Education as Resistance: The African School and New Guinea Community on Nantucket

Summary

In African American communities, education serves as a crucial tool used to resist racism and ensure the persistence of their culture and identity. In 1826 the African-American community of New Guinea followed this tradition with the establishment of the first public school on Nantucket. For the next two decades, the African school became the focus of an intense battle over school segregation on the island. While Nantucket’s popular history places the island at the forefront of the abolition and equal rights movements, historical archaeologists and the Museum of African American History have begun to complicate this narrative. A spatial analysis of the community and an investigation of the assemblages from the African School and adjacent Boston-Higginbotham House will highlight the importance of community formation and persistence for the people of New Guinea living within a society firmly rooted and invested in white dominance.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018   •
• Schoolhouse Rock! 400 Years of Race, Gender, and Class in Boston Area Educational Institutions

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 707