Mansfield Middle School students unveil witness stone
Jun. 15—MANSFIELD — Eighth grade students from Mansfield Middle School unveiled a witness stone on the lawn in front of the Mansfield Public Library on Monday to recognize Titus, a man enslaved in Mansfield in the mid-1700s.
It is the hope of the students that the library's visitors will see the stone and remember that slavery occurred in Mansfield just like many other municipalities in the United States.
" The story of enslaved people is entwined in our Mansfield story, just as it is entwined in the stories of countless communities across our nation," Mansfield Town Manager Ryan Aylesworth said.
Students said the library was also chosen as the site for the witness stone because Titus most likely spent time near there.
The unveiling of the stone on Monday was the culmination of the Witness Stones Project, which the students had been working on in their social studies and language arts classes.
Dennis Culliton started the Witness Stones Project with his students at Elisabeth C. Adams Middle School in Guilford in 2017. The project is a K-12 educational initiative which entails archival research as well as classroom curriculum to help students discover and chronicle the local history of slavery. The project culminates with the placement of a permanent Witness Stone Memorial to honor the enslaved individuals where they lived, worked or worshipped.
According to the Witness Stones Project website, the Project has partnered with 86 schools and community institutions and has reached more than 7,500 middle and high school students in 45 communities across five states.
The Witness Stones Project had a profound impact on Patricia Wilson Pheanious, the former state representative for Ashford, Tolland and Willington who gave the keynote address at the unveiling in Mansfield on Monday. The project's research allowed her to discover her family's history from enslavement in colonial Connecticut through 11 generations of American history.
"That day I found a piece of my soul," Wilson Pheanious said about learning her family's history.
Eighth grade students at MMS began the Witness Stones Project in the fall by conducting research on Titus' life. They interpreted their findings through writing and artwork, which were shown during a gallery night held at MMS in March. Every eighth grade student at MMS participated in this project.
Students gathered information on Titus' life by reading town documents as well as paperwork from his owner Shubael Conant.
" Finding information about Titus was really difficult because unfortunately enslaved people's lives were never really documented," said Bella Famularo, an eighth grade student at MMS. "This was due to the racism, dehumanization and lack of power that they had throughout their entire lives."
What the students were able to find about Titus is that he lived from 1743-1776. As an enslaved man in Mansfield, he performed many tasks on his owner's property including blacksmithing and butchery. Titus fought in the American Revolutionary War. The students believe he died from wounds he sustained in battle.
"A lot of the information that we know about him [Titus] is only known through speculation and inferring things about him based on the sources that we have," said Caroline Cranmer, an eighth grade student at MMS.
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