 Jacobs’s lawyers got the case thrown out on the ground that the deputy sheriff who had served the action was also a citizen of Windsor and therefore had an interest in the case. The town appealed.

In 1802 the Windsor selectmen’s attorney argued that Jacobs had “discarded” Dinah two years earlier when she was no longer of value to him. Jacobs’s lawyers responded that “several of the inhabitants of Windsor…[had] inveigled her from her master’s family and service by the syren songs of liberty and equality” and that she had “spent the vigour of her life with these people.” The record is unclear about when that happened and how long Dinah had been away from Jacobs’s household.

The judge who decided the dilemma was Boston native Royall Tyler. He convinced his colleagues that the 1783 bill of sale for Dinah carried no legal weight under Vermont’s constitution and therefore the town could not introduce it as evidence that Jacobs legally owned the woman. No evidence, no case. I can’t help but get the sense that the state judiciary was looking for ways to decide in favor of their colleague.

Windsor paid for Dinah’s board in different houses over the next few years, for her medical care and burial. However, town records continued to refer to her as “Judge Jacob’s Dinah.”