Old North Reckons with its Links to Slavery

Several years ago, the Episcopal News Service reported on Old North Church’s deepening its research into its connections with the slave trade, “Iconic Boston
Church Reckons with its Links to Slavery.”

Our curiosity about what has been learned since, and how the church tells its stories, led to tour Old North, Boston’s oldest surviving church. Guides lead visitors to the gallery where they narrate the history of individuals and families who were not able to purchase pews and who sat in the balcony of the church. Parishioners’ children sat on the right side facing the altar while free blacks, enslaved persons, indentured servants, and Indigenous peoples were assigned to the left side. After combing through pew records and other materials, the church has been able to piece together stories of community support and relationships that developed in the gallery. The stories are incomplete–many with questions remain–yet some patterns of social interactions are discernable. The results of their inquiries are well-presented in signage placed in certain pews, as well as on their web page, “The People in the Pews.”

You may read there about the experiences of the Humphreys and Crankey families and how being a church member affected their lives. The Humphreys’ cared for, and offered their home to, Jerusha Will, an Indigenous woman from Barnstable who was baptized at the church shortly before her death.

The stories of three clergymen are also included. Two rectors, Dr. Timothy Cutler, the first rector, celebrated his first service in 1723. He had left his Congregational Church ministry to be ordained an Anglican priest. In 1970, Bishop John Burgess, the first Black suffragan bishop elected in a predominantly white diocese, assumed the rectorship. He was active in civil rights throughout his life.

The first Black minister to preach at Old North, Reverend William Levington, was in town in the 1800s as part of a tour to pay off his church’s debt. Levington was the rector of the St. James’ First African Protestant Episcopal Church (Baltimore), a church he founded in 1824 as one of the first Black Episcopal churches in the South. He himself was only the third Black man to be ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in America. Despite his presence at Old North, people of color were required to sit in the gallery, separated from the rest of the congregation.

To further explore Old North’s findings, see the video about the Bay Pew, and the series created by research fellow Dr. Jaimie Crumley, “Illuminating the Unseen,” which relies on archival documents to round out the history of Old North.

–Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church September 5, 11, 18, 2024