Eleven Names Project

Do you watch SLOW HORSES
on AppleTV? Wait until you learn how Brits pronounce Harwich!

King’s Chapel Memorial to Enslaved Persons King’s Chapel is creating a memorial that will serve as a site for reflection, a catalyst for conversation, an inspiration for activism, and a beacon of hope.

I've heard of this project. What a fantastic statue. The piece is continued inside on the sanctuary's ceiling. Stunning stuff. www.memorial.kings-chapel.org

@elevennames.bsky.social , someone is handling their enslaving clergy with visible leadership.

Lost Years Recovered John Peters and Phillis Wheatley Peters in Middleton Abstract. A cache of Essex County legal papers reveals that when Phillis Wheatley Peters and her husband left Boston in 1780, they moved to Middleton where John became a landowner on a farm where he h...

Dart, have you read Cornelia Dayton's 2021 work, "Lost Years Recovered: John Peters and Phillis Wheatley Peters in Middleton"? It's available on JSTOR via the BPL, but I can also send you a copy.

direct.mit.edu/tneq/article...

Actually, Slavery Was Very Bad The president’s latest criticism of museums is a thinly veiled attempt to erase Black history.

I debated writing this. It can feel tempting, upon encountering yet another instance of this administration’s racism, to let it be. How many ways can you say the same thing over and over again? And yet we have to write it down, if for nothing else, so those who come after us know we were against it.

"How bad slavery was" is worse. Much worse. Much worse than you think, much worse than you're taught, much worse than museums depict. Worse.

If you are a cheese enjoyer, try as much local fromage quebecoise as your appetite will allow. Fantastic stuff.

Restauraeur = “one who restores,” and restaurant = “restore+ant,” and refered to the product being served restorative broths/bouilions restaurants. Eventually the thing name morphed into the place name.

Letter excerpt: Tis as you Say while Phebe has a house every Black thing will be living upon her. the day before yesterday Jonathan Rawson sent a Sick negro woman to her that had liv’d with him for Some time he took her out of Bed & sent her in a Sleigh with a Boy in a Storm to be left with her & sent word to Sussy who lives with her to get a Sleigh & carry her to Bridgwater & he would pay her for it. he sent her without any thing but a little rice & hard Biskit. she was So ill Phebe could not send her back in the Storm She had fits all that night & a watcher last. She cannot dress or undress herself. this morning Phebe sent a Letter which she had written to mr Rawson for us to send. but we thought best to let the Select men know of the affair & take care of her. how cruel in mr Rawson to behalf So—

I wanted to include this excerpt in my Phebe post, but I shortened it. Here, Mary Smith Cranch wrote to her sister Abigail Adams in Philadelphia in 1798 describing cruel treatment of a Black woman and her child, and Phebe's remarkable reaction. You should read it! www.masshist.org/publications...

🗃️

Phoebe lived the last 20 years of her life in Quincy, MA—a town named for the man who enslaved her parents, herself, and her five siblings.

The name "Phoebe Abdee" never appears in the archives. The Adams Papers editors likely constructed this name in the 1960s.

Photo of the house Phoebe once lived at. Title text: Abigail Adams' enslaved Black "parent." Did Phoebe model qualities recognized today as Abigail Adams' trademark feminism?

The woman known as Phoebe Abdee, Phebe Savil Oliphant, was born enslaved in Col. John Quincy's household. She helped raise Quincy's granddaughter, Abigail Adams, and maintained a life-long connection to Abigail and her family. elevennames.substack.com/p/abigail-ad...

Abigail Adams' enslaved Black "parent" Did Phoebe model qualities recognized today as Abigail Adams' trademark feminism?

elevennames.substack.com/p/abigail-ad...

