Witness Stones Project Inc.

Restore History, Educate, and Honor Humanity

#ShemCT21

Remembering the Enslaved in Guilford

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Adams Middle School 8th grade students researched and wrote essays to restore history and to honor the humanity and contributions of three enslaved individuals, Shem, Tombo, and Peter Gardner, who helped build our community. Witness Stones in their names were installed on Ledge Hill Road in North Guilford.

The students, members of the Witness Stones Project, state and local representatives, and the greater community in a ceremony on June 1st. Student essays were read by Beth Payne, descendent of the Scranton Family who held Peter Gardner in captivity, Pat Wilson, 5th great niece of Tombo, and Rockley Miller, descendent of the Chittenden Family who held Shem in captivity.

Following the remarks, Witness Stones bearing the names of each enslaved individual were installed in the cemetery in North Guilford.

North Guilford to Receive First Witness Stone, First Installation Since Pandemic

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By Jesse Williams in the Guilford Courier on May 25, 2021

It has been about two years since Guilford saw the installation of a Witness Stone. That’s about to change.

The project, founded by retired teacher Dennis Culliton and psychologist Doug Nygren has split, evolved, and greatly expanded since it was originally conceived as a way to teach middle school students about slavery through local history, something that gained even more momentum with the Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder a year ago. 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.