News and Features
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Witness Stones Installation Ceremony in West Hartford
In October 2019, Witness Stones West Hartford remembered and honored the lives of six enslaved men and women. We invite you to watch highlights from the ceremony here:
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Students Find and Share an Untold History of the Enslaved People of West Hartford
By Ronni Newton in We-Ha.Com on October 24, 2019 History involves the study of what happened in the past, but we all know there is more than one side to most stories. There are also stories that have yet to be told. When Tracey Wilson and Liz Devine started the Witness Stones Project in…
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A Memorial Project Is Rediscovering Stories of Slavery in Connecticut
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…
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Dennis Culliton Receives Social Studies Special Projects Award
Guilford Public Schools News and Announcements on June 12, 2019 Dennis Culliton, social studies teacher at Adams Middle School, has received the Special Projects Award from the Connecticut Council for the Social Studies (CCSS) for his work in leading the development of the Witness Stones Project and its application in the classroom. The award recognizes…
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A Witness to History: Brown Chairs Witness Stone’s Juneteenth at Hyland House
By Pam Johnson on Zip06.com on June 12, 2019 GUILFORD — “When we did the first Juneteenth last year, the first question we asked the audience was, ‘How many people know what Juneteenth is?’” recalls Stephanie Little Brown. “Now this was in a crowd of about 80 adults. Probably eight hands went up. That’s through…
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Renbrook School Students Share Their Work
Fifth graders in the Renbrook School’s Social Studies, Language Arts, and Arts Class share their work with the Witness Stones Project.
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Witness Stones Project Honors Prut
From the Kingswood Oxford School on June 3, 2019 History teacher Katie McCarthy’s Form 5 class addressed our nation’s complicated and painful history of slavery by participating in the Witness Stones Project which “seeks to restore the history and to honor the humanity and contributions of the enslaved individuals who helped build our communities” according…
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West Hartford Slave, Revolutionary War Soldier Honored on Local War Memorial
By Peter Marteka in the Hartford Courant on May 23, 2019 As Marc Boucher carved the simple four-letter name into the Revolutionary War memorial in the West Hartford Town Center Thursday morning, pieces of granite flew into the air. In a manner of seconds, a man simply known as “Prut” was added to a list of…
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The Connecticut Role in Slavery Was Worse Than You Think
By Meghan Friedmann in New Haven Register on February 26, 2019. GUILFORD — For many, Harriet Beecher Stowe — the Connecticut-bred woman behind the book “Uncle Tom’s Cabin —represents one of the country’s most famous abolitionists. But Dennis Culliton, the Guilford history teacher behind the Witness Stones project, wants to illuminate another, largely untold piece of Stowe’s history:…
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National Recognition for Witness Stones in Teaching Tolerance
Please read the feature article, “Bearing Witness” by Jenifer Frank, in the Spring 2019 issue of Teaching Tolerance: Hana started her school paper with a description of Guilford’s town green—and for good reason. The beautiful, centuries-old space is the hub of this Connecticut coastal community. Residents like Hana, who attends Adams Middle School in Guilford,…