Beyond Reservation: The Hidden Histories of Indian New England
The Connecticut Freedom Trail was established in 1995 with the goals of documenting and designating sites that embody the struggle toward freedom and human dignity; celebrating the accomplishments of the state’s Black and African American communities; and promoting heritage tourism. The Trail includes sites associated with the Amistad Case of 1839-1842; buildings reported to have been used on the Underground Railroad; and gravesites, monuments, homes and buildings associated with the heritage and movement towards freedom of Connecticut’s African American citizens. Today the Trail serves and promotes 160 sites across the state, with more sites considered for inclusion.
Join Dr. Jason Mancini, historian and Executive Director of CT Humanities for this talk on Native New England History.
Over nine million acres of Indian Country in southern New England and adjacent Long Island was reduced to less than 30,000 acres by the American Revolution. Indians across the region adjusted in different ways to this rapidly changing world. Colonial censuses reveal Indian invisibility as well as diaspora. This talk connects 17th century Indian wars with 20th century Indian casinos and addresses the changing nature of Indian land tenure, tribal citizenship and racial boundaries, Indigenous labor, mobility, and migration, as well as political and legal agency in the face of unrelenting settler-colonial acquisition.
The CT Democracy Center at CT’s Old State House is administering the CT Freedom Trail on behalf of the State Historic Preservation Office. The work of the CT Freedom Trail is led by CT Freedom Trail Outreach Director, Tammy Denease and the CT Freedom Trail Committee.
