TIL the story of Mark Codman, an American Slave, Executed, Whose Body Later Became a Landmark for Paul Revere's Famous Ride
TIL the story of Mark Codman, an American Slave, Executed, Whose Body Later Became a Landmark for Paul Revere's Famous Ride
“This was when there were slaves in Boston”: HBI Founder John Codman acknowledges his ancestor's enslavement of Black Bostonians - Historic Boston Inc (HBI)
Nearly 50 years later, Revere references the site of Mark’s execution as a geographic marker that had remained culturally relevant. Mark’s body hung in a gibbet on Charlestown Common for nearly 20 years and his last words were published and sold next to a prison on Queen Street. His body and last words, immortalized in print, would serve as a terrorizing reminder to the enslaved population of Boston of what the cost of resistance would be. Even while their white counterparts were actively organizing to free themselves from the rule of the British monarchy.
Sources:
Historic Boston Inc - Article on Mark and Phyllis Codman, Their Crimes, and Executions