Saturday, January 2, 2010

Slavery & The Pursuit of Freedom in Wethersfield


In late November the Project:LUCID classes visited Wethersfield, CT and the Silas Deane and Webb Houses.  The tour focused on Slavery in Old Wethersfield as well as the roles of Joseph and his son, Samuel Webb in the Revolutionary War.

The 1752 Joseph Webb House served as George Washington’s headquarters in May 1781, and was later owned by Wallace Nutting. 




General Washington made three visits to Wethersfield including a visit in May 1781 when he stayed for five nights at Joseph Webb's house.  The project:LUCID students toured the Webb House, visited the Washington bedchamber and saw Wallace Nutting murals depicting Revolutionary War scenes, including the Battle of Yorktown, which is believed to have been first conceived and planned by Washington and the French General Rochambeau while in Wethersfield, CT. The students also learned through a hands on activity about the role of Joseph's son Samuel in the Battle of Bunker Hill and as aide-de-camp to General George Washington.


The Silas Deane House, circa 1770, was built for America’s Revolutionary War diplomat to France as both his residence and as a power base for his political aspirations.  


While touring the Silas Deene House, the Project:LUCID students explored the lives of Pompey, Hagar and other enslaved African Americans in 18th century Connecticut.  They toured the slaves' quarters at the Deane House and played a traditional West African game.


After the house tours the students visited Wethersfield's Ancient Burying Ground where they for a moment in front of the graves of some of town's slave inhabitants. 


Wethersfield's Ancient Burying Ground
Here are the "few remaining witnesses" of the lives of African Americans slaves that once lived in Wethersfield, CT including Quash Gomer, who purchased his freedom in 1766 from John Smith for 25 pounds.
"In Memory of Quash Gomer, a native of Angola, in Africa, brought from there in 1748 & died June 6th 1799, Aged 68 years." and "In Memory of Tenor Abro, who died April 5th 1795 in the 25th year of his age."




"In Memory of FRANCOIS (Abro) who was born in Africa, and died July 1st 1816, aged about 55 years."


The 18th Century Meeting House in Wethersfield was built between 1761 and 1764.


They next toured the First Church of Christ in Wethersfield, which served as the town's Meeting House in the 18th Century.  They learned about  how John Adams once climbed the steeple of this church and how George Washington attended services here.  They also learned about the church's preparations for a traditional New England Thanksgiving service.  

Mark Twain's Childhood Memories on Slavery











Last week the Project Lucid classes visited the Mark Twain House in Hartford, CT. We had a wonderful day, filled with new friendships and new learning on Mark Twain, the writer.
Read the excerpt below from “The Autobiography of Mark Twain.” In this exerpt, Twain recollects what slavery was like in his home town of Hannibal, Missouri when he was a young boy.
(Historical Note: The first enslaved Africans were forcibly taken from their family and home and transported by ship in chains to America in the late 16oos. Once in the colonies they were needed to work on tobacco and rice plantations. By the 18th century slavery was deeply a part of the American way of life, both in the North an the South. By the early 19th century the Northern states would end slavery, but in the South, in places like Hannibal, Missouri, slavery was still legal. In the “deep South” in places like Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia, many slaves worked on cotton plantations and labored from sun up to sun down picking cotton for their masters, so that it could be cleaned and sent to Northern textile mills to make clothes. Slavery ended in all of the United States in 1865 with the end of the Civil War.)
Memories on Slavery
From “The Autobiography of Mark Twain”
“At first my father owned slaves but by and by he sold them and hired others by the year from the farmers. For a girl of fifteen he paid twelve dollars a year….for a negro woman of twenty-five, as a general house servant, he paid twenty-five dollars a year…for a strong negro woman of forty, as cook washer, etc. , he paid forty dollars a year…and for an able-bodied man he paid from seventy-five to a hundred dollars a year..
All the negroes were friend of ours, and with those of our own age we were in effect [friends.] I say in effect,..We were [friends] and yet not [friends]; color and condition [created] a subtle line which [both of us] were conscious of and [allowed] complete [togetherness] impossible…

In my schoolboy days I had no [strong feeling of dislike] to slavery. I was not aware that there was anything wrong about it….The local papers said nothing against it; the local [churches] taught us that God approved of it, that it was a holy thing and that the doubter need only look in the Bible if he wished to settle his mind-and then the texts were read aloud to us to make the matter sure; if the slaves themselves had a [dislike of slavery] they were wise and said nothing. In Hannibal we seldom saw a slave misused; on the farm never.
There was, however, one small incident of my boyhood days which touched this matter and it must have meant a good deal to me or it would not have stayed in my memory, clear and sharp…all these…years. We had a little slave boy whom we had hired from someone, there in Hannibal. He was from the eastern shore of Maryland and had been brought away from his family and his friends halfway across the American continent and sold. He was a cheery spirit, innocent and gentle, and the noisiest creature that ever was, perhaps. All day long he was singing, whistling, yelling, whooping, laughing-it was maddening, devastating, and unendurable. At last, one day, I lost all my temper and went raging to my mother and said Sandy had been singing for an hour without a single break and I couldn’t stand it, and wouldn’t she please shut him up. The tears came into her eyes and her lip trembled, and she said something like this. ‘Poor thing, when he sings it shows that he is not remembering, and that comforts me; but when he is still I am afraid he is thinking and I cannot bear it. He will never see his mother again; if he can sing I must not hinder it, but be thankful for it. If you were older you would understand me; then that friendless child’s noise would make you glad.’ It was a simple speech and made up of small words, but it went home and Sandy’s noise was not a trouble to me anymore.
….There was nothing about slavery of the Hannibal region to [make people feel in their heart that slavery wasn’t right and to do something about it]. It was the mild domestic slavery, not the brutal plantation [slavery.] Cruelties were very rare and…very unpopular. To separate and sell members of a slave family to different slave masters was a thing not well liked by the people and so it was not often done… I have no recollection of ever seeing a slave auction in that town…..I vividly remember seeing a dozen black men and women chained to one another, once, and lying in a group on the pavement, awaiting shipment to the Southern slave market. Those were the saddest faces I have ever seen.
The slave trader was [hated] by everybody. He was [thought of] as a sort of human devil who bought and [transported] poor helpless people to hell-for to our whites and blacks alike, the Southern plantation was simply hell; no milder name could describe it.”
Response to Literature “Memories of Slavery” by Mark Twain.
  1. Describe the relationship between the young Mark Twain and the slaves on his farm who are his own age.
  2. Why did Mark Twain’s mom let the slave boy Sandy sing all day?
  3. How was slavery in Hannibal, Missouri different from slavery “down the river” in the Southern plantations?
  4. Reread the passage on the slave boy named Sandy. Make a text to self connection between Sandy and you. What is similar in this passage to your life? What is different in this passage to your life?



Mark Twain Quotes



Mark Twain on Writing (Prompt)From St. Nicholas Magazine, August 1916.
From the Dave Thomson
collection
Mark Twain is one of America’s best-known authors. Born in Florida Missouri in 1835, Twain moved to Hannibal Missouri in 1839. He wrote classics such as “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” He was also an enormous observer of life and human nature, finding humor in ordinary, everyday details.
Read his quotes below.
  • Supposing is good, but finding out is better.
  • Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
  • Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
  • The best way to cheer your self is to try to cheer someone else up.
Notice something around you and create a quote of your own.
Post your quote to the blog under comments.
Watch your spelling. No IM language!
(Be sure to write your First Name and First Letter of Your Last Name at the end of the quote. )