Looking for Robert Roberts: Moments and Mysteries

Saturday, February 22 @ 2 pm

With the 1827 publication of his House Servant’s Directory—while employed as a manservant for the elite Bostonians Christopher and Rebecca Gore—Robert Roberts became America’s first commercially published Black author.

A leader in Boston’s free Black community, he was a church deacon, a businessman, an abolitionist, and a fighter for civil rights. In this talk, we’ll highlight news from our ongoing research into the lesser-known side of Roberts’ life and the writing of his Directory.