• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

Witness Stones Project, Inc.

Restoring History & Honoring Humanity

  • Home
  • What Is the Witness Stones Project
    • What Is the Witness Stones Project?
    • Praise for the Witness Stones Project
    • Annual Reports
    • Our Local Affiliates
    • Speakers Bureau
    • Who We Are
    • FAQ
  • Those We Remember
  • Our Communities
  • News
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Give Now
  • Show Search
Hide Search

Connecticut Church Creates Interfaith Collaboration to Learn the State’s Slave History

WSP · Jun 22, 2023 ·

A Witness Stone describing the life of formerly enslaved man John C. Wally is ready to be placed at the Wilton, Connecticut, Historical Society thanks to research by three congregations to learn his story.

By St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church on Episcopal News Service on June 22, 2023

During the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Wilton, Connecticut, began to explore the church’s complicity with racism since its founding in 1802. At its 2020 annual convention, The Episcopal Church in Connecticut adopted a resolution “to direct each Parish, Worshipping Community, and Intentional Episcopal Community to take steps to discover and document historic complicity in racism in their parish and communities.” Early research showed that founding members of St. Matthew’s were enslavers while later, many freed Black individuals had been active members.

Known as the “Georgia of the North” by abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, Connecticut was a key participant in the Triangular Trade that brought Africans to the Americas via the Middle Passage. Slavery existed in New England just as it did in the South in colonial times, with Connecticut finally abolishing it in 1848. Parishioners learned these facts alongside personal stories of people enslaved in Connecticut, which were collected from primary documents by middle school students and their youth leaders of congregations in three different towns in Connecticut during the first six months of 2023. Continue reading.

Witness Stones #WiltonCT

Connect with Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Project Partner

Copyright © 2025 · Witness Stones Project, Inc.
WitnessStones a trademark of Witness Stones Project, Inc.

  • Home
  • DEI Statement
  • Financial Statements
  • Privacy Policy
  • Strategic Plan