The intertwined lives of John Cuming and Brister Freeman shape the narrative arc of this book, but theirs are just two of the stories I tell here. In order to reveal the larger history of slavery in Concord as well as the biography of a green space very much related to that history, I have cast my net wider than these two men’s individual lives and wider even than Concord’s geographical limits. The slaveholders of Concord considered themselves part of a culture of gentility that extended from Concord to Cambridge, Charlestown, Boston, and London. In the pages that follow, you will meet members of the elite and very wealthy Royall, Vassall, Chambers, and Russell families, not all of whom lived in Concord but whose alliance with one another brought new slaves to the Concord area. The slaves of Concord also considered themselves part of a larger community of slaves that stretched well beyond the town limits. When children were sold or given away to new owners in distant locales, as so often happened, other slaves stepped in to care for these orphaned children and to relay information about their whereabouts and welfare back to their parents. The last names slaves took upon achieving their freedom are testaments to how important these networks were. And thus the story of what I am calling black Walden is the story of slaves and slave owners from across Massachusetts. (See the Dramatis Personae at the back of the book for a complete listing.)

IN HOMAGE TO THE GROUNDWORK Henry David Thoreau laid for this book when he recorded as many stories as he did about Concord’s slavery and postslavery days, each of Black Walden’s section titles is taken from the phrases he used in Walden to describe Concord slavery and the landscape the former slaves made in its wake. The sole exception is the Epilogue, which I have entitled “Brister Freeman’s Hill.” Like his townsmen, the author of Walden referred to the hill on which Brister Freeman owned land in Walden Woods as Brister’s Hill. Brister’s Spring, Peter’s Field, Peter’s Path, Peter’s Spring, and Caesar’s Woods were similarly labeled with the first names of the former slaves who lived nearby. Every site in Concord named after a white person, however, is designated by the person’s last name. Emerson’s Cliff, Flint’s Pond, Heywood’s Meadow, and Thoreau Street are just some examples. In an effort to give Brister Freeman the same due, I have added his last name to the hill where he once lived. Conversely, throughout the rest of the book, I refer to the author of Walden not as “Thoreau” but as “Henry” or where clarity requires it “Henry David Thoreau,” so as not to continue to accord him more authority and respect than the men and women who preceded him on the shores of Walden Pond.