New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Witness Stones Project
CT GROUP LAYS STONES TO COMMEMORATE FORMER ENSLAVED PEOPLE IN THE STATE
Gathered at the Trinity Church on the Green in New Haven one early June morning, students and community leaders came together as part of a ceremony to honor the lives of emancipated slaves Lucy and Lois Tritton. The Trittons were purchased at an auction in 1825 by abolitionist Anthony P. Sanford, who subsequently freed them. The sisters were the last two enslaved individuals to be auctioned in the city of New Haven, according to the Trinity Church.
This event was just one among many hosted by the Witness Stones Project, a Guilford-based organization whose mission it is to “honor the humanity of enslaved individuals.” The organization works with kids from K-12 and crafts projects that have students and teachers analyze primary-source documents and other curriculum to better understand the lives of enslaved individuals in the state. The culmination of each project is the laying of Witness Stone Memorials, which honor the life of a specific enslaved individual relevant to the area where the stone is placed.
Stones are placed in towns around Connecticut including Greenwich, Madison, West Hartford, Old Lyme and Durham.
“For [the students], becoming the voice of somebody from the past and telling the history of someone whose story hadn’t been told is very powerful for them. I think they bring that with them,” said Dennis Culliton, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Witness Stones Project. “It’s untarnished. We share it with them the way that we find it.”
According to the New Haven Museum, Connecticut passed the Gradual Abolition Act of 1784, which freed slaves when they reached their 20s — specifically 25 for men and 21 for women. This was in effect for any enslaved individuals who were born in the state after March 1, 1784 but would not affect other enslaved people at the time. It would be another six decades before slavery was abolished in Connecticut in 1848.
Fifteen years later, President Abraham Lincoln would sign the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed enslaved individuals across the country. Juneteenth commemorates when Union soldiers marched into Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, freeing the last slaves in the United States.
Culliton said he was inspired to start the project after giving a talk at the Guilford Library in 2017 that discussed the dozens of formerly enslaved individuals in the towns of Madison and Guilford. The former E.C. Adams Middle School teacher said he had a following discussion with a friend who had recently seen the Stolpersteine
“THERE ARE LESSONS TO BE LEARNED THAT WE’RE NEVER GOING TO FIND IN A TEXTBOOK.”
project in Germany, which honors victims of the Holocaust and is present in many European countries.
The question then presented itself: “Could we remember enslaved people here the way that Jews are remembered in Germany and Central Europe?”
Among the first Witness Stones laid were that of Phillis and Montros, two enslaved people who were purchased in Boston, and are direct relatives of chairwoman of the board of directors for the Witness Stones Project, Patricia Wilson Pheanious
Culliton said that the project takes a “hyper-local” approach to better understand the enslaved people who lived in our communities centuries ago while honoring a specific people for each project, similar to the Stolpersteine.
“If you do a project and talk about 3,000 enslaved people in Connecticut, that’s sad, but when you talk about a person who lived on your street, or lived in your town, that becomes more of a meaningful activity,” Culliton said.
The Witness Stones project will commemorate Juneteenth with events in Wallingford and New Haven on June 19.