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Searching for Slavery in Northwest Connecticut: Project-Based Learning on the Hilltop

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By Kristina Miller in Salisbury School News  on January 15, 2021

History Faculty Rhonan Mokriski ’90 and his students embarked on a project-based learning course this year entitled, “Searching for Slavery in Northwest Connecticut.” The goal was to engage students as public historians in authentic tasks to discover and share the local contributions people of color have made to the building of our communities.

To prepare, over the summer, Rhonan helped facilitate a Connecticut Association of Independent Schools webinar for educators on how to rethink lessons on racism and slavery. His program was featured in the New Haven Register, and enabled him to tee up a number of projects when the boys returned this fall.  Continue reading.

Historic Deerfield Joins Witness Stones Project

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Historic Deerfield

The Witness Stones Project, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to restore the history and honor the humanity of the enslaved individuals who helped build our communities, today announced a new affiliation with Historic Deerfield. The museum will be using the Project’s curriculum and landscape markers to expand their teaching of the history of slavery in Deerfield, Massachusetts.

The education programs at Historic Deerfield are based on the belief that experiencing authentic objects is a powerful instrument of learning. The Witness Stones Project will be a complementary addition to those programs. Educators and students will explore how to use historic documents to understand the history of slavery and to restore the memory of those individuals who were enslaved. The collaboration will include professional development for classroom teachers and museum educators and public programming. It will be launched in autumn 2021.

The Witness Stones Project was founded in 2017 in Guilford, Connecticut. Since then, the Project has expanded to work with affiliated institutions in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.

Historic Deerfield is a museum of early American life situated in an authentic 18th-century New England village in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts. Its historic houses and world-famous collection of early American decorative arts open doors to new perspectives that inspire people to seek a deeper understanding of themselves, their communities, and the world.

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