“Old Sturbridge Village.” Home | Old Sturbridge Village, 7 Apr. 1970, www.osv.org/.
Nottinghamshire County Council. “Robin Hood Festival 2018.” Nottinghamshire County Council, 2018, www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/planning-and-environment/country-parks/sherwood-forest/robin-hood-festival.
Reed, Dan. Personal interview. 2017.Boudicca, queen of the Iceni, lifts her hands in victory or in challenge. This ancient queen led her people against Rome, even managing to sack and burn Londinium at the heart of Roman Britain. This rebellion had followed Rome’s betrayal of her late husband’s will, which had named the Roman Emperor as well as Boudicca’s daughters as his heirs in an effort to keep the peace. After suffering a flogging and the rape of her daughters, Boudicca began a campaign of revenge which did not end until 80,000 Romans were killed and many Roman cities sacked and burned. Her statue in modern-day London now stands as a reminder of her legend and bravery.
Much closer to home in the South End of Boston, there stands a memorial to another brave woman. The Harriet Tubman Memorial, also known as Step on Board, honors a woman who showed a different kind of bravery. Nicknamed “Moses” for her work in the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman not only escaped herself, but led roughly 300 slaves to freedom over the course of ten years. Neither Harriet nor any she helped escape were recaptured. This was all accomplished while suffering from a head injury which caused sleeping spells from which she could not be awakened. Her statue shows her holding a Bible in front of those she led to safety depicted on a vertical slab. On the back there are various quotes from Harriet Tubman, Fredrick Douglass, and Sarah Bradford. There is also a map depicting stops on the Underground Railroad.
Both Boudicca and Harriet Tubman are immortalized in bronze in the heart of two cities that each played an important role in their lives. They faced tremendous odds in order to lead their people to freedom and safety from tyranny, and their courage still inspires us today.
“Facts: Harriet Tubman.” Harriet Tubman Historical Society, www.harriet-tubman.org/facts/.
“Step on Board/Harriet Tubman Memorial.” Boston.gov, Boston Art Commission, 26 June 2019, www.boston.gov/departments/arts-and-culture/boston-art-commission.
The Seville Cathedral, located in Seville, Spain, is one of the largest religious buildings in the world. Now a Christian cathedral, this structure has a diverse religious history. The building was founded in 1403 on the site of a former mosque. The structure has five naves which make it the largest Gothic building in Europe. The style of architecture of the entire building, mudéjar, is unique to and originates in Spain. This art style embodies the meeting of Islam and Christianity and the stages of history in the city, which is visible in the structure of the cathedral. Mudéjar is the term given to Muslims who continued to practice their religion in areas which had come under Christian possession during the Reconquest of 1248. The promotion of peaceful coexistence between Christians, Muslims, and Jews allowed for the construction and prosperity of the cathedral and also contributed to the complexity of the structure. The site of the Seville Cathedral was declared a “World Heritage” in 1987 by UNESCO because of its unique architectural style and because the structure is the largest Gothic edifice in Europe.
The African Meeting House in Boston, Massachusetts was consecrated in 1806, housing the first African Baptist Church of Boston. It is the oldest black church building in America. This building served as a cultural, educational, and political connection for Boston’s black community. The building committee for this building consisted of two branches: financial and labor. The labor branch mainly consisted of African-American craftsmen. The African Meeting House offered education opportunities for both children and adults. The African-Americans which made up the first congregation of this church established a sanctuary for peaceful worship and school that would support African-American education. The first abolition organization, Massachusetts General Colored Association, met here. In 1832, the New England Anti-Slavery Society was founded here by William Lloyd Garrison. The African Meeting House also served as a recruitment center for the Massachusetts 54th Volunteer Regiment, which was the first official African-American military regiment for the Union in the Civil War. In 1898, the African Meeting House was sold to a Jewish Congregation and was a synagogue until it was later acquired by the Museum of African American History in 1972.
Both structures are places which promote peaceful religious coexistence and provide a gathering place for this coexistence. As demographics and cultures changed in Spain and Boston, these buildings changed as well. The Seville Cathedral’s architecture changed as different groups possessed power in the region, demonstrating a unique architectural style: mudéjar. The African Meeting House served as a church, school, and meeting house and was later utilized as a synagogue. The mudéjar style reflects the integration of Islamic and Christian influence on the construction of the building. The African Meeting House was occupied by diverse religious groups as the Seville Cathedral was, first as a Baptist Church then later a synagogue. The Seville Cathedral first existed as a mosque and then later as the Seville Cathedral. Both the Seville Cathedral and the African Meeting House are multifunctional religious buildings which promote acceptance of diverse cultures and histories.
The Ministry of Culture and Sport. “Mudéjar Art.” Spain is Culture, SEGITTUR, http://www.spainisculture.com/en/estilos/mudejar/.
Museum of African American History. “A Gathering Place for Freedom.” Museum of African American History, https://www.maah.org/exhibits_detail/A-Gathering-Place-for-Freedom.
National Historic Landmarks Program. “African Meeting House.” National Historical Landmarks Program, National Park Service, https://web.archive.org/web/20090606132718/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1069&ResourceType=Building.
National Park Service. “African Meeting House.” National Park Service, 23 Dec. 2015, https://www.nps.gov/boaf/learn/historyculture/amh.htm.
