Witness Stones Project, Inc.

Restore History, Educate, and Honor Humanity

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Witness Stones Unearth New Haven’s History Of Enslavement

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Cold Spring School sixth grader Kymani Chapman. Lucy Gellman Photos.

By Lucy Gellman on Arts Council Greater New Haven on June 4, 2021

Sixth grader Kymani Chapman held a heavy cube steady in both hands, the letters on its face glinting. A name caught in the light: Stepna Primus, once enslaved by Amos Morris, Isaac Forbes and Enos Hemmingway in New Haven. Chapman steadied himself, feet spread wide as he lowered the stone into the ground. As he did, over two centuries of untold history came rushing back to a city that has tried to wipe them clean. Continue reading.

Racial Trauma: Unchaining Ancestors’ Stories to Heal Cities

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Students listening to the talks their classmates are giving / Photo courtesy of Douglas Nygren

By Susana F. Molina in The Urban Activist on February 22, 2021

February is Afro-American History Month. It pays tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity. This year’s commemoration, eight months after the events in Minneapolis, has turned out in a different tone. The racial trauma of an unpayable moral debt lingers over American cities.

Since the Black Awakening of the 1960s Americans have felt more confident about the importance of black history and the contributions of Afro-Americans to history and culture. Across the Atlantic the Civil Rights movements of the sixties made young generations of Germans break with a period of silence imposed by their parents about national-socialism and the Holocaust. They started a long process to come to terms with their history. But have Americans done the same with slavery? Continue reading.

New England’s Abolitionist History At Odds With Racist Realities

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Pat Wilson Pheanious is a Connecticut state representative whose distant relatives are among the first to be memorialized in the Witness Stones Project, which honors the lives of enslaved people in Guilford, Connecticut. Photo Credit: Joe Amon / Connecticut Public / NENC

Witness Stones Project Co-Chair Pat Wilson Pheanious was a guest on a Vermont Public Radio radio series produced by the New England News Collaborative and America Amplified. The  focus of the episode was New England’s direct involvement and complicity in slavery and white supremacy.

We invite you to listen to the program here:  Racism in New England.

“Look at the Whole Story”: CT Educators Rethink Lessons on Racism, Slavery

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Photo credit: Meghan Friedmann

By Meghan Friedmann in the New Haven Register on July 31, 2020

A team of educators hopes to empower teachers to educate their students about racism and slavery in southern New England – and to do so correctly.

A nationally-renowned scholar, two Connecticut teachers and a state representative, all of whom advocate for a reconfiguration of curricula to incorporate overlooked history lessons, are working together to deliver the program teachers next week. Continue reading.

A Memorial Project Is Rediscovering Stories of Slavery in Connecticut

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Witness Stones in Guilford, Conn. marking the location where two 18th century residents named Phillis and Montros were enslaved. Photo credit: Meghan Friedmann.

By Erik Ofgang in Connecticut Magazine on July 24, 2019.

Shortly before the Revolutionary War, an enslaved Connecticut man named Jeffrey Brace was beaten unconscious by his new owner, John Burwell of Milford. Burwell struck Brace with his fists, legs and a chair. In a written account years later, Brace recalled that one blow to his head during the beating was so hard it “pealed [sic] up a piece of my scalp about as big as my three fingers.” After waking up, Brace was subjected to two rounds of whipping and made to walk a quarter-mile barefoot in the winter.

Brace’s visceral, difficult-to-read account of the horrors of slavery in Connecticut is the type of story we don’t often hear about Northeastern states, says Dennis Culliton, a recently retired teacher at Adams Middle School in Guilford. In Connecticut, we’re good at “pointing our fingers south and saying how awful those people were,” he says. But when it comes to confronting our own past, we have more trouble. Continue reading.

 

Guilford Project Researching Slavery Finds Descendant Living in Connecticut

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Photo credit: Meghan Friedmann

By Ed Stannard in the New Haven Register on November 4, 2018

GUILFORD — Patricia Wilson Pheanious was sitting on the porch of her Ashford home when her husband came out and told her that someone was on the phone and wanted to talk about her ancestry.

Dennis Culliton, co-founder of the Witness Stones Project, in which markers are placed where enslaved Guilford residents lived or worked, had found a living descendant, the sixth-great-granddaughter of Montros and Phillis, Africans brought from Barbados to Connecticut in 1710.

