The Royall House & Slave Quarters welcomes Tufts University historian Kerri Greenidge to speak about her forthcoming book, "Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter." This long-overdue biography reestablishes William Monroe Trotter’s essential place next to Douglass, Du Bois, and King in the pantheon of American civil rights heroes. William Monroe Trotter (1872-1934), though still virtually unknown to the wider public, was an unlikely American hero. With the stylistic verve of a newspaperman and the unwavering fearlessness of…

The public is invited to the Medford Historical Society & Museum's Holiday Party to meet Civil War Private Solomon Pierce of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, portrayed by character interpreter Joseph Zellner. Private Pierce was the father of four, whose eldest son was killed in action in the Second Assault of the Battle of Fort Wagner in Charleston, South Carolina, in July 1863. That fall, Pierce and his second son enlisted in the Union Army. This program marks a…

The Royall House & Slave Quarters welcomes back historian Jared Ross Hardesty for a second talk about his new book, "Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds: A History of Slavery in New England." Shortly after the first Europeans arrived in 17th-century New England, they began to import Africans and capture the area’s indigenous peoples as slaves. By the eve of the American Revolution, enslaved people comprised only about 4 percent of the population, but slavery had become instrumental to the…

John Brown's raid on the Harpers Ferry arsenal in 1859 brought the United States one step closer to civil war. Many people in the South hated Brown and considered him a deranged fanatic. And while his actions were misunderstood and condemned in the North, a small but vocal group of New England writers, poets and abolitionists did their best to make Brown a hero. It was, after all, a "secret six" coalition of New Englanders — including Medford resident George…

Co-editor Dionne Ford and contributor Catherine Sasanov will discuss "Slavery's Descendants: Shared Legacies of Race & Reconciliation," a collection by writers from a variety of backgrounds — all members of Coming to the Table, a national racial reconciliation organization — recounting their stories of dealing with America’s racial past through their experiences and their family histories. Copies of "Slavery's Descendants" will be available for purchase and signing. Admission is free for Royall House & Slave Quarters members, free for 2…

Sanctuary UCC and Temple Shalom invite you to hear Dirkje Legerstee's gripping story of her family’s survival as World War II Nazi War victims. Through February 16, the Sanctuary Gallery is hosting Legerstee's exhibit, “Angels in Human Skin: A Family’s Survival of World War II,” which through images and stories documents her parents’ experience in surviving the Holocaust. Her father was a Dutch Christian and was taken by the Nazis as a labor slave, and her mother was a Polish…

Sanctuary UCC and Grace Episcopal Church invite you to hear Dirkje Legerstee's gripping story of her family’s survival as World War II Nazi War victims. Through February 16, the Sanctuary Gallery is hosting Legerstee's exhibit, “Angels in Human Skin: A Family’s Survival of World War II,” which through images and stories documents her parents’ experience in surviving the Holocaust. Her father was a Dutch Christian and was taken by the Nazis as a labor slave, and her mother was a…

Due to precautions regarding the coronavirus, the Royall House & Slave Quarters has canceled its talk by Yale history professor Mark Peterson about his new book, "The City-State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Power, 1630-1865."