A new memorial has been unveiled at King’s Chapel at the corner of School and Tremont Streets in Boston. The 14-foot sculpture, called ‘Unbound,’ is located in the chapel’s courtyard. It recognizes the church’s historical involvement in slavery. The memorial is part of King’s Chapel’s efforts to address its past, including the roles of early congregants and clergy in slavery and the slave trade.
The sculpture was revealed to the public on September 14, 2025. It honors 219 enslaved individuals identified by the King’s Chapel History Program since 2016. These individuals lived from the 17th through the early 18th centuries. Many are known only by a single name or a general description, such as ‘Unnamed Infant Girl’ or ‘Unnamed Man.’
Artist Harmonia Rosales, an Afro-Cuban American from Chicago, created the memorial in collaboration with MASS Design Group. The sculpture shows a matriarchal figure in a white garment holding an open birdcage. Bronze birds are placed around the sculpture and the chapel building. A future phase of the project will add a ceiling mural inside the sanctuary, showing Black and Indigenous people releasing birds into the sky…