In the 18th century, the town of Lincoln had dozens of Black residents, enslaved and free, who helped the town thrive. They plowed the fields, hoed the gardens, and harvested the food. They did the cooking, they did the laundry, they cared for the children, they tended the sick and the elderly. They worked the blacksmith shops and the sawmills, made the nails and cut the boards that built Lincoln’s first meeting house and built houses that still stand in Lincoln. More than a hundred white residents of Lincoln lived in a household with an enslaved person. They lived entangled lives, Black and white, enslaved and free. Come hear what we know about their lives with historian Don Hafner.

Sponsored by the Friends of Lincoln Library.