“For the Common Benefit of the Place” - Black Freedom in Early Boston

Public historian and local author Alex Goldfeld will give an illustrated presentation on Boston’s African-American community in the 1600s. He will draw on his graduate research in The History of the Streets of Boston’s North End to speak about life for Boston’s earliest black residents. The audience will get glimpses of free Black Bostonians as well as efforts to control them by law throughout Massachusetts.

Alex Goldfeld has been leading talks and tours in Boston for the last twenty years. He is the author of The North End: A Brief History of Boston’s Oldest Neighborhood (2009), a co-founder and current president of the North End Historical Society and publisher of its Journal (2012-), and the executive producer of the documentary film Boston’s North End: An Italian American Story (2016). Alex also served as a docent at the Old North Church and as Director of Operations for Boston’s Museum of African American History. Alex's website is www.tourswithalex.com