Events › Stolen Relations: Centuries of Native Enslavement in the Americas

Join this panel of Native leaders and historians as they reveal the extent - and human cost - of the enslavement of millions in the Americas. Together a remarkable group of presenters, from the Nipmuc, Narragansett, Wampanoag Tribes and Nations, and from Brown University will collaborate in a unique live event to understand this hidden history.

Between 1492 and 1900, approximately 2.5-5 million Native Americans were enslaved in North, Central, and South America. Indigenous people were enslaved in every European colony, including colonial New England. How is it that we have overlooked such an important part of this history and its effects over time?

The Stolen Relations project at Brown University is a tribal collaborative project that seeks to understand the historic enslavement of Native Americans as part of a longer colonial process. In consultation with regional tribal representatives, the project is building a database of thousands of enslaved Natives in order to increase public awareness and make this information available to descendent communities. Its purpose, as its website says, is to recover stories of Indigenous enslavement in the Americas - stories long neglected and even forgotten.

This event will feature presentations from some core Stolen Relations team members, including Linford Fisher (project PI and associate professor of history at Brown University), Cheryll Toney Holley (Nipmuc, chief of the Hassanamisco Nipmuc), Alexis Moreis (Wampanoag, conservationist and tribal historic preservation officer of the Wampanoag Tribe of Chappaquiddick), and Lorén Spears (Narragansett, director of the Tomaquag Museum).

This talk is being presented jointly with the Partnership of Historic Bostons and will be live-streamed and recorded, and posted on historicbostons.org and their YouTube channel.

The opinions expressed in this presentation are those of the presenters and not necessarily those of the Boston Public Library or the Partnership of Historic Bostons.

Accommodations: To request a disability accommodation and/or language services, please contact: Diane, 617-536-5400-x4115 or research@bpl.org as soon as possible. Please allow at least two weeks to arrange for accommodations.