Restore History, Educate, and Honor Humanity
By Ben Raynor in The Source on June 1, 2022
MADISON — The Country School of Madison last week conducted its third installation for the Witness Stones Project, which is a national movement that allows students and municipalities to explore the history of enslavement in their towns. This current stone has an even more special meaning for many in town as investigation has revealed the incredible history of a Madison slave and his contributions. Continue reading.
On Monday, May 23, 2022, students from The Country School in Madison gathered their community to share the history and honor the life of Theophilus Niger.
The Country School will bring the Madison community together to remember and honor Theophilus Niger and to place a Witness Stone in his memory.
Witness Stones Project Chair Patricia Wilson Pheanious addressed the congregation at North Madison Congregational Church on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, 2022.
This book was written by students from the Country School of Madison in remembrance of Tamar.
By Jesse Williams on Zip06.com on June 15, 2021
MADISON — More than 200 years ago, here on the same beaches where Madison residents are currently laid out on the sand catching some sun, a shipwreck washed ashore. From that ship, a handful of people emerged, people who mostly would be spending the rest of their lives working, living, praying, and raising families in what was then known as East Guilford.
Very little is known about these shipwreck survivors. For the most part, their lineages haven’t been traced; their descendants cannot look back on old letters or follow some long record of property ownership to a plot of land in Madison, as many others in town can.
That is because these people were enslaved by the Reverend John Todd of Madison First Congregational Church, having been forcibly removed from their families and homes likely in West Africa, enduring the long Middle Passage across the Atlantic to become unwilling, unsung early settlers on the Connecticut shoreline. Continue reading.
In the fall of 2020, eighth graders at the Country School began researching the life of Tamar. Tamar began her life in west Africa around the year 1744 and was captured and transported to New England, where she was enslaved by the Reverend Jonathan Todd, the second pastor of the First Congregational Church of East Guilford (now Madison). Student artwork and writing inspired by their research can be found here. A Witness Stones for Tamar was installed alongside her daughter Lettuce’s Witness Stone. These memorials honor the mother and daughter and all they brought to our community.
By Jesse Williams on ZIP06.COM on August 19, 2020.
GUILFORD MADISON —Though the pandemic prevented a large community ceremony, Madison saw the installation of its first Witness Stone in front of the First Congregational Church earlier this month, with students from The Country School (TCS) completing the year-long research project into the life of Lettuce (pronounced leh-TOOS) Bailey, a woman who was enslaved in Madison in the late 18th- and early 19th century. Continue reading.
We invite you to watch the installation of the Witness Stone to remember and honor Lettuce Bailey. The ceremony was hosted by The Country School of Madison.
By Jesse Williams in Zip06.com on July 8, 2020
MADISON — After months of research, writing, and conversations, students from The Country School (TCS) have finished up their research on one of Madison’s enslaved residents as part of the Witness Stones Project, with plans to come together and install a marker in front of the First Congregational Church next month. Continue reading.
