News and Features
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Country School Students Record, Honor Life of Enslaved Madison Resident
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…
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Witness Stones Project Updating Curriculum to Link History with News
By Jesse Williams in Zip06.com on June 23, 2020 Responding to the recent civil unrest following the killing of George Floyd as well as the specific racial inequalities revealed by the coronavirus pandemic, The Witness Stones Project, Inc. (WSP) is updating its program to better tie current events to American’s history of racial oppression. WSP…
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In the Wake of George Floyd’s Death, a Connecticut Town Marks Juneteenth and Recalls Its Own Legacy of Enslaving Men, Women and Children
By Susan Dunne in the Hartford Courant on June 19, 2020 WEST HARTFORD — On Aug. 20, 1740, John Hosmer of West Hartford settled a debt with his neighbor. He didn’t settle the debt with money, but by handing over Ned, a 9-year-old Black child valued at 115 pounds. Continue Reading.
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Understanding the Twin Pandemics: Covid-19 and Racism in America
It has been a long three months in the United States. First, the early data of the deaths from Covid-19 in America reflected an unacceptable racial disparity. Then, the ongoing killing of unarmed African Americans by the police and others, culminated in the cold-blooded murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, leaves us in pain. Now…
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Country School Students Tell the Stories of Slavery in Their Community
From The Country School, published April 2020. Eighth Graders at the School began participating in the Witness Stones Project in the fall of 2019, setting out to tell an untold story about a woman named Lettuce Bailey, who was enslaved in Madison, Connecticut, until she was freed in the late 18th century, first in 1791…
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Country School Students Take in Poetry as They Begin to Research Slavery in Madison
By Jesse Williams in Zip06.com on December 18, 2019 MADISON — As 7th- and 8th-grade students at The Country School (TCS) prepare to delve into the history of local slavery and the lives of enslaved people as part of The Witness Stones Project, the school hosted a speaker whose words and insights helped prepare…
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The Brief Appearance and Constant Disappearance of Dinah Gardner
By Dennis Culliton Until six months ago, we didn’t have much to go on if we wanted to tell the story of Dinah. We had a Bill of Sale written in 1792 where Guilford’s selectmen purchased Dinah from Elias Cadwell for 12 pounds lawful money for a term of four years when she would be…
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Country School Students Seek to Research, Honor Lives of Local Enslaved Persons
By Jesse Williams on Zip06.com on November 20, 2019 MADISON — While slavery has remained a consistent, underlying thread causing harm and affecting communities throughout the country, the realities of what slavery looked like in any given place often remains unexplored, according to Dennis Culliton, a former Guilford teacher who has made it his mission…
