Installation Ceremony Honoring Frost Blackwell
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Witness Stone Installation Ceremony in Pennington, New Jersey
Witness Stones Project Announces New Partnership
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 South Bound Brook, New Jersey, Public Schools and the Abraham Staats House. The school and museum will be using the Project’s curriculum and landscape markers to expand their teaching of the local history of slavery.
South Bound Brooks Public Schools’s students develop a spirit of belonging and a desire for excellence as a result of collaboration with teachers, staff, parents, and community members. This enables the students to become exemplary citizens as they develop the ability to excel in their chosen and future endeavors.
The Abraham Staats House was built c. 1740 near the banks of the Raritan River. The property is associated with significant people and events during the American Revolution. It is also associated with the growth of the community in the early 19th century, when the Delaware & Raritan Canal was constructed between the house and the river. The house remained a private home until it was acquired by the Borough in 1999. It was placed on the New Jersey and National Registers in 2002. The Friends of the Abraham Staats House support the ongoing care and restoration of the house and its grounds, and research and interpret the history of the property and its people. The goal is to foster an understanding of this history and its relationship to the history of South Bound Brook, surrounding communities, the State of New Jersey and our Country. To promote this understanding, the Friends develop and present public and educational programs, exhibits, publications and presentations in various media.
New Jersey Witness Stone Affiliate Set to Expand
Friday Truehart, Once Enslaved in Hopewell, Commemorated in Witness Stone Project Ceremony
Timberlane Middle School became the first in the state to partake in a project that culminated on Thursday with the placement of a permanent brass stone in Hopewell Boro to honor the life of an enslaved individual.
Through the Witness Stones Project, eighth grade students have learned about the life of Friday Truehart, a thirteen-year-old boy who came to Hopewell Valley as the slave of Rev. Oliver Hart. Truehart’s life was documented in the book If These Stones Could Talk by his descendant Beverly Mills and fellow historian Elaine Buck. Continue reading.
Witness Stones Project Comes to New Jersey to Honor, Remember Enslaved Teen
By Michael Mancuso for NJ Advance Media for NJ.com on April 28, 2022
More than 240 years ago, in Charleston, South Carolina, a 13-year-old African American boy named Friday Trueheart was separated from his mother Dinah, when their enslaver, the Rev. Oliver Hart, came north to New Jersey and took the young teen with him.
Oliver would become the new pastor at the Old School Baptist Church, which still stands on West Broad Street in Hopewell.
On Thursday, a Witness Stone — a permanent brass marker to memorialize an enslaved individual — was unveiled on the ground in front of the church by Truehart’s direct descendant and family matriarch Patricia True Payne. Continue reading.
Witness Stones Installation Ceremony: Honoring Friday Truehart
We invite you to watch the program below and to read the program here.
Timberlane Middle School to Hold Ceremony Honoring Enslaved People
From CentralJersey.com on March 15, 2022
Timberlane Middle School (TMS) will hold the first-ever Witness Stones ceremony in the state on April 28.
TMS, located in the Hopewell Valley Regional School District in Pennington, will host the ceremony from 9:30-10:45 a.m. at the Hopewell Old School Baptist Meeting House, 46-48 W. Broad St., Hopewell.
Timberlane Students Will Be First in New Jersey to Undertake a Witness Stones Project
Timberlane Middle School will hold the first annual Witness Stones ceremony on Thursday, April 28, 2022 from 9:30am to 10:45am at the Hopewell Old School Baptist Meeting House at 46-48 W Broad St, Hopewell, NJ 08525.
Due to the small size of the venue, the event is by invitation only.
The Witness Stones Project, Inc. of Guilford, Ct., seeks to restore the history and honor the humanity of the enslaved individuals who helped build our communities. The Project provides research assistance, teacher development, and curriculum support to help middle school students study the history of slavery in their own communities. The students explore the lives of enslaved individuals through primary source documents.
Timberlane students will bring the Hopewell community together to place a Witness Stone (a permanent brass marker) to memorialize an enslaved individual, Friday Truehart, who came to this region with the Reverend Oliver Hart from South Carolina, when he was a thirteen year boy. This stone will honor where Friday lived, worked, and worshiped in the Hopewell region.
At public installation ceremonies, students, faculty, administrators, historians, public officials, local clergy, and the larger community will remember and honor the forgotten through music, poetry, oration, and reflection. The Project’s hope is that the students’ work and the public memorials inspire communities to learn their true history, dismantle current inequities, and build a just future.
The project and event will be completed and organized in conjunction with the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum and its founders, Elaine Buck and Beverly Mills. Timberlane Middle School is proud to be the first school in the state of New Jersey to undertake a Witness Stones Project.
History Detectives: Lifelong Friends Bring Black History to Life in the Sourlands
News12 reported on the work of Elaine Buck & Beverly Mills at Witness Stones Project Affiliate the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum. We invite you to watch the coverage here.
