The Witness Stones Project today announced a new affiliation with the Wooster School in Danbury, Connecticut. The college-preparatory school will be using the Project’s curriculum and landscape markers to expand their teaching of the history of slavery in Connecticut.
Students will examine primary source documents, including property records, probate documents, and census data, in order to understand the reality of slavery and to restore the memory of those individuals who were enslaved. They will learn how to document and describe the dehumanization and paternalism of slavery; the economic and legal framework that supported slavery; and, the agency, resistance, and contributions of the enslaved to our local and national history. Finally, these students will be inviting their communities to witness as they install memorial stones for individuals who were enslaved in their town.
The Wooster School is guided by its purpose, promise, and beliefs, which represent the natural evolution of the school’s mission since its founder, the Reverend Aaron Coburn, charged them with preparing its students to be “gentle, generous, truthful, kind, and brave.” These commitments remind them that as a school community they must learn from the past, embrace the present, and look to the future as they prepare their graduates for college and lives of purpose in a world of increasing complexity and change.
