By adamg on Sat., 4/17/2021 - 5:04 pm
Turns out Maverick was a slave owner in fact, the first in Massachusetts. CommonWealth makes the case. Earlier, Dudley Square was renamed Nubian Square because Dudley was a slavery-allowing governor of Massachusetts in its colonial days.
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Where did you hear that
By anon
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 5:31pm
Where did you hear that Dudley owned slaves? I recall the explanation for the Nubian Square renaming was that Dudley was governor at a time when slavery was legal in Massachusetts, not that he owned slaves himself.
Indeed, the article you linked says, “Local community activists had argued that as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Dudley perpetuated slavery.â€
You're right
By adamg
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 10:39pm
Thanks. Reference fixed.
Magoo sez
By MisterMagooForYoo
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 5:36pm
Magoo thought the The blue line stop was called maverick because it is near the airport. Magoo.
Not quite
By anon
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 6:21pm
Actually the stop called "Airport" is near the airport.
Good essay by a middle-schooler and her father
By mg
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 5:51pm
Interesting and sad history. Love this at the end:
ITZ SO CUTE!
By John Costello
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 8:47am
Since The Hoey's are from Cambridge. Let's rename Cambridge.
Cambridge took its name from Cambridge England owing that there was a university in the then Newtowne.
Cambridge University and the community in which it lies has admitted that it benefitted greatly from slavery.
Therefore Cambridge here in Massachusetts is tainted by this stain of sin just like Maverick Square.
We need to change the name at once.
I'm thinking Potificatia might be a good name, because there is nothing more Cambridge than someone from Cambridge casting aspersions on someplace else because of their wicked misdeeds without looking at their own first. Besides Marblehead and Athol are already taken.
Is this the only argument for keeping the name?
By tblade
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 9:49am
Can anyone articulate an argument for keeping the name Maverick Square besides some version of the “our history is soooo steeped in white supremacy and the founders were so super racist that virtually everything with a European name in this country is a testament to African enslavement and it therefore would be inconvenient to hold a light up to that abhorrent history and re-evaluate the near-endless amount of current place names, so let’s just forget about it�
Because that is the only argument that has been articulated here, at least 3 times. It doesn’t become any more compelling or less tenuous each time it is repackaged and posted.
i wouldnt mind this change
By schneidz
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 5:53pm
[haitian-american]
i always felt like dudley was governer of a prosperous colony so he should remain commemorated. similar to jefferson who famously refused to will the slaves of his large compound their freedom but hes also a founding father so maybe that outweighs his evil.
as far as maverick, i have no idea what he did so maybe changing the station to someone more worthy is a good idea.
TJ
By tblade
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 6:40pm
Jefferson, at age 44, also repeatedly raped a 14-year-old Sally Hemming and forced at least 6 pregnancies upon her over her lifetime. I’m not sure anything “outweighs†TJ’s atrocious behaviors, but we have to accept the whole legacy of these founders both good and bad.
[black-american]
By Jay
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 3:55pm
I can see you still have a lot to learn my Haitian Friend. If those are your thoughts on Thomas Jefferson.....He raped his slaves.
This needs a slight correction
By Waquiot
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 6:09pm
It was never established that any of the Dudleys owned slaves.
Alas, it was never about the Dudleys owning slaves.
for me its a toss-up; but,
By schneidz
Tue, 05/04/2021 - 9:11am
it was always about him being governor and refusing to exercise his authority to extinguish a horrible plight that has centuries of lingering affects to the colony.
So....
By John Costello
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 8:27am
We are renaming Royalston, Bellingham, Winthrop, Phipsburg, Stoughton, Shirley, Belchertown, too?
don't forget Princeton
By anon
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 11:16am
and Orange
i don’t know how many times this needs to be said
By berkleealum
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 11:59am
but you aren’t making the argument you think you’re making
imagine doing all this research into what essentially amounts to the white supremacist history of the united states, compiling a list of cities and towns whose namesakes owned slaves, and coming away with the conclusion that EVERYTHING SHOULD STAY THE SAME
Nuance is helpful
By Ron Newman
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 12:28pm
(and I'm not referring to the recently-sold speech-recognition company.)
