It was not just the willingness to take risks, a vigorous entrepreneurial spirit, or merit alone that built Salem’s fabled wealth in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The saying, “Fortune favors the bold” was common among the ship captains and sailors of Salem’s Golden Age of Sail, but we now know that a good deal more than luck was involved in building Salem’s wealth during that famous era.
This summer, The Gables will offer Caribbean Connections Part 3 to local Salem students as a way of uncovering more untold stories of Salem’s trade with the Caribbean region. The five-week summer program will be offered from June 29th through July 31st and will offer teachers and students an amplified perspective of the role that slavery played in building the wealth of Salem’s richest individuals.
It’s an unfolding story that hits close to home, as visitors to our site will discover. Did you know that John Turner II, the richest of all the Turners who inhabited the famous Gables mansion, was a slave owner? Turner had three slaves, Rebecca, Titus and Lewis, two of whom were freed after his death.
Join us for a summer of discovery that will weave together the tales of two regions, the Caribbean and New England, to offer a richer, fuller picture of American history.
