The Cape Ann Slavery and Abolition website is a creation of the Cape Ann Slavery and Abolition Trust, a collaboration of the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church and the Unitarian Universalist Society of Rockport.
Signers on the Independent Christian Society of Gloucester Charter
Stained glass window in the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church
Steeple of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Rockport
All images courtesy of David Rye
The purpose of this website is to reveal the obscured history of the roles the slave trade played in Cape Ann’s families, industries, and economies and in the lives of enslaved people. The Cape Ann Slavery and Abolition Project was initiated as a moral reckoning with the history of slavery and its impact on the culture and economy of the Cape Ann.
This evolving website is created and maintained through generous funding from the Essex National Heritage Commission, The Woburn Fund of the Massachusetts Bay District of the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Unitarian Universalist Fund for Social Responsibility, the Gloucester Meeting House Foundation, as well as from private donations.
Cape Ann Slavery and Abolition Trust Members
Susan Beattie
Dick Prouty
Joe Rukeyser
Douglas Smith
Reverend Susan Moran
Reverend Janet Parsons
Website Research and content development staff
Mary Ellen Lepionka is an independent researcher and author who has done extensive research into the lives of Native American people living on Cape Ann.
Stephanie Buck is an independent researcher and author, who recently retired as the longtime archivist for the Cape Ann Museum.
This website was developed by Jenn’s Web, a web design company based on the North Shore since 2009. To see more by Jenn’s Web, please visit https://jennsweb.net