Slavery in New England

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Dennis Culliton and Douglas Nygren spoke to the Connecticut Academy of Arts & Sciences (Photo: Gregory Tignor and Monica Aspianto)

 

Minutes of the 1464th Meeting of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences by Gregory Tignor and Monica Aspiantoon on February 13, 2018

The President introduced Douglas Nygren who introduced the guest speaker with the following statement. “When I approached Gregory last April about our doing a presentation on the Witness Stone Project and slavery in Guilford, he booked us for February because it is Black History Month.  That sounded appropriate. I didn’t know, however, how appropriate the talk would be. Charlottesville had not occurred, and the project we had imagined was just an idea. The plan was to honor those enslaved in Guilford with memory stones that would be placed in the sidewalk. They would bear the enslaved person’s name and vital data. We hoped to have a school component, but didn’t know whether that would be possible and we didn’t know how the town would receive our project. We have been surprised and grateful at how receptive the town has been. Continue reading.

Last Will and Testament of David Naughty

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Last Will and Testament of David Naughty(e) 

Dated: 26 June 1738 

The last will and testament of David Naughty(e) was written in 1738 and lists how his estate would be distributed upon his death. He instructs his executor, heir, and wife Ruth Naughty to free his slaves Montros, Phillis, Pompey, and their future children. He leaves his slaves money, land, and a dwelling house on the death of Ruth. 

Mrs. Ruth Naughtye Executrix of the Last Will & Testament of 

Mr. David Naughtye Late of Guilford Dec’d Exhibited A Will 

which was proved and approved in Court & ordered to be Recorded. 

In the name of God amen; This Twenty Sixth day of July Anno Domini 1738_ 

I David Naughty of Guilford in the County of Newhaven in the Colony of Connecticut in New England being under Some Infirmities of body, but of Sound mind memory Thanks be given to god Therefor; Calling to mind the mortallity of my body and knowing that it is appointed for all men once to Dye, Do make and ordain this my Last Will & Testament; that is to Say; principally & first of all, I give and Recommend my Soul into the hands of God that gave it and my body I Recommend to the Earth to be buried in Decent Christian burial and Discretion of my Executors. Nothing Doubting but at the General Resurrection I Shall Receive the Same again by the mighty power of God; and as Touching Such Worldly Estate Wherewith it hath pleased God to Bless me in this Life I Give Demise and Dispose of the Same in the following manner & form ___ 

Imprimis ___ 

my just Debts & funeral Charges being first paid; I Give & Bequeath to my well beloved wife Ruth Naughty the use & Improvement of all my Estate both Real & personal to be possessed & Enjoyed by her During the time She Shall Remain my Widow, and in case She Shall marry then I give to her only my best bed and furniture and my best Silver Tankard; Which is all She is to Enjoy of my Estate after Such marriage 

Item ____ 

I give and bequeath to my nephew David Naughty, Son of my Brother Peter Naughty all the Residue & Remainder of my Estate both Real & personal whatsoever or wheresoever after I Decease or marriage of my s’d wife; he paying out of my personal Estate or the Incomes of my Real Estate what I do hereafter order him to pay, and also Excepting What I otherwise order & dispose of in this will that is to say first my will is and I do order that my negros (viz) my negro man named Montros, my negro woman named Phillis and my negro Boy named Pompye (at the Decease of my sd wife Ruth) Shall be free and no longer Servant or Slaves; and also any Child or Children that may hereafter be born of S’d Phillis Shall be free in like manner at the Decease of my s’d wife; also within three years after s’d Montros Shall become free as afores’d. There shall be built for s’d Montros a house of Sixteen feet Square and one Storie high with a Sutable Roof, a Chimney & Celler, with Doors floors and all things necessary & Sutable for a family to Dwell in, well finished, Which house Shall be built & Set on a Lot of Land near the nutplain farms which I bought of James Bishop Continuing 

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Containing about four acres; whi Lot I to s’d Montros his Heirs & assigns forever; I also give to s’d Montros one Cow & a Calf which House & cow & calf Shall be provided & built at the Cost & Charge of my nephew the S’d David Naughty or his Heirs. And further my will is that S’d Montros with his wife and family shall have Liberty to Dwell in my House at the nutplain farm, from the time he Shall become free till his House be finished on S’d Lot abovementioned and Shall have the Improvement of his sd Lot in t’ mean time and also I do order and Enjoyn sd David to pay to sd Montros Phillis & Pompy the Sum of Ten pounds a year yearly and every year So Long as the sd Three negros Shall Live, Which Shall be paid out of the Incomes of sd Lands. For the more Comfortable maintainance & Support of sd negros; and in case of the Death Of Either or any of sd negros there shall be abated one Third part of sd Sum upon t’ Death one of them and Two Thirds at t’ Death of two of them, and the Surviver or Survivers Shall Still have Each their third part of sd Sum paid to them & t’ Longest Lived of them, and Sd David Shall also provide for sd negros Two Beds (viz) a feather Bed & a Chaff Bed, a Table, Some Chairs, a porrige pot, a Kittle, and a pail for their House Keeping 

