The bells at the First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton in West Newton and Grace Church in Newton Corner will ring for four minutes at 3PM on Sunday, August 25, to mark the 400th anniversary of the first landing of enslaved Africans in English-occupied North America at Point Comfort in Hampton, Virginia. That place is now part of the the National Park System’s Fort Monroe National Monument, which will commemorate the anniversary with a day of healing and reconciliation. FUUSN’s participation is part of a simultaneous pealing of bells across the nation to honor the first Africans landed in 1619 and the subsequent 400 years of African American history and culture. As the NPS site notes, “Bells are symbols of freedom… rung for joy, sorrow, alarm, and celebration…universal concepts in each of our lives.” #RingToRemember #400Years
Bruce. Thanks for posting this. I’ll be listening. I only wish that every church and public building with bells was participating.
I’m pretty versed in American History, but the profound significance of 2019 as the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first slaves was not registered in my mind. I’m pleased to know that it is now.
Thank you to FUSN for participating in this and for always supporting civil rights and social justice.
1619, not so fast, read this from Black Perspectives, the award-winning blog of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS):
“The Fallacy of 1619: Rethinking the History of Africans in Early America”
https://www.aaihs.org/the-fallacy-of-1619-rethinking-the-history-of-africans-in-early-america/
Thus, we learn through AAIHS “Black Perspectives”, that:
“As early as May 1616, Blacks from the West Indies were already at work in Bermuda providing expert knowledge about the cultivation of tobacco. There is also suggestive evidence that scores of Africans plundered from the Spanish were aboard a fleet under the command of Sir Francis Drake when he arrived at Roanoke Island in 1586. In 1526, enslaved Africans were part of a Spanish expedition to establish an outpost on the North American coast in present-day South Carolina. Those Africans launched a rebellion in November of that year and effectively destroyed the Spanish settlers’ ability to sustain the settlement, which they abandoned a year later. Nearly 100 years before Jamestown, African actors enabled American colonies to survive, and they were equally able to destroy European colonial ventures.”
@Bob Burke, my church, Grace Episcopal in Newton Corner, adjacent to Farlow Park, will also ring its bells at 3 p.m. today. You can listen as you stroll through the park and admire the restored pond and bridge.