Five historic Connecticut locations chosen as ‘Sites of Conscience’

A 19th-century ethnic community. A school for women of color. A prison in a copper mine. The site of a Native American massacre. The state house where the Amistad trial began.

Five state locations have been named to an inaugural list of “Connecticut Sites of Conscience,” compiled by CT Humanities and released this week. The list seeks to draw attention to historical places that reflect issues people still deal with in the 21st century.

“These sites represent narratives we wanted to emphasize. They are historically important in ways that still resonate today in community dialogues. They show why we must continue to have these conversations,” said Jason Mancini, executive director of CT Humanities.

Mancini said the pilot project was floated in 2019 but stalled due to the pandemic. When it was revisited, CT Humanities worked with the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience to define what a site of conscience is and which Connecticut sites qualify.

The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, which spans 65 countries, pinpoints “safe spaces to remember and preserve even the most traumatic memories,” which “enable their visitors to make connections between the past and related contemporary human rights issues,” according to its website.

Among the international sites are Auschwitz concentration camp, a gulag museum in Russia, a slave house in Africa, the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, and Ellis Island.

Mancini said if reception to the list is positive, it will grow in subsequent years.

These are the five Connecticut Sites of Conscience, as determined by CT Humanities.

Mary & Eliza Freeman Center for History and Community, Bridgeport

Sisters Mary and Eliza Freeman, who were African American and Paugussett, built houses next to each other in 1848 in the area of Bridgeport called “Little Liberia,” a community where African Americans, Native Americans and Haitians lived side-by-side. Today, the Freeman sisters’ houses are all that is left of Little Liberia. They are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the oldest houses in the state built by free Blacks.

“They represent a time period of racial inequity and injustice, and yet a community came together and created their own resources: libraries, churches, housing, businesses,” Mancini said. “It caught the attention of Frederick Douglass, who wrote about it.”

At the time of her death, Mary Freeman was the second-wealthiest person in Bridgeport, after P.T. Barnum. The neighborhood eventually vanished.

“This community in the 20th century was redlined and cleared to make way for whatever development was going to happen,” Mancini said. “Today, we look at the two Connecticuts. This is a place of disparity, inequities, people looking for racial justice. Their story is really important.”

Prudence Crandall Museum, Canterbury

From 1831 to 1833, Prudence Crandall operated a girls’ school out of her home. She admitted one African American girl, and the parents of the white girls withdrew their daughters. Crandall closed the school and reopened in 1833, for “young Ladies and little Misses of color.” Neighbors reacted violently to the presence of the girls of color in their midst. Fearing for the girls’ safety, Crandall closed the school in 1834.

In 1995, by an act of the General Assembly, Crandall was named Connecticut’s state Heroine.

“She gave an opportunity, in the early 1830s, to provide equitable education and access,” Mancini said. “School districts are still struggling with, what does this look like, how can we provide these kinds of accessible, resourced education to all of our residents.”

Mancini cited Sheff v. O’Neill, the Connecticut Supreme Court case — launched in 1989 and finally settled in 2020 — in which parents of nonwhite children sued the state and elected officials, including Gov. William A. O’Neill, alleging that their children were not being treated equally, since white-dominated schools were funded more generously than minority-dominated schools.

“We still think today about Sheff v. O’Neill and its impact on education across our communities, and the wealth gap, and so on,” he said.

Old New-Gate Prison & Copper Mine, East Granby

Starting in 1709, the site on Newgate Road was a copper mine where Africans and Native Americans were used as slave labor. It was not a successful mine. Starting in 1773, it was turned into a prison where prisoners were forced to work in the mine. During the American Revolution, people loyal to the crown were imprisoned there. Starting in 1790, it was a state prison, where prisoners again were used as forced labor. The prison closed in 1827.

“This was a transformational time in history in the matter of how do we handle criminality? What do we do with these people?” Mancini said. “This was a deep underground copper mine and people were just put away in there.”

He said the disproportionate impact the contemporary criminal justice system has on certain communities is a conversation that must be continued.

“How do we look at equal justice under the law? The conversation needs to be, not just where they were imprisoned, but how, who, how long, why? We need to start looking through that lens of engagement,” he said.

This extends to the formerly incarcerated, he added. “They are members of our society. What labels do we ascribe to them? What are the pathways forward for people convicted of crimes?”

Old State House, Hartford

From 1796 to 1878, the Old State House was the home of all three branches of Connecticut state government. Many famous trials were held there, including the beginning of the Amistad trial and the trials against Prudence Crandall, and it was the site of the Constitutional Convention of 1818.

“It was the center of Connecticut’s government for a very long time. It is where the laws were fashioned and shaped. It was the foundation of Connecticut governance,” Mancini said. “It was one of the hearts of our democratic republic, where important decisions were made around electoral and representative government.”

Mancini said Connecticut’s movement from a colony to a state, and the landmarks that took place through the centuries, are a good illustration of what legal and political realities are needed to form a government. These lessons can be applied to the present day, as people continually strive toward “a more perfect union.”

“We look at four centuries of change, from the charter in the 17th century, to the Connecticut Compromise in the 18th century, to the Connecticut constitution in the 19th century and another constitutional convention in the 20th century,” he said. “This place is at the heart of Connecticut’s place as The Constitution State.”

Pequot Hill, Mystic

In 1637, 400 to 700 Pequot civilians were massacred by Connecticut colonists under the leadership of John Mason, the future deputy governor of the colony.

Today, nothing marks the site of the first attempted genocide in America. It is a residential neighborhood. The tMashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center has a permanent exhibit about the Pequot War, detailing the background of the mass murder.

“The massacre was ground zero of Indian affairs. It resulted in the first reservations on the continent,” Mancini said. “Pequot Hill speaks to the legacy of how native people were treated in the early colonial period and since then through the erasure of their history.”

Pointing to the contemporary import of Pequot Hill, Mancini referenced Standing Rock, the reservation where, in 2016, protests were held against the planned Dakota Access Pipeline.

“There are 574 tribes recognized by the federal government. Every tribe has a Standing Rock. Every tribe has been desecrated, violated,” he said. “Pequot Hill is an access point to discuss contemporary indigenous issues. They have rich, diverse histories and yet they remain among the most invisible citizens of this country.”

Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.