Liberty Street
From Worcester Activist wiki
In its 234 years of existence, Worcester, Massachusetts can boast of no brighter achievement than its flight to rid the nation of slavery.
During the 1700’s, Worcester had a small number of slaves. The Chandlers had them; the Paines, Putnams and others of wealth.
Free Negroes were also residents of Worcester. “Will, a mulatto,” is inscribed among the grantees of the town. When Capt. Timothy Bigelow roused his Minute Men on Worcester Common to march against the British, one of his fighting patriots was a Negro.
On May 18, 1767, Worcester instructed Joshua Bigelow senior, its representative to the General Court, “to obtain a law to put an End to that unchristian and Impolitick Practice of making Slaves of the Humane Species in this Province…”
As the slavery issue began to bubble and boil, Worcester began to fret and fume.
A convention met in the Court House in 1819 to oppose admission of Missouri into the Union as a slave state. A petition against slavery was heartily signed by 80 Worcester County clergyman in 1838.
Anti-slavery groups sprang up, sparked by such militant anti-slavers as Stephen and Abby Kelly Foster. Great Worcester orators and statesmen, whose challenging words echoed throughout the nation, flung javelins of disruption into organized politic.
Edward Everett Hale, Eli Thayer, Charles Allen, Thomas W. Higginson and many others helped force the issue to a head.
Allen blew the following blast as a National Whig Convention in Philadelphia: “No candidate can receive the electoral vote of Massachusetts who is not publicly known to be opposed to slavery.”
Escaping Southern Slaves were carried through “underground” stations to freedom in Canada. Worcester was part of the chain.
On the east corner of Cascade road, near Tatnuck square was Liberty Farm where slaves were hidden. There were other places.
When Deputy Marshal Asa Butman came up from the South to arrest William Jenkins, a colored resident, Butman was almost mobbed to death.
Some of the escaped Negroes settled on what is now Liberty street. It was given its name about 1847. It extends from Belmont street south to Arch street; commemorates the time Worcester got fighting mad about an injustice to humanity-and did something about it.
The core of this article comes from A History of Your City Streets.
