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Visit the Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford, MA

The Royall House and Slave Quarters functions as a site of memory. In the eighteenth century, the plantation was home to the Royalls, the largest slaveholding family in Massachusetts, and at least sixty enslaved women, men, and children whose forced labor helped build the Royall family’s wealth. As one of the only remaining freestanding quarters where enslaved people lived and worked in the North, the museum bears witness to their lives, to the intertwined stories of wealth and bondage in pre-Revolutionary Massachusetts, and to the resistance and political and legal activism of enslaved and free Black people in the eighteenth century.

 

A group from Cato is attending a tour this weekend, but it is full. I still wanted to share that this resource exists and that people can visit and remember. Thanks to Cato for bringing it to my attention!

 

The museum is open from 1:00-4:00 pm Saturday and Sunday from June 7 – October 12. It is at 15 George Street in Medford.

Tours of the mansion are guided and begin at the top of the hour.  Admission to the Slave Quarters, which also houses the archaeological exhibit, gift shop, and restrooms, is free of charge. It is $15 for a mansion tour, which is given at the top of every hour. 

for a future ballot question​ regarding the Massachusetts legislature’s system of “leadership stipends,” which is an outlier among the 50 states. Out of 200 state senators and representatives, 149 receive ‘leadership stipends.’ Stipends can go upwards of $119,000 on top of a legislator’s base salary (currently $82,044). Since 2013, the legislature has quadrupled the amount of taxpayer money spent on stipends to $5.4 million.

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