2022 Paterson Lecture

Keeping the Stories Alive: Exploring Essex Counties Black Heritage

Historian Kabria Baumgartner has been digging through archival records, seeking to learn more about the Black experience in Essex County, MA. With her lecture, "Taverns, Gardens and Parties: A Journey Through Essex County’s Black History", Kabria shared some of the compelling stories that highlight African American contributions to the economic, cultural, and intellectual vitality of Essex County.

Kabria Baumgartner is a historian of African American life and culture in the nineteenth-century United States. She is the Dean's Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies at Northeastern University where she also serves as Associate Director of Public History. She is the author of the award-winning book, In Pursuit of Knowledge: Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America (New York University Press, 2019)