A new 40-minute documentary that discusses the extraordinary anti-slavery efforts that took place in the mid-19th century in Lowell will virtually on Zoom at 7:00 PM on August 26. In “Contradictory Place: Cotton Mills Alongside Anti-Slavery Efforts in Lowell, Massachusetts” Prof. Robert Forrant of the University of Massachusetts Lowell and local historian and community educator Maritza Grooms visited several sites that still exist in downtown Lowell where the abolitionist activity occurred and where freedom seekers operated businesses. While Lowell’s mills were heavily dependent on Southern cotton produced by enslaved people, many city workers, religious leaders, small business owners, and even some mill overseers opposed the institution of slavery. The film, produced by former Lowell Telemedia Center (LTC) Executive Director Wendy Blom and edited by former LTC News Director Caroline Gallagher, was generously funded by LTC and the UMass Lowell History Department’s Robert Forrant.

A discussion led by the film’s collaborators will follow the showing.