Peg Bowen (1742-1792) Zebulon Prutt (1731-1802) Rose (1761-1781) Cesar Phelps (1752-date unknown) Phillis (1765-1775) Phillis (1775-1783).
This Monday we commemorate Juneteenth. As we celebrate the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the fight for American equality, we reflect on the history of displacement, enslavement, and emancipation at Forty Acres. We honor the six African women and men enslaved at the Porter Phelps homestead between 1753 and 1783: Zebulon Prutt, Cesar Phelps, Peg Bowen and her daughters Phillis and Rose and Rose's daughter, Phillis, and acknowledge our responsibility to repair the harms committed on these grounds.
While Peg died well before the federal government abolished American chattel slavery in 1863, her actions and experiences contributed to the end of slavery in Massachusetts. From Elizabeth Porter Phelps’s memorandum book, a daily account spanning 1766-1817, we know Peg worked for wages outside the Porter Phelps home, occasionally spending nights in Amherst as part of this paid labor. Peg participated in a network of working free and enslaved Black folks in Hadley, Shutesbury and Amherst during the years leading up to the "the Quock Walker cases" which abolished slavery in Massachusetts in 1781-1782. Reading with and against the grain of Elizabeth's record of Peg's attempts to negotiate her own sale to a man in Vermont, we can see an enslaved woman exercising desire and creativity within a system designed to eradicate her individuality and autonomy. Like her contemporary in Stockbridge, MA, Elizabeth Freeman, Peg leveraged the legal system to exercise autonomy by securing a life for herself with her romantic companion, Pomp Morgan. This plan required sacrifice, as she could not take her daughters Rose and Phillis with her to Vermont. However, with each sacrifice and successful expression of agency, Peg perforated the social and economic underpinnings of slavery in New England.
The Museum will be open on Juneteenth to share Peg's story and the stories of Zebulon, Cesar, Rose, Phillis and Phillis. Our new tour, developed over the last two years as part of a major reinterpretation effort and funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, foregrounds the stories of these six men and women as an important first step in our efforts to establish an anti-racist practice. Objects in our collection, such as the chest outfitted as a sickbed for Phillis in 1775, attest to the lived experiences of these enslaved women and men. Additionally, the tour highlights the role of “pastkeeping” by exploring the home’s transition into a museum in the twentieth century, thereby connecting the past to the present and acknowledging the responsibility we each carry to right historical wrongs.
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This chest outfitted as a sickbed for Philis helps tell the story of enslaved women and men at Forty Acres.
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The Wednesday Folk Traditions concert series continues its 42nd season on June 21st at 6:30 pm with ReBelle. Conceived in love, rebellion, and the musical vigor of collaborators Manou Africa and Kalpana Devi, ReBelle demonstrates musicianship and vocals that are contemporary, vital, and spell-binding. Founded by collaborators Kalpana Devi and Manou Africa, ReBelle are musicians, composers, activists, parents, and upholders of love and justice who perform eloquent compositions of pulsing rhythms and multi-instrumental arrangements combining Rasta, soul, folk, and poetic insurgence elements. Devi is the founding director of One Earth Drum Dance Company and the creator of Tuning Mastery Programs. In Devi’s words, “Black Lives innovate, lead, teach, empower, create, make everything better, glow, inspire, contribute, matter.”
Admission is $12, $2 for children 16 and under. Payment is cash only. Picnickers are welcome on the museum’s grounds starting at 5:00 pm. In the event of rain, performances will be held at Wesley United Methodist Church in Hadley. The museum and its grounds are a smoke-free, carry in/carry out site. Concerts will continue at PPH every Wednesday through July. Visit our website for more information. Wednesday Folk Traditions is funded, in part, by grants from: the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency, through its Festivals and Programs Grants; the Amherst and Hadley Cultural Councils, local agencies funded by Massachusetts Cultural Council; Robinson and Cole; Easthampton Savings Bank; Gage-Wiley and Company, and with generous support from many local businesses.
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We are pleased to announce that a new National Register historic district, “Forty Acres And Its Skirts,” has been designated encompassing the museum property, the associated Phelps Farm complex across River Drive, and other historic resources and agricultural land in the vicinity. The goal of the district nomination was to update and expand the existing National Register documentation for the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Historic House, listed individually in 1973, incorporating the associated historic resources and focusing discussion on the importance of groups and individuals underrepresented in the historical record. This includes enslaved and Native people, indentured servants, free Blacks, and Polish agricultural workers. The new district encompasses about 114 acres on both sides of River Drive and extends the period of significance to 1978. The National Register of Historic Places is the nation’s official list of buildings, structures, sites, and objects that retain integrity and are worthy of preservation. The project was supported through a National Park Service Underrepresented Communities Grant to the Massachusetts Historical Commission. The Underrepresented Communities Grant awarded for this project was one of only eighteen awarded nationwide by the National Park Service in 2020.
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Sunday, June 25th at 2:00 pm
Book talk and signing with Alain Munkittrick
“Historic Places and Open Spaces”
Architect and author Alain Munkittrick will present and sign copies of his new book Historic Houses of the Connecticut River Valley (Arcadia Publishing, 2023) on Sunday, June 25th at 2:00 pm in the Museum’s Corn Barn. The author’s presentation, entitled “Historic Places and Open Spaces”, details the contributions made by Hadley’s 18th and 19th century family farmsteads to the evolution of the Connecticut River Valley’s historical and geographical landscape, and features previously unpublished photos of Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum taken by Clifton Johnson between 1920-1940. Following the presentation, guests will be able to purchase a signed copy of Mr. Munkittrick’s newly published book.
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Top row: Lex Bryan, Elizabeth Pangburn, Brian Whetstone; Bottom Row: Emily Butler and Benjamin Smith
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This summer we're joined by six graduate, undergraduate, and high school students to lead our summer tours and programs! University of Massachusetts Amherst PhD students Elizabeth Pangburn and Brian Whetstone are jointly managing the museum's internship offerings by training interns in the museum's new tour, leading field trips to local historical sites, and running the museum's programs. Undergraduate students Lex Bryan, Emily Butler, and Benjamin Smith are joining us from Wesleyan University, Yale University, and Western Michigan University, respectively. Hopkins Academy student Aurora Donta-Veman is returning this year to help lead tours as well!
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