Of all the volunteer work I do, the most satisfying is what I do to help our local Westport Historical Society. For the past year, our exhibit has been called “Remembered: The African-American Experience” in Westport. Everyone I have brought to this exhibit says the same thing…. “We had slaves in Westport?” In fact we have the names or descriptions of 240 names in the late 18th – early 19th c. of persons who were enslaved right here.

First Names Only

The names are usually only first names. Amos. Dorcas. Ned. Phillip. Tom. Nancy. These were the most common. Some were heart-breakingly ironic – Prince or Fortune. Then the odd ones. Gin. Coffee. Or how about Wench? Or Negro child. Of the 240, about 20 were the names of persons who were freed. Another 25 are listed as the children of other slaves and therefore the property of their owners. Slavery wasn’t fully abolished in CT until 1848.

Two Daughters Named Eliza

Dred Scott sued for his freedom to protect his daughters. The case went to the Supreme Court. There he was told that he and his family, by virtue of being black, were not actually American and never could be. Therefore they had no standing to sue in court. When I wrote Freedom’s Promise about Dred Scott’s daughter Eliza I discovered that his daughters were both named Eliza. He and his wife, both slaves, did this deliberately to confuse their absentee owner about the ages of their children. As their daughter grew up, they were more valuable. Dred and Harriet hoped to fool their owner into thinking that the Elizas were too young to sell. Ironically the duplication of names was a defense.

Remember Their Names

Yesterday I spent several hours with our Executive Director, Ramin Ganeshram, arranging bricks for a permanent memorial to remember their names. It was a massive amount of work and the absolute least we could to make sure we never forget.