Author Michael Pregot on Slavery & Abolitionism on Cape Cod

We welcome back Cape Cod author Michael Pregot to discuss his 2024 book, Slavery and Abolitionism on Cape Cod: A Massachusetts Incongruity. While we now mainly think of slavery as an institution in the southern United States, from the Puritan era through the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1780 it was a very real part of life here. Cape Cod sea captains brought slaves to Boston, then later to ports where the trade was not yet prohibited, and there was a real divide in the early 19th century between those opposing and those profiting from slavery. This book explores this history with a special focus on notable Black residents of Massachusetts of the abolitionist period.