Slavery was legal in Massachusetts until the 1780s. Colonists enslaved both African, Caribbean, and Indigenous peoples. There is not a lot of information available about slavery in North Central Massachusetts and specifically Fitchburg. However, some evidence suggests that some colonists in the area may have owned slaves.
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The Fitchburg Historical Society has a manuscript that accounts the story of Edom London, a slave in Massachusetts who later was freed. In his account, he references slaves in Fitchburg. He writes: "Some slaves were held in Fitchburg in early times. We know of a few and there may have been more; but Fitchburg was not incorporated until 1764 and neither the temper of the times nor the financial interests of the people were favorable to slavery. The few slaves held here were probably household servants and were well and kindly treated." Further research is required to determine the extent of slavery in the Fitchburg area.
Reproduction of this document was permitted by the Fitchburg Historical Society
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From Bondage to Belonging: The Worcester Slave Narratives by
First published between 1842 and 1895, the autobiographical narratives gathered in this volume document the experiences of eight former slaves who eventually took up residence in Worcester, Massachusetts. Each narrative tells a gripping individual story, its author clearly visible in the dress of his or her own words. Together they illuminate not only the inhumanity of slavery but also the dreams and dilemmas of emancipation, tracing the personal journeys of seven men and one woman from bondage to freedom. In their well-researched introduction, B. Eugene McCarthy and Thomas L. Doughton situate the Worcester slave narratives within a broader historical framework and analyze their meaning and significance. Drawing on a wide range of sources, they reconstruct the black community of Worcester and compare it with other New England black communities of the time, describing how the town evolved from a society with slaves in the colonial era to a hub for free blacks by the eve of the Civil War. They explain why these writings must be understood as part of a long-established tradition of African American self-representation, and show how the four narratives published before 1865 focus on the experience of slavery, while the four written after the war offer the fresh perspective of living in freedom. Headnotes describe the distinctive literary features of each narrative and provide additional information about the lives of the authors. The editors discuss why these ex-slaves came to Worcester, the circumstances in which each wrote his or her narrative, and the audiences they had in mind. No other collection of slave narratives offers such a diverse range of testimony within a specific historical and literary context, or a more compelling account of the transition from bondage to belonging.
Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds by 