Boston: Freedom Trail tour highlights black patriots in February
The Freedom Trail in Boston tells the story of the Revolutionary War, but tours in February highlight the role black Bostonians played in the nation’s early struggle.
African American Patriots Tours, offered on weekends in February in honor of Black History Month, follows the same 2½-mile route as the Freedom Trail in downtown Boston.
Guides in period costumes talk about the contributions made by Crispus Attucks, the former slave who in 1770 was the first man killed by the British at the Boston Massacre, and others. Attucks was buried at the Granary Burial Ground, and his grave is one of the stops on the tour.
The tour also time-travels a bit into the following century too. “These same streets had a second life during the abolitionist movement, leading up the the Civil War,” says Sam Jones, creative director of the Freedom Trail Foundation.
For example, Fanueil Hall, where Sam Adams spoke out for independence in the mid-18th century, also echoed with the voice of Frederick Douglass railing against slavery a hundred years later.
The 90-minute walking tours from Boston Commons to Bunker Hill start Friday and are scheduled at 12:45 p.m. Fridays through Sundays during the month. Tickets cost $13 for adults, $11 for seniors and students and $7 for children younger than 12.
The tours are also offered the week of the Fourth of July (for those who want to avoid a cold-weather visit) and privately by request.
Contact: The Freedom Trail Foundation, (617) 357-8300
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