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All the Voices in the House: Hear My Plea and Know My Truth
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For the first time, their petitions will be spoken from the same balcony where the Declaration of Independence was first read in Boston. Some of the petitions include a a 1694 petition from Elizabeth Proctor, one of the victims of the Salem witch trials; a 1777 petition from Prince Hall, an African American abolitionist seeking to end slavery in Massachusetts; a 1783 petition from Belinda Sutton, a formerly enslaved person seeking a pension from the proceeds of her enslaver’s estate; and a 1783 petition from the Mashpee seeking greater sovereignty. The petitions were selected in collaboration with Daniel Carpenter, the Allie S. Freed Professor of Government at Harvard University and author of the award-winning Democracy by Petition: Popular Politics in Transformation, 1790-1870.
All the Voices in the House will begin at 5:30 pm outside the Old State House, located at the intersection of Congress Street and State Street. In case of rain or inclement weather, the event will be moved to Tuesday, May 14.
This program will be a prequel to Your Voice in This House, which will take place on May 23 at Old South Meeting House. Gather with contemporary activists, historians, and elected officials as they share stories of how they overcame self-doubt and redefined themselves as civic change agents at the local, state, and national levels.
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