On Doing Witness Stones: Student Reflections

Class of 2021 - Researching Tamar

"Having the opportunity to research an unknown person from our own community has given me a deeper understanding and appreciation for what historians do. Telling Tamar's story has also given me a different perspective on what I see as the American identity."

"It is so important to recognize Tamar’s life as a human being and not as an enslaved person. This year's events with police brutality have brought more attention to these topics and have made connections with what we are studying in regards to Tamar’s life."

"This project has given me an opportunity to learn about someone who did great things, but no one recognized her for it. It has given us the opportunity to uncover her life's story."

"The main take-away from this project is that slavery in Connecticut was a thing. All my life my family taught me that slavery and racism in the United States was in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, West Virginia, and other southern states. I didn’t know there were enslaved people in New England or in Madison. I feel like it’s a good thing to show people that slavery was a thing in our town too and not just in certain areas."

"This project has taught me so much about the history of the United States. It has also taught me that history is always changing and there is so much that we don’t know yet, and so much that we probably never will."

"Working on the Witness Stones Project has helped me realize that everyone has an interesting story that deserves to be told. When Tamar was alive, she was probably seen as an ordinary person, but this does not make her life any less valuable…. I wish that she was still alive so that I could thank her for what she has taught me."

Class of 2020 - Researching Lettuce

"I think it's cool how we're bringing out Lettuce’s story. We're not bringing her back to life, but at the same time, we're making her a little more known because she didn't ever get that."

“Growing up I was always taught that slavery was in the South. The good guys were in the North and the bad guys in the South. Now we realize it was so much more complicated than that.”

“You could be completely and utterly incorrect, but it feels good to know that you’re at least trying and that you’re bringing to light all these stories that have been told incorrectly — or not told at all — for years and years.”

“In some ways this project has almost humanized things. When you hear about groups of enslaved people, you think of them working in the cotton fields, but when you start to look at one woman’s story, it’s almost like you know her, though of course you don’t.”

“Looking back on the past becomes more interesting, because you see how the events connect and how the entire economy depended on slavery, even if you thought it was immoral.”

My Witness Stones Experience

by Isabelle S. '20

This project has opened my eyes. Before it, I viewed enslavement as something you read about in a textbook, a part of our troubled past. But this project has helped me realize it’s so much more than that. People of color had their lives and their families ripped away from them as though they were nothing. And nothing about that was right. So much is unknown about those who were enslaved which is — for lack of a better word — insane, because they were blatantly forgotten. I have found it extraordinary to be able to help tell at least one person’s story.

I think this is truly something that should be taught, not when a student is in middle school, high school, or even college. But it should be something taught from the moment a child is introduced to the idea of enslavement, telling them the truth so that they grow up knowing the problems of our past. What angers me most about this is that I did not know the full story until now. But if our teachers are taught the wrong thing, then they end up teaching us the wrong information.

For me, Witness Stones has opened a new world to me — a world where the change that has to be made is being made. Though it will take time to tell more stories, it will be time well spent. Many people say we need to move forward from the past. But I say that there are so many more stories that need to be told. We need to do everything we can do to try to tell as many as possible, and as soon as possible.

It also said that history repeats itself. I believe it is vitally important that we know about the true history of enslavement so it doesn’t happen again.