Editorial

Abstract

EDITED by Kerri Greenidge, an assistant professor of Tufts University and a member of our editorial board, and associate editor Holly Jackson, our special edition “Revisiting Black Boston” illustrates the vitality of recent scholarship that has recast our understanding of race, racism, and abolitionist movements in antebellum Boston. It appropriately recognizes the imagination and prescience of Lois Horton and James Oliver Horton. On the occasion of her husband's death, Lois Horton recounted being told that a project on Boston's Black community was simply not possible: “There was no community and the documents aren't there.” They nonetheless persisted and in 1975 produced Black Bostonians: Family and Community Struggle in the Antebellum North. A testament to their combination of diligence and imagination, the Hortons’ study provided the seminal work that, nearly fifty years later, has made possible the essays assembled in this issue. Each of our essays in this issue reflects on how much historians stand upon the shoulders of their predecessors. Unfortunately, Professor Lois Horton passed away suddenly in September 2021 and cannot see how her and her husband's work has inspired a new generation of scholars.The editors also wish to take this opportunity to thank our external readers and book reviewers for their good cheer and willingness to take on these tasks that are so crucial to the publication of the Quarterly. We also wish to acknowledge the donors to the 2021 Annual Appeal who are equally essential to the contained quality of the journal.