Museum of Afro-American History

Beacon Hill was never the exclusive domain of blue-blood Brahmins. Waves of immigrants, and especially African Americans, freed from slavery, settled on the back side of the hill in the 19th century. The Museum of Afro-American History occupies two adjacent historic buildings: the African Meeting House, the country’s oldest black church and meeting house; and Abiel Smith School, the country’s first school for blacks. Within these walls William Lloyd Garrison began the New England Antislavery Society. Here, Maria Stewart became the first American woman – a black woman, no less – to speak before a mixed-gender audience. Frederick Douglass delivered stirring calls to action within this hall, and Robert Gould Shaw recruited black soldiers for the Civil War effort. Today the Museum of Afro-American History offers rotating exhibits about these historic events. The museum is also a source of information about – and the final destination of – the Black Heritage Trail.