Tucked away on Beacon Hill in a former house of worship and historic school, the Museum of African American History preserves the legacy of Boston's black community. Displays of artefacts, heirlooms, documents and photographs tell a little-known but fascinating story.
The African Meeting House and Abiel Smith School, both built in the early 1800s, are examples of black craftsmanship and African American community organisation. The Black Heritage Trail is a 1.6 mile walking tour around the USA's largest collection of historic sites relating to the life of a free African American community before the Civil War.
The first Africans arrived in Boston in February of 1638. When the first federal census was carried out in 1790, Massachusetts was the only state in the Union to record no slaves at all.