Historical Markers on Cape Ann
Z I N E
Bringing History up to Date
Examining the Historical Signs on Cape Ann
A Guide for questioning how history is told
From the Gloucester 400+ DEIA Committee
There are many historical markers in the Cape Ann area. They were erected in 1930 at Gloucester’s 300th anniversary. Many of these signs have become outdated in their language to tell a complete, truthful, and just history.
At this 400-year marker of English Settlers arriving to establish Gloucester, we are suggesting a holistic examination of this history.
We are asking how is the colonizer portrayed? How are the Indigenous people portrayed? How do these portrayals keep our imaginations stuck on what colonizers were/are and what Indigenous people were/are? How can we be critical of how history is told, so that we allow for a telling of a truthful history that does not steer away from the violent parts of America and Gloucester’s inception? How does acknowledging these things help us become more skillful in telling a complete history.
We also acknowledge that being critical of how history is told is a first step. It is a skill as a part of being equipped to be a part of movements for social change.
Location: Gloucester
Stage Fort Park, on the main that goes through it, across from the large parking lot
Sign reads:
Settlement of Cape Ann
On this site in 1623 the Dorchester adventurers founded the nucleus of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the fishing industry. Here Roger Conant averted bloodshed between two factions contending for a fishing stage, a notable example of arbitration in the beginning of a New England
Massachusetts Bay Colony Tercentenary Commission
Questions:
What does it evoke to call them the “Dorchester adventurers”?
Who do you think were the two factions contending for a fishing stage?
How is the violence of colonization hidden in plain sight here, while also making the colonizers look like heroes?
Location: Rockport
113 Main Street on the left side of the property when facing the house
Sign reads:
First Settler
Here stood the cabin of Richard Tarr founder of the Tarr Family on Cape Ann. He came to Marblehead in 1680, then settled in Saco, Maine. Driven thence by Indians, he became the first settler of Sandy Bay (Rockport) in 1690.
Massachusetts Bay Colony Tercentenary Commission
Questions:
What does the term founder evoke here?
What are the issues with what it evokes?
What does the phrase “driven thence by Indians” evoke?
What are the issues with that?
What does the term “first settler” infer about the place Richard Tarr called Sandy Bay?
Location: Rockport
On Beach Street at the Old First Parish Burying Ground
Sign reads:
Old First Parish Burying Ground
Original plot given by the first settler, Richard Tarr, who was buried here in 1732. Here lie most of the early settlers and many of the early officers and soldiers of the French and Indian, Revolutionary and 1812 Wars.
Massachusetts Bay Colony Tercentenary Commission
Questions:
Who gave this plot to Richard Tarr? Was it given or taken?
What does it mean to have “the first settler” buried and honored here by this sign?
What do you know about those three wars? The French and Indian War, The Revolutionary War and The War of 1812? Who fought in these wars and whose bodies were left on battlefields and whose were buried in the burial ground?
Location: Rockport
corner of 127A and Whales Cove Lane
Sign reads:
Samuel de Champlain
Due East from here on July 15, 1605 the Sieur de Monts sent Samuel de Champlain ashore to Parley with some Indians. They danced for him and traced an outline map of Massachusetts Bay. These French explorers named this Promontory. The Cape of Islands
Massachusetts Bay Colony Tercentenary Commission
Questions:
How does this sign portray Samuel de Champlain?
How does this sign portray Indians?
Who is serving who?
Whose worldview is honored and prioritized?
More Questions to Consider
What is our responsibility as people who call Cape Ann our home, to have a relationship to this history?
How do we repair all the years (centuries) that we haven’t told a full truth about the incredibly violent history of the creation of America, and Gloucester’s part in it? How do we also learn and tell the contributions Indigenous and Black people have had here, holding them as whole people not just survivors of violence?
What does justice look like, feel like and sound like when we contend with what has been omitted and warped for so long?
What damage is caused when pieces of history are left out? What is the impact when these incomplete versions of history are cast in bronze or printed on signs for decades? How have these actions shaped the American psyche and how we understand ourselves and our history?
How can deconstructing old ways of telling history and learning new ways to view the past, present, and future help us be a part of a more just, inclusive, and connected world? How does telling a complete, fair, and full history contribute towards a movement for reparations?