Dogwalker uncovers names and stories of dozens of Black women at Dorchester cemetery
DORCHESTER - They don't look like the thousands of other headstones at the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Dorchester – no names, no dates. Perhaps that's what's so alluring about the gravesites that read "Home for Aged Colored Women" when it caught a dogwalker's eye.
The cemetery's superintendent became just as curious.
"It's a piece of history and I'm fascinated by that," Sid Sibley said.
The Home for Aged Colored Women was founded in 1860 to help elderly, poor Black women in Boston, Joyce Linehan discovered when she went digging in the Massachusetts Historical Society archives.
"Joyce Linehan found 20 names and by starting that process, of trying to put at least a name to these people or some stories, she uncovered 139," Massachusetts Historical Society President Catherine Allgor told WBZ-TV.
Many of these women were former slaves fleeing the South when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Some were only identified by their first name because slaves weren't considered people then – but property. Since they had no money and likely no family, they were buried in Dorchester in a mass grave. The same one Linehan stumbled upon.
"Like this, toe-to-toe," Sibley described of the burials.
A deep dive into the historical documents uncovered much more than a name.
"When you go deeper into their archives of an organization, you find reports, you find letters. In this case, Mrs. Merrick's letters here come alive," said Allgor.
Snippets of letters that give you a glimpse of their personalities 163 years later.
"Doesn't look good for Mrs. Merrick," Allgor read. "Setting forth her unhappiness at the home and asking her to help her leave it!"
Each of those 139 women have a story of how they ended up in Boston. That discovery is inspiring women in the present day, like Domonique Williams.
"We're looking back at history and making sure that we're trying to honor the legacy of the women who came here looking for a better life," she said. "It's powerful to know there are women now are so connected to women who started here in Boston."
Women like Fannie Akins and Nancy Anderson who were largely forgotten, until now.
"So many of us don't know what our legacies are or what our family history is, so to have the opportunity to name these women and making sure their legacies are remembered is an honor," Williams said.
