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.
