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Leon Jackson

@drleonj.bsky.social

770 followers 400 following 1.8K posts

Black dogs, orange cats, and manuscripts. Professor @ USC. I write about African American life in early national and antebellum Boston. My posts are my own opinions and do not reflect those of my employer.

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Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 58m

I get that one!

Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1h

Quality skeet

Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1h

I was really worried about making a 45 min connection in PHI, but my second flight has been delayed so long that they now have to find a new crew for it, and ~that~ crew is still inbound from somewhere else. I feel really bad for ppl who have a connection at the other end of this flight. Flying scks

Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 18h

I want to hang out with you and Anu and eat apples!

Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 20h

Y’all are so cute!

Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 20h

Free the GR Three!

Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 22h

I’ve had so much fun in Boston this week this week, and I’ll be heading home tomorrow with a hard drive full of manuscript pictures and a head full of ideas. Thank you to all the amazing and knowledgeable archivists who helped me. Y’all rock! 🙏🏻

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Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 23h

Look at those woolly boots!

Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1d

I should have said greasy and left it at that. But yes, no flapjacks without butter.

Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, definitely. But you should know that most case files are fairly thin and consist only of boilerplate documents. (The ones I post here are the better documented ones). If a cop was involved, I’d look in the Board of Alderrman Docket Documents at BCA too. Happy to chat more about this if you like

Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1d

And with that, I am finally done researching nineteenth century Boston's African American used clothes dealers. On now to a new chapter of the book!

Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1d

Ironically & sadly, after Foster's wife died, her clothes were stolen from him. Foster went to court to try and reclaim them, but because he couldn't point out identifying textile traits, only the grief they evoked, his attempt failed. The report of that case is typical of mid-C19 newspaper racism.

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Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1d

What I find especially interesting is that Chambers asked his mother to swear that she specifically recognized the stitching in a pair of pantaloons as his, suggesting that the smallest details of a textile were as legible as any text. Laura Edwards has written brilliantly about such legal claims.

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Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1d

In 1833, James Chambers stole garments from African American used clothes dealer Cyrus Foster. When arrested, he suborned perjury in letters to his mother that were intercepted, copied, & then left for her to act upon. His letters were used against him, & he was sentenced to 5yrs in State Prison 🗃️

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Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1d

I love that qualifier!

Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1d

Questions like those are precisely what platforms like this do best. I hope all the baking peeps from both sides of the ocean chime in. Me? I just eat them!

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Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1d

It’s a very dense, slightly oily oat cookie bar. But square or rectangular, not round. They serve really good ones at the National Archives cafe at Kew!

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Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1d

🥺

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Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1d

That sounds fascinating! I’ll be excited to read it when it’s complete!

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Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1d

I think it v much depends on the court and its archive. The BMC has a ton of boilerplate material, but as you say, occasional and brilliantly illuminating stuff too. Affidavits and depositions are usually pure gold. What is your project about?

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Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1d

Or sniffing glue

an older man in a white shirt and tie is sitting in the cockpit of an airplane .

ALT: an older man in a white shirt and tie is sitting in the cockpit of an airplane .

media.tenor.com

Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1d

Here’s a counterfeit bank bill signed by Charles Sigourney, poet Lydia Sigourney’s husband, and Bank President. I wish that I could have had this, superimposed over a manuscript LHS poem, on the cover of The Business of Letters!

Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1d

By F, I meant Of. I was typing in haste. Sorry. “Of all the art, etc”

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Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1d

I love this so, so much. F all the art you’ve posted, this is what I wish I had on a wall in my house!

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Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 1d

No, they were distinct women. Mindwell you know the difference!