The roads, walkways, and collections throughout Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum bear the names of influential local philanthropists, landowners, and politicians. A new name, Flora, now joins the ranks of those being honored for their roles in shaping the history of the region.
In October, the city of Boston approved changing Bussey Street, named after merchant Benjamin Bussey, to Flora Way in honor of an enslaved woman who lived on an area estate in the 18th century.
Bussey, a sugar, coffee, and cotton merchant in the late 1700s and early 1800s, built much of his wealth through the trans-Atlantic trade of products produced by enslaved workers. He eventually retired from that business and turned his attention to farming.
“He accumulated all these small farm holdings and put it together into what is the Jamaica Plain side of the Arnold Arboretum,” Ned Friedman, director of the Arboretum, said. Friedman is the Faculty Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum and Arnold Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.
In 1842 Bussey donated to Harvard College his estate, which was combined in 1868 with land donated by New Bedford whaling merchant James Arnold for the creation of the Arboretum.
Bussey is one of several philanthropists identified in the University’s 2022 Legacy of Slavery report as a beneficiary of enslavement. Friedman said the Arboretum has been actively considering how best to acknowledge its past while looking to the future.
“We have a Bussey Hill; we have a Bussey Brook Meadow. We want to honor Benjamin Bussey for his philanthropy, because I feel personally that writing him completely out of history removes the historical context,” said Friedman of Bussey’s complex legacy.
The idea to remove his name from the street, he said, didn’t originate with the Arboretum. Last spring, a group of neighbors across Jamaica Plain and Roslindale came together to suggest the change. They came up with five alternatives to Bussey. The list included Flora and two other enslaved people, Dick Welsh and Cuffe, along with transcendentalist Margaret Fuller, who wrote fondly of the hemlocks and pines on the site, and botanist Shiu-Ying Hu, Ph.D. 1949, a highly respected emeritus senior research fellow at the Arboretum.
“I would have been happy with any of the five names that they suggested,” Friedman said. “I just stepped back and let the community do their business.”
Ultimately, organizers reached a consensus to select Flora — a woman enslaved by William Dudley, the son of Gov. Joseph Dudley.
The Dudley estate was located in current-day Roslindale on Weld Street and included a small commercial farm. Flora was one of four people enslaved on the property, and the only woman.
“Names matter and renaming this street to Flora Way makes a powerful statement that Flora mattered.”
Sara Bleich, Legacy of Slavery initiative
Not much is known about Flora, other than records that detail her purchase price of 40 pounds and the fact that Dudley bought shoes and an apron for her. The only other record of Flora is a probate file showing her sale by Dudley’s estate, again for 40 pounds.
“Flora was connected to what is now the Arnold Arboretum, a place that holds a commitment to public health and accessibility and is intentional about creating equitable access to urban green space,” Sara Bleich, the University’s inaugural vice provost for special projects in charge of the Legacy of Slavery Initiative said at a renaming ceremony at the end of October.
The name change signifies not only Harvard’s acknowledgment of the past, but also a promise to strive for a better future.
“Flora Way is just part of a bigger set of conversations we’re having here about justice, about equity,” Friedman said.
The Arboretum, which is free and open to the public and receives millions of visitors each year, is surrounded by several “environmental justice” communities, where 40 percent or more of the residents are people of color and median incomes fall below city averages.
City-run entrances to the park from those neighborhoods have fallen into disrepair, with gates welded shut and stone walls covered in graffiti. Friedman, and Harvard, have been advocating for their renovation, and in some cases, pledging to support efforts financially.
“Access is really important,” Friedman said. “Because that’s part of what I think matters a great deal about whether people feel welcome.”
Of the nine entrances to the park, five are slated for renovation, including Poplar Gate at the intersection of the new Flora Way and South Street, which is set to be completed within the next month or two.
“Renaming this street to Flora Way makes a powerful statement that Flora mattered,” Bleich said. “Reckoning with past history gives us a fuller view of what came before us, the injustices done that society needs to be held accountable for, and how this should shape our future for the better,” she added.
Since the release of the Legacy of Slavery report, efforts continue across the University to implement recommendations and continue digging into the past. To learn more, a historical tour of 10 stops around Cambridge that explore the University’s connections to slavery is available, and the full report is online.
The Arnold Arboretum is open every day from sunrise to sunset.
Brittany Sloan is a writer who covers news in the worlds of education, sports, and tech. She's also an avid runner and enjoys taking her dog for walks around her neighborhood.
