NHA University Virtual Event: Archaeological Investigations at the Boston-Higginbotham House with Nedra Lee

The archaeological excavations of the Boston-Higginbotham House, a historic property on York Street, contributed to ongoing efforts spearheaded by the Massachusetts Museum of African American History and UMass Boston to expand public knowledge of African American history in New England. These excavations offer greater insight into the lives and labor of some of Nantucket Island’s most well-known Black residents, Seneca Boston, Absalom Boston, and Florence Higginbotham, and have also illuminated the significance of Black women’s labor to the support and maintenance of their homes and community. This talk will provide an overview of the key findings from the excavations of the Boston-Higginbotham House while describing the hidden labor that Black women often performed in their homes to help their families survive the economic uncertainty of the whaling industry during the nineteenth century. Ultimately, Lee posits that additional archaeological study of Black women’s labor on Nantucket Island has the potential to center the contributions that all women made to the island’s ascendancy as the hub of a global whaling industry.

Tickets: $5 for Non-Members/ FREE for Members
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