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Source Description
During the antebellum period, Boston had a thriving free African American community. By 1860, more than half the city’s black population of 2,000 lived on the north slope of Beacon Hill adjacent to the Massachusetts State House. This neighborhood became a center for Boston’s abolitionist movement and many fugitive slaves escaping via the Underground Railroad found refuge here. A portion of this neighborhood is depicted on a sheet from an 1861 fire-insurance atlas. Of particular interest are the church and school on the alley (today’s Smith Court) off Joy Street, marking the location of the African Meeting House, the oldest extant black church building in the United States, and the Abiel Smith School, the only black public school in Boston until 1855, when schools were integrated.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
6h446v461
label
Plan of the city of Boston
core
obj
dtoType
map
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
6h446v461
contentType
map
stage
normalized
title
Plan of the city of Boston
description
During the antebellum period, Boston had a thriving free African American community. By 1860, more than half the city’s black population of 2,000 lived on the north slope of Beacon Hill adjacent to the Massachusetts State House. This neighborhood became a center for Boston’s abolitionist movement and many fugitive slaves escaping via the Underground Railroad found refuge here. A portion of this neighborhood is depicted on a sheet from an 1861 fire-insurance atlas. Of particular interest are the church and school on the alley (today’s Smith Court) off Joy Street, marking the location of the African Meeting House, the oldest extant black church building in the United States, and the Abiel Smith School, the only black public school in Boston until 1855, when schools were integrated.
date
["1861"]
year
1861
rights
No known copyright restrictions.
rightsUri
No known restrictions on use.
reuseAllowed
no restrictions
language
English
identifierLocal
G1234_B6G475_P5_1861x_0019
creators
Pinney, C.
L. Prang & Co.
institution
Boston Public Library
collections
Urban Maps
Boston and New England Maps
Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center Collection
subjects
Real property--Massachusetts--Boston--Maps
Boston (Mass.)--Maps
subjectsGeographic
Boston
Massachusetts
North and Central America
Suffolk (county)
United States
genreBasic
Maps
typeOfResource
Cartographic
country
United States
state
Massachusetts
county
Suffolk
city
Boston
thumbnailUrl
largeImageUrl
pageCount
1
source
import
pubPlace
Boston
publisher
L. Prang & Co.
Source extras
institutionArkId
sf268508b
collectionArkId
9s1621613
schema:latitude
42.35
schema:longitude
-71.05
extent
1 map : color ; sheet 51 x 72 cm
notes
Digitization made possible with support from the Council on Library and Information Resources.
hasTranscription
no
dcId
6h446v461
type
map
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
13412055391a5ca4