Black History Resources
February 1, 2023 • The State
Segregation Picket line-Noah Webster School, Hartford

Segregation Picket line-Noah Webster School, Hartford - Hartford Times Collection, Hartford History Center, Hartford Public Library


Dr. Carter G. Woodson, known as the “Father of Black History,” founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), to raise awareness of the contributions African Americans made to the economic, social, and political history of the United States. Below are some opportunities to investigate Connecticut’s own contributions to the narrative of Black history in America.

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Websites

Connecticut Collections. “African American Oral Histories,” n.d. Link.
Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. “Ann Petry,” 1994. Link.
Hartford Courant. “Beyond Complicity. The Forgotten Story of Connecticut’s Slave Ships,” 2014. Link.
Yale University, Gilder Lerhman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, & Abolition. “Citizens ALL: African Americans in Connecticut 1700-1850,” 2016. Link.
Connecticut State Library. “Connecticut’s ‘Black Governors,’” 2016. Link.
Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. “Constance Baker Motley,” 2016. Link
Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. “Edythe J. Gaines,” 2016. Link.
Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. “Jewel Plummer Cobb,” 2008. Link.
Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. “Joyce Yerwood,” 2016. Link.
Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. “Laura Wheeler Waring,” 2016. Link.
Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. “Maria Miller Stewart,” 2001. Link.
Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. “Marian Anderson,” 2016. Link.
Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. “Martha Minerva Franklin,” 2016. Link.
Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. “Mary Townsend Seymour,” 2006. Link.
Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. “Rachel Taylor Milton,” 2016. Link.
Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. “Ruth A. Lucas,” 2017. Link.
Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. “Sarah Lee Brown Fleming,” 2020. Link.
Connecticut Digital Archive. “Slavery and Abolition,” n.d. Link.
Yale University, The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, & Abolition. “The Black Law of Connecticut (1833) - Citizens ALL: African Americans in Connecticut 1700-1850 - PDF,” 2016. Link.
Yale University - Yale, Slavery & Abolition. “The Story of Yale Abolitionists,” 2016. Link.

Places

Connecticut Freedom Trail. “29th Colored Regiment Monument,” 2017. Link.
Housatonic Heritage. “African American Heritage Trail,” n.d. Link.
“Connecticut Freedom Trail,” 2016. Link.
“Greater New Haven African American Historical Society,” 2016. Link
“Middlesex County Historical Society,” 2017. Link.
State of Connecticut: Department of Economic & Community Development. “Prudence Crandall Museum,” 2017. Link.
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. “The Amistad Center for Art & Culture,” 2016. Link.
Connecticut Freedom Trail. “Underground Railroad Trail Map,” 2016. Link.

Documents

Smith, Venture. “A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa: But Resident Above Sixty Years in the United States of America.” C. Holt, 1798. Link.
“Acts and Laws of the State of Connecticut, in America - Slaves.” Governor and Company of the State of Connecticut, 1784. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Link.
Hammon, Jupiter. “Address to Miss Phillis Wheatly, Ethiopian Poetess, in Boston, Who Came from Africa at Eight Years of Age, and Soon Became Acquainted with the Gospel of Jesus Christ ... Composed by Jupiter Hammon, a Negro Man Belonging to Mr. Joseph Lloyd, of Queen’s Village, on Long-Island, Now in Hartford.” Hartford, 1778. Connecticut History Illustrated, Connecticut Historical Society. Link.
“Broadside - Twenty-Ninth Regiment, Conn. Volunteer Infantry (Colored).” J. C. Fuller & Company, 1880. Connecticut State Library. Link.
Connecticut Historical Society. “Finding Aid to African American Resources,” 2013. Link.
Connecticut State Library. “Newspapers of Connecticut: Charter Oak (ca. 1838-1843) - Digital Newspaper Archive,” n.d. Link.
Connecticut State Library. “Prudence Crandall Materials,” 2017. Link.
Connecticut State Library. “Research Guide to Materials Relating to Slavery in Connecticut,” 2016. Link.
Connecticut State Library. “Research Guide to the ‘Amistad Affair,’” 2016. Link.
Emory University. “Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database,” 2016. Link.

Books

Caron, Denis. A Century in Captivity: The Life and Trials of Prince Mortimer, a Connecticut Slave. Hanover, NH: University of New Hampshire Press, 2006.
Hill, Isaac. A Sketch of the 29th Regiment of Connecticut Colored Troops Giving a Full Account of Its Formation, of All the Battles Through Which It Passed, and Its Final Disbandment. New York, NY: Baker & Godwin  Printers, 1881. Link.
Hammon, Jupiter, Stanley Austin Ransom, and Oscar Wegelin. America’s First Negro Poet; the Complete Works of Jupiter Hammon of Long Island. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1970.
McCain, Diana, and Connecticut Historical Society. Black Women of Connecticut: Achievements Against the Odds. Hartford, CT: Connecticut Historical Society, 1984.
White, David Oliver. Connecticut’s Black Soldiers, 1775-1783. Chester, CT: Pequot Press, 1973.
Mycek, Mary J., Marian K. O’Keefe, and Carolyn B. Ivanoff. Ebenezer D. Bassett (1833-1908). Derby, CT: Valley Historical Research Committee, 2008.
Newton, A. H. Out of the Briars: An Autobiography and Sketch of the Twenty-Ninth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers. Philadelphia, PA: A.M.E. Book Concern, 1910. Link.
Welch, Marvis Olive. Prudence Crandall: A Biography. Manchester, CT: Jason Publishers, 1983.
Edwards, Jonathan. The Injustice and Impolicy of the Slave Trade and of the Slavery of the Africans. Boston: Wells and Lilly, 1822. Link.
May, Samuel J., and Andrew T. Judson. The Right of Colored People to Education, Vindicated: Letters to Andrew T. Judson, Esq. and Others in Canterbury, Remonstrating with Them on Their Unjust and Unjustifiable Procedure Relative to Miss Crandall and Her School for Colored Females. Brooklyn, CT: Advertiser Press, 1833. Link.
Strother, Horatio T. The Underground Railroad in Connecticut. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1962. Link.
McCain, Diana. To All on Equal Terms: The Life and Legacy of Prudence Crandall. Hartford, CT: Connecticut Commission on Arts, Tourism, Culture, History and Film, 2004.
Stewart, James Brewer. Venture Smith and the Business of Slavery and Freedom. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2010.

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