Middletown historian to speak on ‘Vanished Port’

CHESTER — Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek will be hosting an historical program Dec. 20, “A Vanished Port: Middletown & the Caribbean, 17501824,” in honor of Human Rights Shabbat for International Human Rights Day.

Deborah Shapiro, municipal historian of Middletown and former executive director of the Middlesex County Historical Society, will present the program, which is free and open to all. There will be a shortened Shabbat service at 7:30 p.m., followed by presentation and refreshments, according to a press release.

The congregation’s annual Human Rights Shabbat celebrates International Human Rights Day (Dec. 10) in alliance with T’ruah, the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, the release said.

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans to Englishclaimed America.

“This is the story of our region’s role in the West Indies sugar and slave trades. The cargo that left our port was agricultural produce from all the towns up and down the Connecticut River Valley, so everyone was involved. Some of the shipyards were down in the lower county,” Shapiro said in a prepared statement.

The exhibition which inspired the lecture “portrays a major New England port during the heyday of the West Indies trade, from the luxurious life of Middletown’s merchants to the suffering of enslaved workers in the sugar monoculture of the English Caribbean,” the release said.

Using the documents and possessions of Middletown merchants and mariners, two stories are told — of New England maritime opportunity, and its basis in a Caribbean economy dependent on the labor of enslaved people.

“We use local history to talk about the roots of past and present social issues, bringing these stories together through the lives of individuals who lived them,” according to Shapiro.

The exhibit is on view through the remainder of the month at the Gen. Mansfield House, 151 Main St., Middletown. Visit mchsct.org for hours.