The Robbins House

The Robbins House. Concord’s African American History. , This c. 1823 farmhouse was home to the first free generations of the Robbins family and their relatives who farmed, worked, went to school, supported anti-slavery efforts, and followed their own paths to independence. Here’s how those paths are connected to local, state, and national milestones in American history., Robbins’ Timeline (green squares): , 1725 -- A Concord tax roll lists “six slaves,” the earliest record of slavery in Concord. , 1773 – John Jack’s epitaph is written by a British loyalist noting the hypocrisy of those who clamor for freedom from England, but deny it to others. , 1776 – Caesar Robbins enslaved from birth in nearby Chelmsford, serves in the American Revolution. , 1810-1812 – Jack Garrison, after fleeing slavery in New Jersey, moves to Concord as a free man and marries Susan Robbins, Caesar’s daughter. They later live in the Robbins House. , 1823 – Peter Robbins, Caesar’s son, buys this house and 13 acres for $260. Peter and his wife live in the west side; his sister and her family live in the east side. Ellen Garrison is born here. , 1837 Susan Robbins Garrison, Caesar’s daughter, is a charter member of the Concord Female Antislavery Society. , 1838 – 1861 Robbins house residents sign petitions supporting antislavery efforts, desegregation and Cherokee land rights. , 1841 – John Garrison, Susan and Jack’s son, is listed as an eligible voter , 1849 – Henry David Thoreau writes Civil Disobedience as an act of protest against slavery after spending a night in the Concord jail. , 1852 – Peter Hutchinson, a relative, purchases the Robbins House and lives there with his extended family. , 1866 – Ellen Garrison, Susan and Jack’s daughter attempts to enforce the first Civil Rights Act in court after a railroad agent forcibly ejects her from a Baltimore train station. , 1868 – Peter Hutchinson leaves the Robbins House, a wealthy landowner moves it to Bedford Street and sells it to Irish immigrants , 2011 – The Robbins house is restored and relocated to this site., Massachusetts Timeline (orange squares): , 1641 – Massachusetts is the first American colony to legalize slavery , 1740 – 1769 – Peak period of New England slavery: most slaving voyages originate in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. , 1783 – “All men are born free and equal.” Massachusetts’s courts adopt a new state constitution. Without laws to enforce this, slavery persists through the end of the century. , 1831 – William Lloyd Garrison launches the abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, in Boston. , 1841 – Frederick Douglass speaks at the Middlesex County Antislavery Society meeting and next in 1844 for the Concord Female Antislavery Society. , 1859 – Harriet Tubman speaks in Boston and Concord several times, raising money for the Underground Railroad. , 1965 – Massachusetts passes the Racial Imbalance Act, ordering school districts to desegregate or risk losing state educational funding., National Timeline (blue squares): , 1400s – 1800s Atlantic Slave Trade: 12 million Africans enslaved; 2 million more die in transports. Slave resistance coincides with slavery. , 1775 – 1783 American Revolution. Many African men seek freedom by fighting with either British or American Armies. , 1776 – The Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” , 1831-1861 Underground Railroad: Concord families, including the Thoreaus and the Alcotts, harbor refugees. , 1859 – The Third Fugitive Slave Act legalizes capture and return of self-emancipated people to their enslavers. , 1861-1865 The American Civil War is fought over slavery and its expansion. , 1863 The Emancipation Proclamation declares an end to slavery in the rebelling areas of the South. , 1865 The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolishes slavery in the United States. , 1865-1877 Reconstruction Era: The Freedmen’s Bureau protects the rights of newly freed people. Jim Crow laws then restrict these rights again. , 1954 Brown v. Board of Education: US Supreme Court rules segregation is unconstitutional. , 1955 Rosa Parks, secretary of the NAACP, is arrested for refusing to give up her seat at the front of a public bus. , 1964 The 1964 Civil Rights Act outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. , 1965 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 passes, prohibiting racial discrimination in voting. , 2008 Barrack Obama is elected for the first of two terms as the first black US president. , 2012 The Black Lives Matter movement begins after the killing of Trayvon Martin , 2017+ What events and/or people would you add? Leave a note here or online at robbinshouse.org