Video︎︎︎
Transcript︎︎︎
Footnotes︎︎︎
References︎︎︎


︎︎︎Transcript    References︎︎︎





Footnotes

(click on hyperlinks to open sources)


  1. Batchelder 1917, 74; Bell 2012, 34; Hoppin Collection Materials on Christ Church, 1790-1861; Museum of African American History and Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery 2022.

  2. The Liberator 1861.

  3. “Though Dwelling in a Land of Freedom”; The African Society 1802.

  4. Bell 2012, 39.

  5. “Darby Vassall”.

  6. Adapted from “The Holy Eucharist: Rite Two” (“The (Online) Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church: Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David According to the Use of the Episcopal Church,” 355).

  7. Batchelder 1893, 68. A copy of the excerpt about “The Vassall Tomb” from Samuel Francis Batchelder’s 1893 history of Christ Church is framed and positioned at the back of the tomb. It mentions that “Darby, son of Henry Vassall's negro coachman ‘Tony’ (1861)” is buried in the tomb (Ibid.). This is the only physical marker on site that mentions, alludes to, or acknowledges the history of slavery.

  8. Hoppin Collection Materials on Christ Church, 1790-1861. These words were recorded by the Reverend Nicholas Hoppin who interviewed Darby sometime in the 1850s.

  9. Hurwitz 2015.

  10. “Leonard Vassall”. “£7260 currency was the value of enslaved people.”

  11. “Last Will and Testament of Leonard Vassall. Boston, 10 Jun 1737.” 1737; Batchelder 1917, 36.

  12. Batchelder 1917, 62; Bell 2012, 32.

  13. A laborer in Massachusetts earned 11 shillings and 3 pence per day in 1759 (Wright 1882, 46). 80 pounds was approximately 6 months of a laborer’s wages (numbers calculated with the “Pounds, Shillings and Pence Calculator”).

  14. Parish Record Book, 1759-1878, 7.

  15. In 1762, a laborer in Massachusetts earned 8 shillings per day (Wright 1882, 47). 13 pounds 6 shillings and 8 pence is more than 1 month of a laborer’s wages (numbers calculated with the “Pounds, Shillings and Pence Calculator”).

  16. Parish Record Book, 1759-1878, 42.

  17. Batchelder 1917, 82.

  18. “Primary Sources: Public Records” 2012, fig. Table 7.3.

  19. “Though Dwelling in a Land of Freedom”.

  20. Bell 2012, 31-34.

  21. Ibid., 33-34.

  22. Batchelder 1917, 74.

  23. Shipton and Sibley 1937, 233; 1962, 502; “The John Vassal Tankard”.

  24. “John Vassall I”. “£49,709.25 currency was the value of enslaved people.”

  25. Parish Record Book, 1759-1878, 7.

  26. Ibid., 61.

  27. “Primary Sources: Public Records” 2012.

  28. Beckert and Stevens 2011, 11.

  29. Parish Record Book, 1759-1878, 45.

  30. “Extract from the Will of Isaac Royall, 1778” 1778; “The Royall Bequest and Harvard Law School”.

  31. In 2016, Harvard Law School abandoned the design of its official seal, which was based on the Royall family coat of arms (Hartocollis 2016). In 2019, the Antiguan Prime Minister requested reparations from Harvard (Hassan 2019).

  32. Beckert and Stevens 2011, 25.

  33. Batchelder 1917, 27.

  34. “Friar’s Hill: Antigua”.

  35. Parish Record Book, 1759-1878, 7.

  36. Ibid., 42.

  37. “Antigua 37 (Friar’s Hill): Claim Details, Associated Individuals and Estates”.

  38. Beckert and Stevens 2011, 25.

  39. Dus 2009; The Cambridge Tribune 1923.

  40. Samuel II lived there until his death in 1879 (Dus 2009). Ownership of the property stayed within the Batchelder family into the 1900s (Hail). Ten Hills Farm: The Forgotten History of Slavery in the North mentions multiple times that Samuel Francis Batchelder (Samuel III’s son), who wrote the aforementioned 1893 history of the church (see footnote 7), lived and wrote at Henry Vassall’s former house (Manegold 2009, 181, 187–88, 193).

  41. Dus 2009. Bishop 1868, 515. See also Empire of Cotton: a Global History by Sven Beckert (2014).

  42. Batchelder Family Collection, Series III: Folder 27.

  43. Ibid., Series IV: Folder 37.

  44. Day 1951, 90.

  45. In 2021, Alden Fossett stated in a sermon that, “The Vassalls were also a founding family of Christ Church. Their income, and their investment in this very building, was underwritten by the labor of enslaved Africans” (Fossett 2021, 1).

  46. The Reverend Nicholas Hoppin interviewed him sometime in the 1850s (see footnote 8).

  47. Darby Vassall stated in his will: “Having had permission given me by Miss Catherine G. Russell to be buried in her tomb under the Episcopal Church in Cambridge which permission is in the hands of Richard Sullivan Esquire, I request him & Moses Grant to see that my body is there deposited” (“Vassall, Derby. [Will]. MS. (in Wendell Phillips’s Hand); Boston, 15 May 1852., 1852,” transcription provided by Cristine Hutchison-Jones).

  48. See presentation by some of Darby’s living descendants, Dennis and Egypt Lloyd, for their speculations about his choice – because he “loved the Lord" and because he preferred to be buried in a church instead of an open field (Lloyd and Lloyd 2022).

  49. Psalm 88:11-13, The Holy Bible, NRSV (“The (Online) Book of Common Prayer,” 712–13).

  50. Fossett 2021, 4.

  51. “or Jemmy” (Bell 2012, 340).

  52. “or Darinda” (Ibid.).

  53. Ibid.