Richard Boles of George Washington University and Jared Hardesty of Boston College each presented a seminar paper on Tuesday, 2/5 at the Old State House in downtown Boston. The event was sponsored by the Massachusetts Historical Society with comments by Linford Fisher of Brown University.
Discussion focused on two seminar papers: “African American and Indian Church Affiliation: Reevaluating Race and Religion in the North, 1730-1776,” by Richard Boles of George Washington University, and “A World of Deference and Dependence: Slavery and Unfreedom in Eighteenth-century Boston,” by Jared Hardesty of Boston College. Boles’ paper explores black and Indian participation in each major Protestant denomination, suggesting the need to reevaluate aspects of the religious history of the colonial North in regard to how blacks and Indians influenced theology and church practices. Hardesty’s essay aims to raise serious questions about the nature of freedom in the American Colonies by engaging the literature concerning liberty in early America and challenging the popular slave/free dichotomy that dominates the historiography.*
Richard Boles / Jared Hardesty / Linford Fisher Full Audio
*from the Massachusetts Historical Society website