While this is the story of one town, it is also the story of our
country.
Each chapter features one or more key figures in the telling of this
story - from the female Native chief, Sqa Sachem ("Female Ruler") who
met the first pilgrim settlers, to Anne Hutchinson and others who fled
the rigidity of the town's religious and civic rules, to the wealthy
slave and plantation owners here, to the Boston Tea Party participants
and the arrival of George Washington to take command of the army, to the
evacuation of the Loyalists, to the Civil War and the battle within the
city between local elites and new émigrés, to the city's growing
importance as a technology center.
Every path, street, and water route at this important center held onto
its memories of important events that unfolded on or near these critical
routes of communication, action, and change. The imagery and text of
Streets of Newtowne together harness this rich history offering a unique
verbal and visual narrative that is both compelling and easy to grasp.
Each chapter focuses on key conflicts and challenges that the city has
faced over its long history -from religious fundamentalism to the
primacy of local political voices, to the challenges of a new and
largely émigré community, to issues around over-development and climate
crisis.
While this book features many of the core conflicts as well as the
well-known men who helped to shape this area - from Paul Revere and
George Washington to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the blacksmith,
Dexter Pratt, special attention is given to the native land holders,
from the female chief who ruled the region at the time the pilgrims
arrived and signed the early deeds, along with Caleb Cheeshahteamuck,
the first Native American graduate of Harvard College. Women figured
prominently here, among these, Anne Bradstreet (America's first poet)
and Anne Hutchinson, the local midwife who pushed for more religious
freedom and after her heresy trial was banished from the city taking
many religious followers with her.
Important in Streets of Newtown too are various people of African
descent. One was Onesimus, the enslaved African, gifted to Puritan
minister, Cotton Mather, who offered insights on African smallpox
inoculation practices, saving many lives. Another was the enslaved and
then freed Darby Vassall who greeted George Washington at the gates of
his Vassall estate home (now on Brattle Street) after his Loyalist
owners fled the city. Darby later would purchase his own home in
Cambridge and work as a caterer. Still another is African American
author, Harriet Jacobs, who owned and ran a boarding house in Cambridge
not far from the first market.
Cambridge now faces serious crises - environmental, affordable housing,
over development with labs. The book concludes with a return to our
native beginnings and ask the reader (and residents to decide: where do
we go from here?
