Uncovering the Story of the Free Black Community in Blandford, Massachusetts

Documents the story of Jethro Jones and the community of free blacks that he helped to found in Blandford, Massachusetts, beginning in the 1790s. Explores the lives and struggles of free people of color in one rural western Massachusetts town during the challenging decades that followed the American Revolution, uncovering stories of hardship and resilience that help to create a more inclusive historical record and place this distinct subgroup within the larger context of the free black population of western Massachusetts.