This illustrated talk by Judy Anderson will present a portrait of Marblehead at the peak of the town’s pre-Revolutionary prosperity, as social tensions and political divisions began to erupt. Judy will profile our gritty but thriving seaport in the two generations before the grueling struggle for independence. As Britain’s colonies in North America launched into their long and grueling war for independence, the thriving international Atlantic seaport of Marblehead, which had been the sixth most populous city in British North America, was a very different place than most people today realize or assume. The celebrated “Marblehead Regiment” that served during the first year and a half of the war was not comprised only of fishermen and mariners. Many were tradesmen and merchants, and their sons and relatives. And every family in town was impacted –– though their sacrifice and adversity were what preserved so many of the town’s nearly 300 pre-revolutionary homes that still stand today. In addition, some or a few of the 79 enslaved Black men (as counted in 1765) who labored in the densely populated community of nearly 5,000 inhabitants and a thousand families (living in about 550 houses) fought for independence as well –– even if, for many of them, that would not be fully realized. Join Judy as she reveals lesser known stories from a pivotal part of Marblehead’s history.
