Wednesday, April 14, 2010

"Fortune's Story"-Slavery & The Pursuit of Freedom in Waterbury

In March the Project:LUCID students went to the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, CT  There the students hooked up with their Highcrest partners and learned about Slavery in Waterbury, CT.  As a pre-visit activity, they explored Fortune's Story on the Mattatuck Museum's website.  
As part of the tour, the students took a walk around the green, exploring the rich history of the area, with a focus on Fortune's family as well as the lives of the African Americans of Colonial Waterbury.


The group stopped at the Historic Grand Street Cemetery where Fortune and the other African Americans, both slave and free, were buried in the separate, "colored burial plot."

The burial ground was moved in the late 19th century to make way for the Silas Bronson public library and those that could moved their loved ones remains to the new Riverside cemetery nearby.  Those too poor to move their family members, including the towns slave community, remains interred on this spot.