Authors Douglas Heath and Alison Simcox will talk about their new book, Walls, Rock, and Rum. Doug and Alison are environmental scientists with an interest in local history. Middlesex Fells, located north of Boston, is one of the most storied state parks in the United States. Home to Indigenous Peoples for thousands of years, this land became part of Charlestown, first capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Puritans transformed the landscape, marked woodlots with stone walls, and gave the largest lots to wealthy men.
They harvested timber and quarried stone from the Fells to build homes, ships, and walls and to fuel brickmaking and rum distilling. Enslaved labor, acquired through the transatlantic trade, supported these markets. Today the Fells is preserved, but beyond its trails and wooded vistas lie deeper stories of Indigenous communities and colonial transformation.
Alison and Doug trace this history with new research published for the first time.
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Books will be available for purchase and signing (cash or check).
Light refreshments will be served.