Persistence of Memories of Slavery and Emancipation in Historical Andover

Book excerpt: Historical Andover--which includes North Andover and Lawrence--became famous as a hot center of pre-Civil War antislavery activism. Why then was a 100-year-old Andover woman officially counted as a "slave" in the 1830 federal census for Massachusetts, a "free" state that had abolished slavery? And who was Rosanna Coburn, still remembered as the "last slave" born in Andover? Persistence of Memories of Slavery and Emancipation in Historical Andover brings forward indispensable research discoveries about fascinating people of many ancestries and heritages, connected together and integral to New England histories, artifacts, cultural traditions, and historic places. Their ordinary and extraordinary lives in historical Andover and surrounding localities are remembered today, some even internationally. This study's essential findings, informative endnotes, and a bibliography of incisive sources deepen views of the persistent echoes of enslavement, emancipation, and postemancipation in Atlantic World and global perspective.