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Revolutionary Spaces

**Revolutionary Spaces ** connects people to the history and continuing practice of democracy through the intertwined stories of two of the nation’s most iconic sites—Boston’s Old South Meeting House and Old State House. We foster a free and open exchange of ideas, explore history, create gathering places, and preserve and steward historic buildings.

https://www.bostonhistory.org

History of the Boston Athenaeum

Thu, Feb 3, 2005

John Lannon, associate director of the Boston Athenaeum, discusses the history of this enduring fixture on Beacon Hill. Founded in 1807, it houses such treasures as George Washington's library, and artworks by artists such as John Singer Sargent and Gilbert Stuart.

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Sarah's Long Walk: The Struggle that Changed America

Thu, Feb 10, 2005

Stephen Kendrick, author of *Sarah's Long Walk* and minister of First and Second Church, Boston, discusses the history behind the famous case of Sarah Roberts. In 1848, 5-year-old Sarah Roberts had to pass five white-only schools to attend the poor and densely crowded all-black Abiel Smith School. Incensed at this injustice, her father Benjamin Roberts took action. He resolved to sue the city of Boston on her behalf, and began a hundred-year struggle that culminated in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education.

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Jewish Heritage on Beacon Hill

Thu, Feb 17, 2005

Ellen Smith, lecturer in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University, discusses the history of Jewish immigration in Boston. Boston's first Jewish congregation established a synagogue in the South End in 1852. By 1907, Boston's Jewish population had grown to 60,000 with many families settling in the West End. The Vilna congregation began to hold services on Beacon Hill in 1903 and remained there until 1985.

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Death in the Haymarket

Thu, Mar 30, 2006

James Green, professor of history at UMASS Boston and Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States discuss the exhilarating rise of a visionary union movement and its downfall in the wake of the Haymarket tragedy. In May of 1886 Americans awoke to the news that a bomb had exploded a Chicago labor rally, killing several policemen. Coming in the midst of the largest national strike Americans had ever seen, the bombing, the mass hysteria it created, and the sensational trial and executions that followed, made headlines across the country. National sentiment turned against the burgeoning labor movement, ending a moment of hope for the nation's working class.

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Stealing God's Thunder: Benjamin Franklin's Lightning Rod

Tue, Jan 17, 2006

Philip Dray uses the story of Franklin's wild experiments and his battles with his vehement detractors as a metaphor for America's struggle for democracy and the establishment of our fundamental democratic values. Long before Benjamin Franklin was an eminent statesman and a father of American democracy, he was famous for being a revolutionary scientist, most notably for his experiments with lightning and electricity. But Franklin had many powerful doubters who were troubled by his presumption in denying God his favorite weapon of resentment. For as long as anyone could remember, all the way back to Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology, one of the gods' privileges had been the ability to hurl thunderbolts to punish the misdeeds of mortals. **Philip Dray** is the author of *At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America*, which won the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Prize and the Southern Book Critics Circle Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award.

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Memory and Abolition in 1850's Boston

Thu, Feb 16, 2006

Margot Minardi explores why the Revolutionary past mattered to 19th century Bostonians and how they used that history to make the case for or against abolition. In 1843, the suspicion that President John Tyler had brought a slave to the dedication of the Bunker Hill Monument set Boston abolitionists up in arms. This incident was by no means the only time in the antebellum years when the celebration of American liberty ran up against the messy reality of slavery.

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Smallpox in Boston: A Complex Affair

Thu, Nov 18, 2004

Professor emeritus Philip Cash lectures on the history of the smallpox epidemic in Boston. The debate surrounding Smallpox inoculation in Boston began in 1721 when an epidemic struck the town. The Reverend Cotton Mather attempted to convince physicians to try the then controversial practice of inoculation, without success. In 1800, Benjamin Waterhouse, a Harvard professor of medicine, became the first person to test the smallpox vaccine in the United States. His first test subject was his 5-year-old son Daniel whom he infected with a sample of cowpox sent from England.

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African-American Voices of the Civil War

Wed, Apr 28, 2004

A special evening program featuring Charles Fuller, 1982 Pulitzer Prize in drama winner for *A Soldier's Play*. Discussions and performances bring the testimonies of slaves, soldiers, reporters and activists from the Civil War to life, in celebration of the publication of *Freedom's Journey*.

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Anouar Majid: Piracy, Terrorism and the Question of Islam

Thu, Mar 11, 2004

Dr. Anouar Majid, professor and chair of English at the University of New England, discusses the United States' first major contact with the Muslim World in the Barbary War and the parallels to our own time.

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Hero at the Great Boston Fire of 1872

Tue, Sep 21, 2004

Bruce Twickler, writer and director of the film Damrell's Fire, explains why Boston can credit its deliverance from Chicago's fate to John Damrell, its courageous fire chief. A spark in the basement of a building on Boston's Summer Street turned into a firestorm, reducing over 700 buildings to 65 acres of rubble. Tragically and miraculously, only 30 people were lost.

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