“One of the things that makes us uncomfortable is the history of violence, but the 250th [anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence] is all about the celebration of violence,” Wellesley College Africana Professor Kellie Carter Jackson said during her keynote speech at “Land/Mark: Enslavement, Resistance and Revolution,” a symposium held today at the Cambridge Public Library.
The symposium explored themes of the American Revolution and the history of Mark, Phillis and Phoebe, three people enslaved in Charlestown in the 1700s by Captain John Codman—an ancestor of the person for whom Boston’s Codman Square is named. They are said to have fatally poisoned Codman. As punishment, Phillis was burned at the stake, Phebe was shipped to the Caribbean to work as a slave in sugar cane fields, and Mark was hung and his body displayed in an iron cage—a gibbet—in Charlestown for years.
“Since the 16th century, Black history has been a history of refusal,” said Jackson, the author of the 2024 book “We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance.”
Jackson said, “Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose, but we never accepted that slavery is our final condition.”
“White supremacy and anti-Blackness are always violent,” Jackson said. She argued that nonviolent resistance does not get those in power to change. Rather people have successfully pursued revolution, protection, force, flight or joy. “The opposite of violence in America is the fullness of Black humanity bound together with joy.”
“I don’t go to protests anymore,” Jackson told the audience. “Do protests work?” Do they affect policy? Do they create change? “The protest is like a pep rally. It’s good for morale. … It doesn’t necessarily make powerful people shake in their boots. But boycotts do. Strikes do.”
“I write. I teach. I speak. This is me doing the work,” Jackson said. “Find whatever you’re passionate about and use that to work against injustice.”
Historian Aabid Allibhai, University of Utah Professor Jamie Crumley, and Brandeis University law Professor Dan Breen spoke on a panel about “Political, Legal and Family History and Enslavement in Revolutionary Boston.” After lunch, artists Ife Franklin and Dell Marie Hamilton spoke about their work and “Memorialization and Storytelling.” Royall House and Slave Quarters Executive Director Kyera Singleton moderated the talks.
Franklin’s 2024 public sculpture “The Resurrection of Mark, Phillis, & Phebe” reimagined the gibbet as a cocoon, covered in Nigerian adore, indigo-colored fabric with a quilt-like pattern. It was suspended from four metal posts at Charlestown Navy Yard as part of the Boston Public Art Triennial’s Lot Lab. Franklin intended the cocoon as a symbol of transformation and rebirth—a vessel for uplifting their souls.
“Mark, Phillis and Phebe needed something gentle because of the way they died,” Franklin said. She accompanied the installation with a “Processional for Mark, Phillis, and Phebe” and other healing rituals.
Dell Marie Hamilton described a planned video installation that she’s developing with Angela Counts to tell the story of Mark, Phillis and Phebe.
Franklin said, “My mind is always blown by the resilience of our people—what they did, how they did.”
The symposium was sponsored by Mass Humanities through its “Expanding Massachusetts Stories/Promises of the Revolution” program. Co-sponsors included the Royall House & Slave Quarters, The Somerville Museum, History Cambridge and the Cambridge Public Library.
Previously:
• 2026: ‘Black Futures: How to See in Total Darkness 2.0’ at Salem State
• 2025 Ife Franklin’s Healing Hoodoo
• 2024: Honoring The Enslaved And Healing At Ifé Franklin’s ‘Ancestor Processions’
• 2023: “Artistic Responses To Inequities In Cancer Care For People Of Color”
• 2021: “On Juneteenth, Ifé Franklin Debuts ‘Slave Narrative’ Film”
• 2021: “Photos: Ifé Franklin’s Juneteenth Celebration”
• 2019: Performance Artist Dell M. Hamilton Exhibits Turbulent Abstractions
• 2019: Honoring Women Arts Leaders In Boston With A Set Of Trading Cards
• 2018: ‘#SayHerName’ Showcases Local Black Women Artists
• 2017: “Ife Franklin’s Ancestor Slave Cabin and Ring Shout”
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