Letter excerpt: Tis as you Say while Phebe has a house every Black thing will be living upon her. the day before yesterday Jonathan Rawson sent a Sick negro woman to her that had liv’d with him for Some time he took her out of Bed & sent her in a Sleigh with a Boy in a Storm to be left with her & sent word to Sussy who lives with her to get a Sleigh & carry her to Bridgwater & he would pay her for it. he sent her without any thing but a little rice & hard Biskit. she was So ill Phebe could not send her back in the Storm She had fits all that night & a watcher last. She cannot dress or undress herself. this morning Phebe sent a Letter which she had written to mr Rawson for us to send. but we thought best to let the Select men know of the affair & take care of her. how cruel in mr Rawson to behalf So—

I wanted to include this excerpt in my Phebe post, but I shortened it. Here, Mary Smith Cranch wrote to her sister Abigail Adams in Philadelphia in 1798 describing cruel treatment of a Black woman and her child, and Phebe's remarkable reaction. You should read it! www.masshist.org/publications...

Phoebe lived the last 20 years of her life in Quincy, MA—a town named for the man who enslaved her parents, herself, and her five siblings.

The name "Phoebe Abdee" never appears in the archives. The Adams Papers editors likely constructed this name in the 1960s.

Photo of the house Phoebe once lived at. Title text: Abigail Adams' enslaved Black "parent." Did Phoebe model qualities recognized today as Abigail Adams' trademark feminism?

The woman known as Phoebe Abdee, Phebe Savil Oliphant, was born enslaved in Col. John Quincy's household. She helped raise Quincy's granddaughter, Abigail Adams, and maintained a life-long connection to Abigail and her family. elevennames.substack.com/p/abigail-ad...

Dropping tomorrow. Also, the name "Phoebe Abdee" was likely constructed in the 1960s. I reveal two surnames *Phebe went by, and I can name her parents and original enslaver. Hint: a local municipality is named after her original enslaver.

I’m not always a fan of statues, but I like the women’s memorial. One thing I’ll note is that Abigail supported Phoebe for the last 30 years of her life. Phoebe spent that time living in homes owned by the Adamses.

Who wants to know more about Phoebe Abdee, the enslaved woman who helped raise Abigail Adams? I’m polishing up a new piece. But for now: www.historynet.com/abigail-adam...

Thank you for sharing, Dr. DeAngelis! I’m trying to limit social media, but I come to this thread every time I return to BlueSky.

discharge paper dated 1783 for Primus Slocum, Fifer, a printed sheet with the name and date details filled in by hand

26. 1783 discharge for Primus Slocum of Rehoboth/Seekonk, Massachusetts, who served as a fifer in the 1st Rhode Island during the Revolutionary War.

Learn more about Primus Slocum (and many other enslaved people in southeastern Mass) from Wayne Tucker:
@elevennames.bsky.social
eleven-names.com

Reposting this thread because it is good in so many ways.

Side note:
@elevennames.bsky.social did a piece on Betty Cooper awhile back
elevennames.substack.com/p/january-3-...

On Feb 23 Thomas was arrested for encouraging enslaved people in Natick to free themselves next time the militia was called out.

He was jailed in Concord until May, when a court ruled there was no evidence & freed him.

Boston 1775 has much more on the case! tinyurl.com/y4f8ey27

#RevWarDaily 3/7

“We are not asking for favors. We are seeking justice for the people whose suffering built Harvard into what it is today,” Browne told the radio station. “Our ancestors worked for centuries without pay, and their labor fueled Harvard’s early development.” www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Episode 404: Diane M. Spivey, How Black Chefs Shaped Early America Discover how African American cooking influenced colonial success and the American Revolution. Culinary historian Diane M. Spivey reveals the untold story of Black culinary activism.

New Episode of #BFWorld #Podcast!

Did you know that many of the food traditions that define cuisine in the United States have roots in African American culinary history?

Join Food Historian Diane M. Spivey for an exploration of the rich and complex legacy of African & African American foodways.

“The hard part of identifying Harvard slaves and their direct descendants isn’t the finding. It’s the looking. There are a million reasons not to look.” www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Finishing work on a great episode with Leslie Harris about the history of slavery in New York City and the many important contributions Africans and African Americans made to early New York. It will be out later this month.

Holy cow

Zerviah Gould Mitchell - Wikipedia

Anyone here study Zerviah Gould Mitchell? I may have an unpublished poem of hers. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zerviah...

I want to write about Zerviah’s (posible) poem in my newsletter, but if there are people more knowledgeable than me, I want them to have the first crack.