Featured Exhibit
James Lloyd III (1769–1831), 1800–50. Unknown American artist; oil on canvas. Gift of Elsie Wilson Thompson and Orme Wilson III in memory of Alice Borland Wilson, 2020.5.4.
James Lloyd III (1769–1831)
James Lloyd III was the grandson of Henry Lloyd I and the son of Sarah Corwin and Dr. James Lloyd, a prominent Boston physician. He was just a baby when his uncle, Joseph Lloyd, visited Boston from Long Island in the summer of 1770, accompanied by Jupiter Hammon. James went on to serve in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the State Senate, and represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate for two non-consecutive terms. In 1813, he became the president of the Boston Manufacturing Company, a cotton textile business which operated one of the first factories in the United States. Although Massachusetts abolished slavery in 1783, the growth of textile mills increased demand for cotton and fueled the expansion of enslavement in the South. These companies not only depended on enslaved laborers to harvest the raw material that sustained their businesses, but also manufactured the inexpensive fabrics that clothed enormous enslaved workforces on southern plantations.