For each of these cases, it's useful to evaluate whether the person involved did more good than harm, or at least whether the the good parts of their life balance out the bad. I think you can make that case for Washington and Jefferson. Maybe also for Winthrop. I don't see it for Maverick.
not sure about that
By berkleealum
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 12:46pm
people make identical arguments against removal of monuments to robert e. lee, et al.
On the subject of nuance...
By lbb
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 8:40pm
...it's not that simple. If I do harm to you but (by whatever measure) greater good to someone else, do you think that "balances out"?
You Went To A Music School, Right?
By John Costello
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 12:48pm
Stick to scales guy or commenting on that Moog you just picked up at the pawn shop.
When I told my wife, an ancient history teacher, that Dudley was being renamed to Nubian Square because of his association with slavery and replacing the name with Nubian she almost passed out from laughing.
See it is about style over context with renaming things. The Nubian Upper Classes supplied lots, and lots of slaves to Egypt, but we forget that part or it gets buried under feelgoodism.
Just as a side note, when the area around Nubian Square looks like Tremont and Dartmouth in 20 years (Don't laugh, if you knew what Tremont and Dartmouth looked like in 1985 there is precedence) and the same forces that changed the South End are happening now , no one will object if the square gets something else because that is what the locals wanted, right?
the hackneyed music joke at the beginning
By berkleealum
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 1:00pm
told me all i needed to know about what was coming. sorry, didn’t read
I Figured As Much
By John Costello
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 1:17pm
You went to a school with no real academic requirements and until not that long ago, an open admissions policy.
keep beating that horse
By berkleealum
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 1:38pm
i sure do hate paying my mortgage by doing the one thing i love to do, on my own schedule. you sure got me
I'll summarize for you...
By lbb
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 8:44pm
...it was the sound of a hit dog hollering. I also skipped as soon as I got to the childish insult in the first half-sentence. It's typical John: he goes right for what his limited imagination tells him would hurt the most if he were in the other person's place, given his knowledge of a few superficial facts about this person. It's a particularly childish and limited flavor of misanthropy. I feel truly sorry for anyone who has to deal with this guy in real life.
Where Were You Saturday?
By John Costello
Mon, 04/19/2021 - 7:02am
I was in your cow town yelling at the redneck Nazis at the corner of King and Main and the ones at the west end of the Coolidge Bridge. Were you? Not all is what it seems.
You are a droll person, probably, the annoying former Goth that really, really, wants to be liked but just deadpans her way through life like a two bit April Ludgate in a desperate please for attention and love
I feel truly sorry for anyone who has to deal with you in real life.
Ah, there's the 9:55
By lbb
Mon, 04/19/2021 - 9:02am
Right on time!
Did I call it or what? How droll.
a parks and recreation reference
By berkleealum
Mon, 04/19/2021 - 11:49am
so you know he’s hip to the musics of today
Adam claims Dudley owned slaves
By Waquiot
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 10:33am
But that was never established. That the Dudleys allowed slavery is a different thing.
tomato; potato.
By schneidz
Mon, 04/19/2021 - 9:50am
tomato; potato.
Yes
By StillFromDorchester
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 6:10pm
We should name all Squares roads streets etc. by numbers and letters. If not now,when? If not us, who?
We do have to be careful we dont use a number combination that might be the same as a year something bad happened ...somewhere, but we can do it!
Nice strawman, pal.
By brianjdamico
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 7:29am
Nice strawman, pal.
Strawperson
By StillFromDorchester
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 8:53am
Get it right.
Oh good, I was getting
By brianjdamico
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 10:55am
Oh good, I was getting worried this discussion would pass without the one joke being made.
Joke?
By StillFromDorchester
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 6:34pm
How dare you minimize the use of gender neutral language as a joke, outrageous!
I thought it was named for
By Don't Panic
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 6:18pm
I thought it was named for the cowboy? Guess not.
Well, let’s just rename it for the cowboy.
