Lexington’s new Black Heritage Trail

^{Deed to the property of Ann and Philip Burdoo, the only known free Black property owners of Cambridge Farms (now Lexington). Courtesy of The Lexington Historical Society}

When America was a fledgling nation, struggling to survive existential wars on its own soil, three generations of men — the children and grandchildren of one Lexington couple — went to fight for our country. Ann and Philip Burdoo were free Black residents of Cambridge Farms, an earlier name for the town we now know as Lexington. Their son Moses was a veteran of the French and Indian War. Their grandsons Silas and Eli fought in the April 19, 1775 Battle of Lexington. And during the Civil War, their great-grandson, also named Silas, marched with the Massachusetts 54^th regiment.

Thanks to the Association of Black Citizens of Lexington (ABCL), the site of the Burdoo family farm, at 330 Bedford Street, will now be commemorated on the Black Heritage Trail of Colonial Lexington, set to debut this spring.

There are hundreds of Black heritage trails across the country, with several in Massachusetts, most famously in Boston, Cambridge, Concord, and Western Mass. Jan Turner, executive director of The Robbins House, an African American history center in Concord, says, “The overall goal of these trails is to demonstrate to people that the history in their own backyard, the history in their communities…is reflective of the diversity of American history since the beginning of the country.” 

What makes Lexington’s trail unusual is its focus on the colonial era. The trail explores sites from 1630 to 1780 — a time when slavery was legal in Massachusetts. “This trail is dedicated to the Black men and women and children who made Cambridge Farms and colonial Lexington home,” says ABCL historian Sean Osborne, the trail’s organizer and primary researcher. The trail currently features eight locations, with a walkable section in Lexington Center and other sites scattered farther afield. Osborne hopes to have twelve sites identified by the time the trail goes public in April. 

A site in the neighborhood of Belfry Hill will illuminate the life of Venus Roe (~1750-1844). Venus was likely the daughter of Violet, a Black woman who lived at the home of her enslaver Jonas Munroe (also known as Jonas Roe). Munroe gave Venus away to the Reed family of Burlington when she was just three years old. “People were enslaving and giving away —selling for nothing, basically — babies, which was not an uncommon practice,” says historian Margaret Micholet who shared her research on Venus with Osborne.

On April 19, 1775, in the home of Captain James Reed, Venus witnessed John Hancock and Samuel Adams hiding from the British regulars, and she watched the Reed home become a holding site for British prisoners. “Venus would have understood the importance of these events. She would have seen the daring of these men, committed to their cause for liberty, despite the danger of their actions. She would have known their liberty would not be hers if they won the day,” Micholet has written.

At the corner of Burlington and Grove Streets, a formerly enslaved man and Revolutionary War veteran named Pompey Blackman (~1755-1783) lived with the Simonds, a family of enslavers. Records, including a legal document through which Blackman granted his friend Amos Fortune power of attorney over his business affairs, indicate that Blackman was financially successful. In his will, he bequeathed to one Levi Parker valuable personal items, including silver shoe buckles, silver knee buckles, a silver stock buckle and broach. 

“Often when people think of Lexington, they think of the battle and they think of the ideas of liberty and freedom,” says historian Robert Bellinger, whose research fills out Blackman’s story for the trail. Yet, Bellinger observes, Lexington was also engaged in slavery. “That tells a different story about liberty and about freedom, and raises different questions and understandings of those issues, as not only part of the Lexington community, but as part of the broader story of American history,” Bellinger says.

Osborne spent more than four years digging into the history that informs the trail. In addition to Bellinger and Micholet, he credits the contributions of Lexington historians Chris Kauffman, Hill Snellings and Bill Poole. Their work unearthing the unknown stories of Lexington’s colonial Black residents entailed poring over the church records, letters and diaries, tax records, inventories, wills, bills of sale, town meeting minutes, and financial records held in the archives of the Lexington Historical Society, the town government, Cary Library, and surrounding communities, and of institutions like the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Like detectives, Osborne and his colleagues are fascinated by the thrill of the chase and the rush of eureka. Osborne was delighted when he saw how Ann and Philip Burdoo signed a property deed – she with an “A,” he with an “X” – but their son Moses signed his will with his full signature. “His script is beautiful! It’s like, okay, somebody went to school,” Osborne says. “This is not what I expected to see from a Black veteran of the French and Indian War.”

Bill Poole, who earned his doctorate under the mentorship of the eminent Black historian John Hope Franklin, contributed research on the military history of the Burdoo family. He praises the camaraderie that developed among Osborne and the other local historians. “I find them to be very generous, very open, very willing to share, which is a wonderful thing,” Poole says.

With the exception of Buckman Tavern, Hancock-Clarke House, and First Parish Church, most of the colonial farms and homes noted on the trail have long since vanished, and no signs mark where they once stood. Osborne is preparing an annotated map that will be posted on the ABCL website for self-guided tours. And he is already looking ahead to next year’s celebrations of the 250^th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord. “We’re going to need tour guides,” he says.

Those interested in learning and telling visitors the stories of the individuals noted on the Black Heritage Trail of Colonial Lexington may contact ABCL at admin@abclex.org. Donations to support the trail and ABCL’s other history projects are also welcome.