Next Historical Society Program Will Examine Slavery In Connecticut

In commemoration of Black Heritage Month, Newtown Historical Society will present “Slavery, Abolition and the Underground Railroad in Connecticut” Monday, February 12, at 7:30 pm. It will be in the community room of C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street.

The program will be presented in a slide program by photographer and historian Bob Berthelson.

The first Connecticut law establishing the legality of slavery was passed in 1650, but slavery had existed in the colony well before that. By 1660, slave codes were passed prohibiting blacks from serving in the militia and from wandering freely beyond their own communities.

Things began to change in the next century, however, with the slave trade being outlawed in 1771. Following the Revolution, in which 289 Connecticut free blacks and slaves served in the patriot forces, a plan for gradual emancipation was enacted. The law called for any slave born after March of that year to be automatically freed at age 25.

From a peak slave population of 5,100 in 1774, the final end of slavery in Connecticut was achieved in 1848.

The state also produced some notable abolitionists and supporters of rights for free blacks, including the militarist John Brown, educator Prudence Crandall, writer Harriet Beecher Stowe, and preacher Jonathan Edwards, Jr.

In addition to these more famous leaders, Connecticut also provided active support for the Underground Railroad, the secretive system designed to help escaped southern slaves reach freedom in Canada. Because federal ^law prohibited helping an escaped slave, and bounty hunters were authorized to recapture the escapees by force if necessary, the northern “conductors” took every precaution to maintain secrecy; as a result, while a few “stations” have been documented, most have disappeared without record.

At the same time, the romance of a later period has developed the mythology of nearly every hidden cubbyhole and cellar being declared a stop on the great road to freedom! 

Bob Berthelson is a Trumbull resident with a lifelong interest in history. He is a past president of the Civil War Round Table of Southern Connecticut, and is a recipient of the Award of Merit of the Connecticut League of Historical Societies, and a Certificate of Commendation of the American Association of State and Local History.

He is also a founder and past president of Connecticut Post Card Club. Currently a facilitator at Norwalk Community College Lifetime Learners Institute, he has written for Yankee magazine, and prepared more than 45 historical slide programs that he has presented more than 1,500 times to various groups, including several prior appearances for Newtown Historical Society.

All Newtown Historical Society programs are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served following the program.

For further information, call the society at 426-5937.