Right aside the Granary Burying Ground is the Old South Meeting House which I mistakenly thought was the Old North Church so we went in to check it out for $6 a head. It was $15 for a combo ticket to another museum but we were both direly confused as to what and where the other museum was and we were on a timer for the goddamn parking so we just did the one…
The church part is very standard and… church-y. Throughout the pews and perimeter there are lots of little displays with various historical notes. There are some “ghosts” who tell personal stories with their little name tag-esque plaques. Displays on the edges showed how Boston has always been a particularly contentious city that has never been fond of censorship. One display in particular got my attention – it was an open copy of Phillis Wheatley Peters’ book Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral. Apparently, this was the church she once attended. If you don’t know her story it’s a really good one. She was born likely in West Africa before finding herself sold into slavery as a child and sailing for the colonies. In Boston she was purchased by merchant John Wheatley as a slave for his wife Susanna. She would have been somewhere around 8 years of age and wouldn’t have known any English but apparently she took to this new language so quickly it caught everyone off guard. The Wheatley’s daughter took a particular shine to her and began to tutor her. By the time she was in her early teens she had not only picked up English but also Greek and Latin and was reading the classics in their original tongues. The family was so impressed by this they relieved her of her slave labors and invested in her giving her a formal education. By the age of twenty she had written her collection of poetry and wished to publish them but no one thought she could do it in the colonies. So, they set sail for London where she did indeed become the first black woman to publish a book of poetry in the Western world. She intrigued London but caused quite a stir when she came back to the colonies. Slavery was largely based on the belief that black people were somehow less than and to have a young black woman write poetry flew in the face of this concept. Instead of accepting this possibility the people here in Boston doubled down on their racism and misogyny and accused her of publishing some white woman’s work under her own name. She was put on trial for this and basically had her character torn to shreds but she persisted. She proved to one and all she did in fact write her own poems. And afterwards she was given her freedom by the Wheatley family. And that’s where the story should end… in triumph and joy. But no, she went to marry an impoverished black grocer, lost two babies to death, and eventually succumbed to pneumonia trying to work as a scullery maid to provide for those babies. She was 31. The infant daughter she just gave birth to followed her into the next life on the same day. But I suppose not all is lost for we have not forgotten her. Her poetry and spirit live on and are studied, read, and reflected upon to this very day.
This was a quick tour. Honestly if I were a kid I would have been bored to tears but as an adult I rather enjoyed it.
