‘What Is Owed?’ explores reparations for slavery

The GBH News podcast What Is Owed? considers the issue of reparations in the cradle of the American Revolution — and the first American colony to legalize slavery — Massachusetts.

CAMILA DOMONOSKE, HOST:

Boston, Mass. was the cradle of the American Revolution and was also the first American colony to legalize slavery in 1641. Nearly 400 years later, the city of Boston is grappling with that legacy. In 2022, the city created a task force to consider reparations to the descendants of enslaved people. In “What Is Owed?” – a new podcast from GBH News – reporter Saraya Wintersmith explores what reparations could look like and how that debate is reflected across the nation and the globe.

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SARAYA WINTERSMITH: It’s 3:00 on a weekday afternoon at the John Hancock Memorial in the Granary Burying Ground in Boston.

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WINTERSMITH: The site is kind of like a who’s who of the American Revolution. There are graves for important figures like Thomas Paine and Samuel Adams. Every year, millions of tourists pass through here to visit the grave of John Hancock. You know John Hancock. Tour guides tout the man’s great contributions to the country. But what you might not know, buried beside that much-celebrated Founding Father’s grave is a man he enslaved. His name was Frank.

Like many founding families, the Hancocks claimed several people as property, and they made their money in commerce based on products produced by the enslaved. That fortune bankrolled much of Boston’s pre-Revolutionary activism. The tour guides here often referred to Frank as Hancock’s servant. They say the two men must have been close because of how closely they were buried.

Frank’s contributions to the country have never been documented. Neither were the roles of countless other enslaved people – people who helped set Boston’s trajectory to become a leader in health, education and technology. They…