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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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“29th Colored Regiment Monument.” 2017. Connecticut Freedom Trail. https://ctfreedomtrail.org/connecticut-freedom-trail-sites/29th-colored-regiment-monument/.
“The Black Law of Connecticut (1833) - Citizens ALL: African Americans in Connecticut 1700-1850.” Yale University, The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, & Abolition. http://glc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/The%20Black%20Law%20of%20Connecticut%281%29.pdf.
“Prudence Crandall Materials.” Connecticut State Library. http://ctstatelibrary.org/prudencecrandall.
“Prudence Crandall Museum, Canterbury.” State of Connecticut: Department of Economic & Community Development. https://portal.ct.gov/ECD-PrudenceCrandallMuseum.
“Underground Railroad Trail Map.” 2016. Connecticut Freedom Trail. https://freedomtrail.wpenginepowered.com/directory-category/underground-railroad/.
“Rachel Taylor Milton.” 2016. Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/rachel-taylor-milton (January 30, 2013).
“Ann Petry.” 1994. Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. http://www.cwhf.org/inductees/writers-journalists/ann-petry/.
“African American Oral Histories.” Connecticut Collections. https://ctcollections.org/index.php/Browse/objects/facet/lcsh_facet/id/1476502/view/images/key/e7ea7a9363bf62768d1a37a4a0c78efa.
“Slavery and Abolition.” Connecticut Digital Archive. https://collections.ctdigitalarchive.org/islandora/object/750018%3ASlaveryAbolition.
“Newspapers of Connecticut: Charter Oak (ca. 1838-1843) - Digital Newspaper Archive.” Connecticut State Library. https://collections.ctdigitalarchive.org/islandora/object/30002%3Ao5910546.
“Broadside - Twenty-Ninth Regiment, Conn. Volunteer Infantry (Colored).” 1880. https://cslib.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4005coll11/id/7.
“African American Heritage Trail.” Housatonic Heritage. https://housatonicheritage.org/heritage-programs/afam-trail/.
“Greater New Haven African American Historical Society.” 2016. https://gnhaahs.wixsite.com/website#:~:text=The%20Greater%20New%20Haven%20African%20American%20Historical%20Society%20promotes%20a,to%20peoples%20of%20African%20descent.
“Mary Townsend Seymour.” 2006. Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/mary-townsend-seymour.
“Maria Miller Stewart.” 2001. Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/maria-miller-stewart.
“Joyce Yerwood.” 2016. Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/joyce-yerwood.
“Jewel Plummer Cobb.” 2008. Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/jewel-plummer-cobb.
“Ruth A. Lucas.” 2017. Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/ruth-a-lucas.
“Sarah Lee Brown Fleming.” 2020. Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/sarah-lee-brown-fleming.
“Martha Minerva Franklin.” 2016. Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/rachel-taylor-milton (January 30, 2013).
“Edythe J. Gaines.” 2016. Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/edythe-j-gaines.
“Constance Baker Motley.” 2016. Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/constance-baker-motley#:~:text=In%201993%2C%20she%20was%20inducted,New%20York%20in%20September%202005.
“Middlesex County Historical Society.” 2017. https://mchsct.org/.
“Connecticut Freedom Trail.” 2016. http://www.ctfreedomtrail.org/.
“Marian Anderson.” 2016. Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. http://www.cwhf.org/inductees/arts-humanities/marian-anderson/.
“Laura Wheeler Waring.” 2016. Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. http://www.cwhf.org/inductees/arts-humanities/laura-wheeler-waring/.
“Connecticut’s ‘Black Governors.’” 2016. Connecticut State Library. http://museumofcthistory.org/connecticuts-black-governors/.
“Citizens ALL: African Americans in Connecticut 1700-1850.” 2016. Yale University, Gilder Lerhman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, & Abolition. http://glc.yale.edu/citizens/about.
“Research Guide to the ‘Amistad Affair.’” 2016. Connecticut State Library. http://connecticuthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/CTStateLibraryResearchGuideAmistadAffair.pdf.
“The Story of Yale Abolitionists.” 2016. Yale University - Yale, Slavery & Abolition. http://www.yaleslavery.org/Abolitionists/abolit.html.
“Research Guide to Materials Relating to Slavery in Connecticut.” 2016. Connecticut State Library. http://connecticuthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/CTStateLibraryResearchGuideAmistadAffair.pdf.
“Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database.” 2016. Emory University. http://www.slavevoyages.org/.
“The Amistad Center for Art & Culture.” 2016. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. http://www.amistadcenter.org/.
Hammon, Jupiter. 1778. “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.” http://hdl.handle.net/11134/40002:20039.
“Beyond Complicity. The Forgotten Story of Connecticut’s Slave Ships.” 2014. Hartford Courant. http://www.courant.com/courant-250/moments-in-history/hc-250-beyond-complicity-story-gallery-20140604-storygallery.html.
“Finding Aid to African American Resources.” 2013. Connecticut Historical Society. http://www.chs.org/finding_aides/afamcoll/printed.htm.
“Acts and Laws of the State of Connecticut, in America - Slaves.” 1784. http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/brbldl_getrec.asp?fld=img&id=1091528.
Smith, Venture. 1798. “A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa: But Resident Above Sixty Years in the United States of America.” http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/venture/menu.html.
Mycek, Mary J., Marian K. O’Keefe, and Carolyn B. Ivanoff. 2008. Ebenezer D. Bassett (1833-1908). Derby, CT: Valley Historical Research Committee.
Newton, A. H. 1910. Out of the Briars: An Autobiography and Sketch of the Twenty-Ninth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers. Philadelphia, PA: A.M.E. Book Concern. http://www.archive.org/stream/outofbriarsauto00newt#page/n7/mode/2up (February 17, 2012).
White, David Oliver. 1973. Connecticut’s Black Soldiers, 1775-1783. Chester, CT: Pequot Press.
Hill, Isaac. 1881. 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. http://www.archive.org/stream/sketchof29thregi00hill#page/n1/mode/2up.
McCain, Diana, and Connecticut Historical Society. 1984. Black Women of Connecticut: Achievements Against the Odds. Hartford, CT: Connecticut Historical Society.
May, Samuel J., and Andrew T. Judson. 1833. 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. http://archive.org/stream/rightofcoloredpe00mays#page/n5/mode/2up.
Welch, Marvis Olive. 1983. Prudence Crandall: A Biography. Manchester, CT: Jason Publishers.
McCain, Diana. 2004. To All on Equal Terms: The Life and Legacy of Prudence Crandall. Hartford, CT: Connecticut Commission on Arts, Tourism, Culture, History and Film.
Edwards, Jonathan. 1822. The Injustice and Impolicy of the Slave Trade and of the Slavery of the Africans. Boston: Wells and Lilly. http://www.archive.org/stream/injusticeimpolic00lcedwa#page/n5/mode/2up.
Strother, Horatio T. 1962. The Underground Railroad in Connecticut. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. http://archive.org/stream/undergroundrailr1962stro#page/n5/mode/2up.
Hammon, Jupiter, Stanley Austin Ransom, and Oscar Wegelin. 1970. America’s First Negro Poet; the Complete Works of Jupiter Hammon of Long Island. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press.
Stewart, James Brewer. 2010. Venture Smith and the Business of Slavery and Freedom. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.

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