As I wrote a few years ago, Concord was a hub of antebellum intellectual and literary life. Famous writers and philosophers, including Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau, called the town home. Most of the artistic and intellectual class also shared a passion for abolitionism. Concord served as a stop on the Underground Railroad, and townspeople became ardent supporters of John Brown as the situation rapidly deteriorated in Bleeding Kansas.
During my 2012 visit, I hit some of the abolitionist highlights, but I promised to come back and do a more thorough tour. A local non-profit, known as the Drinking Gourd Project, has compiled an excellent walking tour and map, available online and at the Concord Visitor Center. The group is dedicated to spreading the word about the town's African-American and antislavery history. I decided to concentrate on many of the sites included in the organization's brochure. (Note that in this post I am focused for the most part on places that I had not visited a couple of years ago; readers wanting a more comprehensive view of antebellum and Civil War sites in Concord are advised to read my earlier post as well.)
|The Concord Museum on the Cambridge Turnpike.|
|Display focusing on abolitionism in Concord. Pictured at right are Mary Merrick Brooks, first president of the Concord Ladies' Antislavery Society, and John Brown, who visited Concord in 1857 and 1859.|
|"Uncle Tom and Eva," made in England between 1855-60. People displayed such ceramic pieces in their homes to demonstrate antislavery views. These particular figurines were a gift to Thoreau from a slave that he helped escape to Canada.|
|One of the few Civil War pieces in the museum. This poster advertises the 1861-62 Concord Lyceum on "National Honor." Emerson was one of the scheduled lecturers.|
|Original furniture from Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond, where he resided from 1845-47. He penned some of his most famous works at the desk, including Walden and "Civil Disobedience."|
|The Reuben Brown House (77 Lexington Rd.). Emerson lodged John Brown here when the noted abolitionist visited Concord in March 1857. Aside from Emerson, Brown also met Thoreau during his stay.|
|This engraving from Harper's Weekly depicts the attempted arrest of Sanborn in Concord on the night of April 3, 1860 (courtesy of Wikipedia). When Sanborn ignored a summons from a Senate committee investigating the raid on Harpers Ferry, federal marshals appeared at his residence and tried to arrest him. A group of townspeople quickly assembled and interfered with the arrest. Local judge Ebenezer Hoar issued a writ of habeas corpus, which prevented the marshals from carrying Sanborn away.|
|Mary Rice House (44 Bedford St.). Rice was a Concord school teacher and a stationmaster on the Underground Railroad. In 1864 she collected signatures from 195 pupils on a petition asking President Abraham Lincoln to emancipate all slave children. Lincoln replied: "Please tell these little people I am very glad their young hearts are so full of just and generous sympathy, and that, while I have not the power to grant all they ask, I trust they will remember that God has, and that, as it seems, He wills to do it." Today the petition and Lincoln's reply hang in Concord's elementary schools. (See here for the full story.)|
Aside from the links provided above, the following resources were useful in compiling this post:
Concord Free Public Library, Antislavery in Concord: An Online Exhibition Drawn from the William Monroe Special Collections of the Concord Free Public Library (website); First Parish Church in Concord, "History of First Parish"; Rick Frese, Concord and the Civil War: From Walden Pond to the Gettysburg Front (2014).