The Boston African Meeting House was built in 1806 by free Black artisans and served as a cultural, educational, and political gathering ground for the free Black community on Beacon Hill. The Meeting House was home to the African Baptist Church of Boston and the African School before it moved into the adjacent Abiel Smith School building in 1835.Abolitionists such as Maria Stewart, Frederick Douglass, and William Lloyd Garrison were also frequent visitors to the Meeting House. The artifacts maintained at NEAAAL were recovered during the Fiske Center’s 2005 excavations of the backlot of the African Meeting House. Objects include architectural materials, which shed light on the African Meeting House’s physical appearance during the 19th century, as well as ceramics, seeds, and animal bones which have highlighted the entrepreneurial activities of several African American members of the Beacon Hill community.