The bell that hangs in the belfry of the Shepherd of the Valley church building at 21 Washington St. Ayer, MA, has historic interest related to slavery in the United States.
The bell was used until 1862 to summon slaves to work at the Beavin Plantation in Plains, Miss.1
“Its function of summoning the shackled to involuntary labor ended during the War Between The States, which ravaged the U.S. from 1860 through 1865. The Confederate government in New Orleans appropriated the bell for use, along with other bells, as scrap metal in the making of ammunition. However, Union soldiers captured the bell before it could be melted down and shipped it to Boston2.”
The bell next hung in the Trinitarian Congregational Church of Fitchburg, which was established in 1843 “as a chapter of William Lloyd-Garrison’s anti-slavery society” 3 and which “hosted many abolitionist speakers4.” “The church was also a scene for many slavery protests as it was seen as a safe place free from slavery.”5 “It was placed in the belfry of the church, and founder Benjamin Snow Jr., “insisted it would not ring again until slavery had ended. Snow was finally able to ring the bell on January 1, 1863, after receiving news of President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.”6
The Congregational Church, founded in 1861, purchased the bell from the Trinitarian Church upon the completion of work on the church building at 21 Washington St. in 1872. “In 1915, the Methodist Episcopal and the Congregational Churches formed a federation joining with one another and meeting at the Congregational Church. In 1931, the First Baptist Church joined the federation.”7
In 2008, congregation member Zelda Moore donated $40,000 “for the repair of the cradle, which holds the bell, and repair work to the steeple floor.”8
The church building continued to be the home of the Federated Church of Ayer until 2020, when the building, with its historic bell, became the home of Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church.
In addition to the sources listed in the footnotes, see: the Ayer church bell has ‘the voice of freedom from the Nashoba Valley Voice.
- Barros, Gregory. “A Bell Tolls for Thee.” Nashoba Valley Voice. January 4, 2008 https://www.nashobavalleyvoice.com/2008/01/04/a-bell-tolls-for-thee/ ↩︎
- Ibid ↩︎
- Oliver Eason and J.J. Sylvia IV. “Trinitarian Church.” Clio: Your Guide to History. May 28, 2022. Accessed September 14, 2023. https://theclio.com/entry/148796 ↩︎
- Ibid ↩︎
- Ibid ↩︎
- Ibid ↩︎
- Nashoba Publishing, “Federated Church of Ayer.” Nashoba Valley Voice. September 2, 2011 | UPDATED: July 11, 2019 ↩︎
- Simone, Gail. “Bell rings anew” Nashoba Valley Voice. June 6, 2008 https://www.nashobavalleyvoice.com/2008/06/06/bell-rings-anew/ ↩︎