Item __ I Give and bequeath to to my niece Margret Naughty one hundred pounds to be paid to her by her Brother t’ sd David Naughty within three years after sd David Shall come into the possession of the Estate I give to him I also give a mourning suit of all sorts to be provided for her at my Decease by my Executors To Margret Naughty Nothing 

Item ___ I Give and bequeath to my Two nieces Ruth Naughty & Joanna Naughty Each of them a mourning Suit to be provided for them by my Executors at my Decease ___ 

Item ___ I Give all the Rest of my wearing apparrel to my negro man Montros 

Item ___ I Give my Lands Lying in Saybrook to my abovesd nephew David Naughty and to his Heirs & assigns forever in fee Simple, and all the Residue of my Lands Lying in Guilford & in Litchfield I give to my sd nephew in fee tail So that it shall be to to the use and behoof of him sd David Naughty During his natural Life, and after his Decease to be to the use & behoof of t’ Eldest male Heir of his Body Lawfully to be begotten. During the Life of Such heir, and at the Decease of Such male Heir to the next male heir in the Line Decendant bearing the Surname of Naughty till that name be Extinct in the natural Course To be always to t’ use & behoof of one person only at one time, and in Default of Such male heir, by sd David to be begotten to the use & behoof of the Eldest female heir of the Body of sd David to be Lawfully begotten, and to the Eldest male heir of such female he changeing his Surname (if need be) to that of Naughty, by obtaining a grant for t’ same, and in Default of Issue male or female of the Body of sd David to be lawfully begotten, Then at the Decease of sd David Such Lands Shall be to t’ use and behoof of Eldest of my nieces that Shall be then Surviving During Life. and to her Eldest male heir obtaining the Surname of Naughty as above sd, and for want of Such Issue of the Eldest of my sd nieces to t’ next eldest In Like manner, & to her male heir and so to Decend as afore Specified ___ 

My True Intent & meaning is and it is my Will that all my Lands Lying in Guilford & Litchfield aforesd Do forever after my Decease Remain & be the Estate of but one person at one time to be always held an feetail (?) forever and So to Decend that the male heir en t’ Line Decendant Shall always have to prefe rence 

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And for want of Such male heir the female heir in t’ Same Line to be preferred, and for want of heirs male or female in the Line Decendant then the next male heir in the Colatterl Line to be preferred. And for want of Such male heir t’ female heir in t’ Same line to Inherit : and Whatever it Shall happen that sd Lands Shall fall to one who shall not have t’ Surname Naughty; Such heir Shall, heir Shall Procure a Grant to be Surnamed Naughty, or otherwise the next of t’ same blood who Shall procure that name Shall Inherit sd Lands, and sd the Same Shall be held & Decend from Generation to Generation forever to my own name & Blood as afore Specified. 

Lastly___ I do hereby Constitute ordain and appoint my well beloved wife Ruth Naughty Sole Executrix of this my Last Will & Testament untill my nephew David Naughty Shall arrive at the age of Twenty one years and the he sd David Shall be also Executor of this my sd Last Will & Testament; and I do hereby Revoke and disannul all other & former Wills Testaments and Executors by me at any time before named or made, Ratifieing and Confirming this & no other to be my Last Will & Testament; In Witness whereof I have hereunto Set my hand & Seal Dated as above Written 

Signed Sealed Published Pronounced & Declared by the sd David Naughty 

as his Last will & Testament in the presence of us 

David Naughty 

Ebn’r Parmele At a Court of Probate held in Guilford June 19th 1739 

George Hill Ebenezer Parmele George Hill & Sam’l Hill Jun’r the Witnesses to sd above written Sam’l Hill Jun’r will personally appeared before this Court and made oath that they Saw Mr. David Naughty Late of Guilford Dec’d Sign & Seal the above written Instrument & heard 

him Declare t’ Same to be his Last Will & Testament. And that he was of Sound mind & Memory at t’ doing thereof according to their best Judgement 7 that they together all 

Signed as Witnesses in presence of t’ Testator 

(Signed) 

Test Sam’l Hill Clerk 

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