By Lee
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 8:42pm
And everyone can be happy.
Great idea! King County
By anon
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 9:23pm
Great idea! King County (Seattle) changed which King it was named for, from a slave owner to Martin Luther King.
That’s actually a good idea.
By anon
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 1:29pm
That’s actually a good idea.
King County, Washington (Seattle) changed who it’s named for, from a slave owner named King to Martin Luther King.
James Garner Square.
By Rob
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 7:41pm
James Garner Square.
-
Was he ever in Boston for anything? Any tie, however tenuous?
Heck yeah!
By Don't Panic
Thu, 04/22/2021 - 12:07pm
MlK preached on Warren Street near Dudley Square.
Do we have to rename Washington Street?
By Mark-
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 6:29pm
I mean, George Washington owned slaves, too. Maybe we should rename all 5 Washington streets within Boston. But let's keep them all having the same name, whatever we come up with. It's more fun that way.
Yes, nothing I enjoy more
By Brian Riccio
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 7:49pm
Than an opinion piece on what should be renamed in Eastie “written†by the kid of some long time liberal consultant in Cambridge.
Who got his ass kicked off Twitter and obviously hit up the editor of this Barr Foundation sponsored rag that is only good for letting lobbyists opine in it for their clients for a favor.
Let’s see the Dad tackle Suffolk Downs next.
Sh**ing on 6th grader?
By tblade
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 6:42pm
Relax, man.
Why not offer up your thoughts on keeping vs re-naming the square instead?
Why did I suspect
By Brian Riccio
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 6:52pm
that I’d be accused of shitting on a sixth grader?
I’m not shitting on the kid, I’m shitting on the hypocrisy of everyone around the kid. If Eastie residents want this change, let them organically change it. Not because some Cambridge lefty consultant wants to impress the other parents at his kid’s school.
A school that got a review like this:
“...the school has below average results in how well it’s serving disadvantaged studentsâ€.
Byron Rushing, former
By anon
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 6:59pm
Byron Rushing, former president of the Museum of African American History in Boston, noted, “I’ve really searched, and I’ve found no evidence that Dudley ever owned slaves."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nubian_Square
Glad to see this reckoning with the history of slavers in Mass
By Greg Cook
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 7:44pm
Glad to see this ongoing reckoning with the history of slavers here in Massachusetts. Slavery was widespread among the wealthy of the colonial and revolutionary periods here. Another example: John Hancock kept enslaved people imprisoned at his property that is now part of the Massachusetts State House, I believe:
From the Chicago Tribune:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-...
"John Hancock is best remembered for his sweeping self-confidence and outsize signature, but there’s more to the story of the wealthy Boston merchant who risked his life for American independence.
The great champion of freedom from Britain owned two or three slaves, according to the 1980 biography “The Baron of Beacon Hill.†...
John Hancock owned two or three enslaved Black people, including a man named Cato, whom he inherited from his wealthy uncle Thomas Hancock, according to â€The Baron of Beacon Hill,†by William M. Fowler Jr.
“Cato was apparently the last of the two or three household slaves kept by Hancock,†according to the book, which notes that Cato was eventually freed under the provisions of Thomas Hancock’s will.
The biographer goes on to offer the opinion, “It is no special condemnation of John Hancock that he owned slaves; it is merely a commentary on the general insensitivity of the eighteenth century to the evils of the people trade. It is to his credit that in all of his vast business dealings there is no evidence to suggest that he himself ever bought or sold (enslaved people).â€
Change the name
By anon
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 8:15pm
While you are at it change the name of Lechmere station
NO!
By Lee
Sat, 04/17/2021 - 11:03pm
No. Just no.
For fucks sake
By BannedFromTheRoxy
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 3:04am
For fucks sake
The longest sreet in Boston.
By Don't Panic
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 4:37am
The longest street in Boston. Mongo like.
Maverick might have been
By Notfromboston
Sun, 04/18/2021 - 6:24am
Maverick might have been callous and insensitive but he always maintained that his ownership relationships with other adults were consentual. And a committee of his buddies cleared him as well.
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