Unveiling of ABCL's Black Patriots of Lexington Portrait Banners

Come commemorate the significant role that Black men and women played in the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.

Doors open at 6:30 for socializing with appetizers and drinks.

An episode of Black Patriots of Lexington will be screened. ABCL Historian Sean D. Osborne will moderate a panel discussion and Q&A session featuring some of the historians and other subject matter experts featured in the series.

To complement the Black Patriots of Lexington series, 11 portrait banners of the soldiers and civilians whose stories are uncovered have been created and will be unveiled during the evening's ceremony.

There will also be an opportunity to take pictures with the portrait banners during the reception and after the screening.

BACKGROUND

ABCL’s Black Patriots of Lexington is a multi-pronged project that includes a nine-part series that explores the lives of 5 soldiers who fought in Lexington on April 19, 1775; three Black men who witnessed the battle as Lexington residents and later enlisted in the Continental Army; and two Black women and one Black man who witnessed the first day of war. Of the 8 soldiers, 3 were born into land-owning, tax-paying families and 5 were born into enslavement. All served their nascent country well and 7 of the 8 are known to have died free men.

Black Patriots fought in every major battle, and in most if not all of the lesser actions, of the American Revolution as soldiers in the Continental Army and states’ militia. On the first day of the Revolutionary War, April 19, 1775, approximately 50 Black men responded to the Lexington Alarm and engaged Crown forces during the Battle of Lexington and Concord. Historians have found the names of 35 of those Black Patriots. This series shares the stories of 5 of them.

Black Patriots of Lexington , a 9 episode series produced with LexMedia and Tricons 2 Red Tails, invites audiences on a journey through the lives of eleven Black men and women who were part of the economic, political and military revolution that came to a head in Lexington, Massachusetts on April 19, 1775.

ABCL’s Black Patriots of Lexington is supported by a Community Endowment of Lexington grant.

SCHEDULE A SCREENING WITH Q&A

Contact ABCL Historian at admin@abclex.org to schedule a screening and Q&A of an episode of Black Patriots of Lexington. Our 9 episodes, listed below, address Topic 2. Reasons for revolution, the Revolutionary War, and the formation of government [5.T2] for fifth graders and Topic 5. Global exploration, conquest, colonization, c. 1492–1800 [WHI.T5] for World History 1.

1. Prince and Cate Chester - tax paying couple residing in Lexington on April 19, 1775; partners in cottage industry that played a role in production of domestic linen in wake of British textile boycott; died landowners in Boxborough, MA
2. Prince Estabrook - enslaved Lexington resident and member of Captain Parker’s Company who was shot by British Regulars during dawn Battle of Lexington; served at the Battle of Bunker Hill; enslaved by Benjamin Estabrook; died a free man in Ashby in 1830
3. Eli Burdoo - indentured orphan and member of Captain Parker’s Company on April 19, 1775
4. Silas Burdoo - tax paying resident of Lexington and active combatant on April 19, 1775; received his veteran's pension; believed to be richest and last surviving Black veteran of the Battles of Lexington and Concord; died in Reading, Vermont in 1837
5. Caesar and John Ferrit - Natick yeoman and his tax paying son fired on the retreating British Regulars from the Lexington Green on April 19, 1775
6. Venus Roe - enslaved on April 19, 1775 by Captain James Reed in Woburn District; died a free woman in Burlington, MA
7. Pompey Fiske - enslaved at Fiske farm in Lexington which was the site of intense fighting on April 19, 1775; enlisted on May 17, 1775; served at the Battle of Bunker Hill; enslaved by Benjamin Fiske
8. Adam Tidd - enslaved in Lexington by Lieutenant William Tidd of Captain Parker’s Company; in 1776 served in Capt. John Bridge’s company, which was part of Colonel Eleazer Brooks’s regiment; died a free man in Boston in 1817.
9. Pomp Blackman - tax paying resident of Lexington on April 19, 1775; in 1777 enlisted for three year term with the 15th Massachusetts Regiment; died a relatively prosperous man in Lexington in 1783