New Bedford Historical Society

09/16/2026

Hispanic Heritage Month is from September 15 - October 15.

09/16/2026

On this day, September 15th, in Black Herstory

Nancy Prince was born on this date in 1799. She was a Black abolitionist and writer.

Nancy Gardner Prince was born free in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Her father, Thomas Gardner, was a wailer. Little is known about Prince's family life. Her father, a seaman, died when she was an infant, leaving her in the care of her mother, who subsequently married several times, so Nancy had six younger siblings. They sold berries to support the family, and she eventually worked as a servant for white families.

In 1824, she married Nero Prince, one of the founders of the Prince Hall Freemasons in Boston. They traveled to Russia, where she opened a boarding home and made infant clothing while her husband was a footman to the czar in St. Petersburg. She learned to speak French and Russian. After her husband died, finding herself suddenly widowed as her mother before her, Mrs. Prince returned to Boston, engaged with the anti-slavery society, and undertook two missions to the recently freed Black people of Jamaica, supported in part by Nantucket-born Lucretia Coffin Mott.

Her educational project for Jamaican women failed, and on her voyage back home, a hurricane blew her vessel off course. Prince found herself aboard a leaking Hulk towed into the port of New Orleans. As a Black woman, she could not safely go ashore and spent days watching enslaved men, women, and children in chains being loaded onto other vessels for transport to the plantations of Texas. Asked from the shore to whom she belonged, she asserted her status as a free-born child of God and invoked her father's name, Thomas Gardner. Miraculously, his name was known in New Orleans, and her status as free, supported by her Russian travel documents, got her off the wrecked ship and on her way to New York, where she arrived in August 1843.

When they returned to Boston, she started her sewing business and lectured about her travels to Russia and Jamaica. She wrote about her travels in Russia and Jamaica. Her published autobiography includes an account of how her marriage led her to the Russian Courts of Alexander I and Nicholas I. "The author vividly describes local Russian customs, as well as her experiences of the Saint Petersburg flood of 1824 and the Decembrist Revolt." Her death date is uncertain. Nancy Gardner Prince died in c. 1856. (African American Registry, 2026)

09/16/2026

Today we have many tools we can use to record and share people’s stories, including right here on social media. But how did people collect their histories in the past, and who recorded them?

William Still was one of the recorders of people’s stories before the Civil War. He was a part of the free-Black community in Philadelphia who assisted freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad. He kept a hidden journal where he recorded the names and stories of people escaping slavery. During Reconstruction, it was finally safe for him to share their stories. In 1872 he published his records in a book titled “The Underground Railroad.” His hope was that these records would help people find their family members separated in bo***ge.

Explore William Still's story on: https://www.nps.gov/places/william-still-marker-at-244-s-12th-street-philadelphia.htm

IMAGE: New York Public Library

09/16/2026

Douglass voted for the first time in New Bedford MA in 1842.

In this handwritten statement on voting rights from 1866, Frederick Douglass writes, "The foundations of this Republic can never rest secure till Equal Suffrage is extended to all the people without distinction of race or color." This is one of several documents and other resources related to the renowned abolitionist and orator that are preserved in MCHC's collections.

Today is National Voter Registration Day, and you can check your voter registration status, find your polling place, request a ballot, and more at vote.md.gov.

Statement on voting rights, written by Frederick Douglass, 1866. MCHC Library, Manuscript Vertical File

09/13/2026

September is known as International Underground Railroad Month in Maryland because it was the month that two of the most well known freedom seekers and Underground Railroad operatives, Harriet Tubman (born in Dorchester County, Maryland) and Frederick Douglass (born in nearby Talbot County, Maryland) escaped from slavery. While Douglass was known throughout the country for his photographic portraits and oratory skills, Tubman worked in secret, so she wasn't well known beyond local circles. In 1868, Tubman asked Douglass to write a letter endorsing her character and accomplishments for inclusion in her biography to tell her story.

⭐️ Learn more in this story from Britannica:
https://www.britannica.com/today-in-history/August-29-1868-Frederick-Douglass-Letter-to-Harriet-Tubman

⭐️ Remember, September is International Underground Railroad Month in September. See what you can experience to make it meaningful: https://harriettubmanbyway.org/make-underground-railroad-month-meaningful-this-september/

09/13/2026

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper in 1875 asked a question we still struggle with. We continue to fight for the right to vote and for our vote to mean something.

09/13/2026

Join the Historical Society at a talk on local heroes and sheroes of New Bedford's Underground Railroad as we commemorate International Underground Railroad Month.
Thursday, September 24 at 6:30 PM. Main branch of the New Bedford Public Library
Want More History

09/13/2026

One person can open doors for generations.

Born in Cambridge on September 13, 1856, Maria Louise Baldwin was one of Massachusetts' most influential educators. She broke barriers as the first Black person and first woman to serve as a principal in the Cambridge Public Schools.

As principal of the Agassiz School, Baldwin was an exceptional educator and leader. Beyond the classroom, she was an activist and community advocate who believed education could create opportunity and drive positive change. Her work left a lasting impact on students, families, and the broader Massachusetts community.

Today, we remember Maria Baldwin not only for the barriers she broke, but for the example she set. Her legacy continues to inspire educators, students, and leaders across Massachusetts.



Meet Boston

09/12/2026

Today is the birthday of Amilcar Cabral who organized PAIGC and fought for the liberation of Cape Verde.

09/12/2026

James McCune Smith was an American medical doctor, apothecary, abolitionist and author. He was the first African American to earn a medical degree and later became the first African American to run a pharmacy in the nation. He used his training in medicine and statistics to refute common misconceptions about race, intelligence, medicine, and society in his numerous essays.

Smith may be most well-known for his leadership as an abolitionist. He was a member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and together with Frederick Douglass he helped start the National Council of Colored People in 1853, which was considered the first permanent national organization for Black people. Douglass called Smith "the single most important influence on his life."

James McCune Smith was so close with Douglass that he would personally write the introduction for Douglass's second autobiography, “My Bo***ge and My Freedom.”

Image: Library of Congress