Reflection Questions

Town Common:

Remember Colonial Reading’s Black Veterans

• How can Reading remember and commemorate its African American Revolutionary War servicemen?

• How do you feel about citizens having their enslaved persons fight on their behalf? Are there any similarities to today?

• What questions do you have about the experiences of African American soldiers in the American Revolutionary War? Where might you go to find answers?

Reading Public Library:

Examine Documents of Colonial Reading’s Black and Enslaved Persons

• We currently remember Joshua Eaton Jr’s sacrifice as Reading’s only casualty of the American Revolutionary War through the school that bears his name. How might we remember Cato? Cole? Those unnamed in the census records?

• What questions do you have about researching slavery in the colonial era and about the documents we looked at? How might you find the answers?

• How can this history be taught in school? Consider different grade levels.

Old South United Methodist Church:

Reflect on Involvement in the Church Community

• How should Rose be remembered?

• While some of Reading’s enslaved persons may have joined the church as a result of their enslavers’ mandates, others may have decided to join [or not join] on their own. What factors, in addition to personal religious beliefs, might have driven Black and enslaved persons to join the church?

• How might Reading’s churches grapple with past connections to slavery and how might they recognize and remember the enslaved persons who were part of their congregations?

Laurel Hill Cemetery:

Mark the Graves of Sharper Freeman and Amos Potamia

• Why do you think Sharper Freeman and Amos Potamia have gravestones while others do not?

• What do the terms freedom and equality mean when considering the stories of Sharper Freeman, Amos Potamia, and Reading’s other Black and enslaved persons?

• How can we remember those without marked graves?