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#FranklinCoMA

Engaging with the Legacies of Northern Slavery

WSP · Feb 24, 2025 ·

A one-day conference to explore the historical and ongoing legacies of slavery in Northern communities, focusing on the completion of the Witness Stones memorials in Deerfield and featuring presentations on research, interpretation, and activism related to this history.

This is a hybrid program that will take place both in person and virtually via Zoom; registrants will receive a link to the recorded presentations.
We hope you will be able to attend.

Pricing

  • Virtual Programming: $35
  • In-Person Programming: $50 (does not include lunch)
  • In-Person Programming With Lunch: $86 (includes a sandwich buffet at the Deerfield Inn)
  • In-Person “Slavery, Labor, and Freedom” Walking Tour: free

Registration

  • Click here to purchase a virtual only registration.
  • Click here to purchase an in-person only registration (including choosing the option for lunch and/or registering for the free walking tour).
 
Conference Schedule
 
Saturday, April 5, 2025

9:15–9:30 a.m. Welcome: John Davis, President and CEO of Historic Deerfield, and Pat Wilson Pheanious, Executive Director of Witness Stones, Inc.

9:30–10:15 a.m. “From Lorenzo Greene to Gloria McCahon Whiting: The History, Historiography, and Future of New England Slavery Studies”
Jerrad Pacatte, Associate Research Fellow with the “Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery Project” at Harvard University

10:15–11 a.m. “A Constellation of Hope & Freedom: Literary Activism, A Black American Tradition”
Erika Slocumb, Director of Interpretation and Visitor Experience at the Stowe Center for Literary Activism in Hartford, CT, and Ph.D. candidate of Black Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst

11–11:20 a.m.  Break

11:20 a.m.–12:05 p.m. “From Chains to Change”
Anika Lopes, Founder and President, Ancestral Bridges Foundation Inc.

12:05–2 p.m.  Lunch and time for exploration of the Witness Stones

2–2:45 p.m. “Discard all associations that bind [you]”: Rethinking the relationship between slavery in Deep South and Western Massachusetts”
Dr. Ousmane Power-Greene, Professor of History at Clark University

2:45–3:30 p.m. “Interpreting Slavery as Part of the 21st-Century Civil Rights Movement”
Kristin Gallas, Founder and Principal, MUSE Consulting

3:30–3:50 p.m. Break

3:50–4:35 p.m. Perspectives from Pat Wilson Pheanious, Executive Director of Witness Stones, Inc.

4:35–4:45 p.m.  Concluding remarks

5:00–5:45 p.m. Optional: “Slavery, Labor, and Freedom” Walking Tour. This tour is included in the program but requires pre-registration.

Painting a More Complete Picture: “Unnamed Figures” Highlights Black Presence and Absence in Early American History

WSP · Apr 18, 2024 ·

“Bust of a Woman Wearing a Liberty Cap” (artist unidentified) is part of “Unnamed Figures: Black Presence and Absence in the Early American North.” CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/Jurate Veceraite

By Chris Larabee in the Daily Hampshire Gazette on April 18, 2024

In partnership with the American Folk Art Museum, Historic Deerfield is presenting an exhibition on the unexplored histories of Black people in early America.

“Unnamed Figures: Black Presence and Absence in the Early American North” explores Black representation in paintings, needlework, ceramics and other media by challenging people to think about the conventional historical narratives and what aspects of those histories may not be telling the full story. The exhibition will be on view May 1 through Aug. 4.

Amanda Lange, Historic Deerfield’s Curatorial Department director, said “Unnamed Figures” is about telling the “broader view of history” in the Valley and the Northeast and pushing back on the idea that slavery and anti-Black racism was/is just a “southern issue.” Continue reading.

Historic Deerfield Looks to Shine Light on Untold History with Memorial Plaques

WSP · Oct 12, 2022 ·

Pat Wilson Pheanious, co-chair of the Witness Stones Project’s board of directors, speaks to her involvement with the memorial markers installed in Old Deerfield that commemorate people who were enslaved there. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

By Chris Larabee in the Greenfield Recorder on October 12, 2022

DEERFIELD — Up and down Old Main Street, houses from the Colonial era still stand, now turned into educational opportunities by Historic Deerfield in an effort to share the town’s rich history.

That history, however, didn’t always consist of the full representation, until Wednesday morning.

In partnership with the Witness Stones Project, Historic Deerfield unveiled 19 bronze memorial plaques outside 12 houses to commemorate the enslaved men, women and children whose stories are often untold or buried by the sands of time. By the mid-18th century, enslaved people lived in more than one-third of the houses on Old Main Street.

Speaking at a ceremony outside the Ashley House on Wednesday, Historic Deerfield President and CEO John Davis said the goal of the markers is to tell the full history of Deerfield while humanizing those who had their human rights stolen from them. “In some cases, we know little about the individuals. Even their names have been lost to time. In others, we know more about them, and our efforts to learn as much as we can about their lives and their stories are ongoing,” Davis said. “We seek to honor the humanity in each person and to recognize their many contributions in building Deerfield into the important historic locus that it is today.”

The Witness Stones Project is a Connecticut-based educational organization dedicated to restoring the history of enslaved people across the Northeast. Each marker is a 4-inch-by-4-inch bronze plaque identifying the person along with a birth or baptism date.

According to the Witness Stones Project’s website, this is the first project the organization has undertaken in Massachusetts.

Joining Davis in speaking was Witness Stones Project board of directors co-chair and former Connecticut state Rep. Pat Wilson Pheanious. As a member of the ninth generation of a now 11-generation family that has lived in the United States for hundreds of years, Wilson Pheanious shared her own experience in learning about the history of her enslaved ancestors and how it changed her view of her own history, as well as the country’s.

“The significance of finding my family ’s history was profound,” she said. “If you don’t know your full history, you cannot know your full value. And that is as true for a nation as it is for an individual.”

In learning her own history, Wilson Pheanious said she was able to find herself a place in history, despite the dark times her ancestors experienced.

“This knowledge doesn’t detract from my affection, it makes me love America more. I realized how very deeply I was already invested. My family had fought for this country before it was America,” she said. “I know that America is mine because 300 years of my ancestors’ sweat and tears earned her for my people. … They earned their place in our history in this land with their blood, and they shaped and fought for America’s existence and freedom at a time when their own was denied.”

In a conversation after the ceremony, Davis said these memorial plaques can help start to repay part of the “debt that we owe these 19 individuals,” while also potentially allowing someone to find their own ancestral connections.

Davis added these markers are just the start of a long-term partnership with the Witness Stones Project and the museum’s efforts to tell an all-inclusive history of Deerfield. He said they plan to launch an educational curriculum for teachers and students in area schools next year. Other long-term plans include a mobile app and an online database.

“This is really the beginning of the work we hope to do with the Witness Stones,” Davis said. “We encourage folks to come and follow the markers.” More information about the Witness Stones Project can be found at witnessstonesproject.org.

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