“Finding Belinda Royall” Nov. 19th at Royall House

On Wednesday, November 19, 2014, at 7:30 p.m., Professor Richard Douglass-Chin, University of Windsor,
Ontario, will give a talk entitled “And she will ever pray”: Finding Belinda Royall.

Belinda Royall’s voice echoes down the ages through the survival of her petition to the Legislature of
Massachusetts in 1783 requesting a pension for her aged self and her infirm daughter, from the proceeds of
her deceased master Isaac Royall Jr.’s estate. Belinda ended her request with the determined vow that, for the
monies owed her, “she will ever pray.” Who was this African-born woman we now know only as Belinda
Royall? Piecing together the fragments of information we have about Belinda—her petition, a Royall will,
baptismal documents, treasury resolutions, important dates and details in the comings and goings of the
Royall family between Massachusetts and the Caribbean—writer and literary critic Richard Douglass-Chin
recreates the story of the remarkable Belinda Royall—an epic journey spanning nearly sixty years.

The event will be held at the Royall House & Slave Quarters at 15 George Street, Medford, and is free to
Royall House and Slave Quarters members. General admission is $5. On-street parking is available, and the
museum is located on the 96 and 101 MBTA bus routes. Please email director@RoyallHouse.org for more
information or visit RoyallHouse.org. Find us on Facebook.

About the speaker: Richard Douglass-Chin is an associate professor at the University of Windsor in Ontario,
Canada, where he specializes in pre-twentieth century American literature, as well as African American and
Asian American literary forms. His PhD thesis, “Preacher Woman Sings the Blues,” published in 2001 by
University of Missouri Press, examines connections among Belinda’s 18th-century petition, 19th-century
African American preacher autobiographies, and the 20th-century works of Zora Neale Hurston, Alice
Walker, Toni Cade Bambara, and Toni Morrison.

About the museum: In the eighteenth century, the Royall House & Slave Quarters was home to the largest
slaveholding family in Massachusetts and the enslaved Africans who made their lavish way of life possible.
Architecture, household items, and archaeological artifacts bear witness to the intertwined stories of wealth
and bondage, set against the backdrop of America’s quest for independence. The Slave Quarters is the only
remaining such structure in the northern United States, and the Royall House is among the finest colonial-era
buildings in New England.

– Submitted by Royall House Director Tom Lincoln