This exhibition, which opened in February 2012, explores the sometimes forgotten institution of slavery in the North during colonial times and discusses some local abolitionists. It examines divisions among abolitionists; Nathaniel Allen’s West Newton English and Classical School, opened in 1854, which, unique in its time, accepted students from both sexes and all races; and Newton’s Myrtle Baptist Church, founded by a members of Newton’s African American community. The Jacksons of the Jackson Homestead exemplified the changing attitudes of some northerners toward slavery. When Edward Jackson died in 1681, he held “two man servants”—yet his great-great-great-grandson William Jackson helped enslaved people flee bondage by offering them sanctuary as part of the clandestine network of safe houses and escape routes now known as the Underground Railroad.