Seville Cathedral. “World Heritage.” Catedral De Sevilla, artiSplendore, https://www.catedraldesevilla.es/la-catedral/patrimonio-de-la-humanidad/.
UNESCO. “Cathedral, Alcázar and Archivo de Indias in Seville.” UNESCO, https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/383/.
The Black Madonna tradition originated in the Middle Ages around the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, concentrated in France but also in other areas; there are approximately four to five hundred of them in Europe. The prominence of the tradition is attributed to the stories of miracles surrounding these paintings and statues. In a study of approximately one hundred examples, Leonard Moss divided them into three categories with the majority falling into the first: “dark brown or black madonnas with physiognomy and skin pigmentation matching that of the indigenous population” (Duricy).
The Black Madonna in Chartres Cathedral in France is a 1508 wooden replica of a thirteenth-century silver version. The Black Madonna in Magdeburg Cathedral in Germany dates to around the thirteenth century.
The Black Madonna in Saint John the Guardian of Our Lady Parish in Clinton, MA originally belonged to Our Lady of Jasna Gora. Jasna Gora was constructed in 1913, held its last mass in 2010, and was demolished in 2012. The Black Madonna, Our Lady of Jasna Gora, was painted in Poland in the Byzantine style and brought to the church in 1938. The painting is modeled after the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, Poland, which was said to have originally been painted by St. Luke then brought to Poland via Constantinople in 1384. More likely, it was a sixth to ninth-century piece. The original was destroyed beyond repair by robbers in 1430. It is credited with a number of miracles, including several Polish military victories, making the painting a national monument.
Although the Black Madonna is a widespread and popular tradition, there is a distinct issue with many of these pieces of art: namely, that they are being “restored” and turned distinctly white. Indeed, the Chartres Black Madonna no longer looks like the image in this photo. It looks more like the image here of the Magdeburg Black Madonna, which was “cleaned” in the nineteenth century. Pilgrims travel long distances to visit these statues, only to find them altered beyond recognition.
“The Black Madonna of Czestochowa: Poland’s Most Revered Icon.” Polish American Journal. http://www.polamjournal.com/Library/APHistory/blackmadonna/blackmadonna.html.
Duricy, Michael. “Black Madonnas: Origin, History, Controversy.” All About Mary. University of Dayton. https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/b/black-madonnas-origin-history-controversy.php.
Ramm, Benjamin. “A Controversial Restoration That Wipes Away the Past.” The New York Times, 1 Sept. 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/arts/design/chartres-cathedral-restoration-controversial.html.
Travers, Terry A. “History of Parish Retold.” Worcester Daily Telegraph, 1 Feb. 1969. http://tqretro.blogspot.com/2016/07/our-lady-of-jasna-gora-story-211969.html.
“Enjoy ye with us, and I thank you, for we be all ready for to die for the faith of Jesu Christ. We have suffered our fellow knights to be slain, and I have suffered your fellows to suffer death for Jesu Christ, and I have kept the commandment of God which said to Peter: ‘Put thy sword into the sheath.’ But now, because that we be enclosed with the bodies of the knights our fellows, and have our clothes red of their blood, let us then follow them by martyrdom. And if it please you, let us send this answer unto Cæsar: We be thy knights, sir emperor, and have taken arms to the defence of the common weal; in us is no treason ne dread, but in no wise we will forsake the law ne faith of Jesu Christ.” – “The Life of Saint Maurice” (c. 1275)
“Harmless, beautiful, proper, and praiseworthy as this demonstration is, I cannot forget that no such demonstration would have been tolerated here twenty years ago. The spirit of slavery and barbarism, which still lingers to blight and destroy in some dark and distant parts of our country, would have made our assembling here the signal and excuse for opening upon us all the flood-gates of wrath and violence. That we are here in peace to-day is a compliment and a credit to American civilization, and a prophecy of still greater national enlightenment and progress in the future. I refer to the past not in malice, for this is no day for malice; but simply to place more distinctly in front the gratifying and glorious change which has come both to our white fellow-citizens and ourselves, and to congratulate all upon the contrast between now and then; the new dispensation of freedom with its thousand blessings to both races, and the old dispensation of slavery with its ten thousand evils to both races—white and black. In view, then, of the past, the present, and the future, with the long and dark history of our bondage behind us, and with liberty, progress, and enlightenment before us, I again congratulate you upon this auspicious day and hour.” – Frederick Douglass, Oration at the Unveiling of the Freedmen’s Monument (April 14, 1876)
"[The Freedmen’s Monument] showed the Negro on his knees when a more manly attitude would have been indicative of freedom." – Frederick Douglass, Comments at the Unveiling of the Freedmen’s Monument (April 14, 1876)
Jacobus de Voragine. “The Life of St. Maurice.” The Golden Legend. Ed. F.S. Ellis. Christian Iconography. 2000. https://www.christianiconography.info/goldenLegend/maurice.htm.
Levin, Kevin M. “The Boston Statue that Reinforces the Need for Black History Month.” History News Network. Columbian College of Arts & Sciences. 25 Feb. 2018. https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/168303.
“Oration by Frederick Douglass Delivered on the Occasion of the Unveiling of the Freedmen’s Monument, April 14, 1876.” Smithsonian. Digital Volunteers: Transcription Center. https://transcription.si.edu/project/12955.