Taped last October (2019) during an indoor presentation of Wethersfield Historical Society’s Lantern Light Tours, Charles Floyd’s impassioned portrayal of Freeman Quash Gomer offers a brief glimpse into the trials, tribulations, and triumphs lived by people of color in eighteenth century Wethersfield.
From this website’s own Articles from the Community section, “In 1766 Quash Gomer purchased his freedom for 25 pounds from John Smith. On November 8, 1766, Smith “fully, freely and clearly [certified] that Quash Gomer is a free Negro man, and has good, right, power, and authority to act and transact for himself, to sue and be sued, charge and discharge for himself, to do and carry on any manner of trade or business fully and clearly as tho’ he never was a slave or servant.” Gomer’s gravestone (pictured at the top left of this page) has been restored to the proud symbol of the community’s esteem for him it once was. Located in the Ancient Burying Ground, the now-legible text reads “In Memory of Quash Gomer: a Native of Angola in Africa, brought from there in 1748, & died June 6th 1799. Aged 68 years.”
This content was made possible in part by a grant from the Robert Allan Keeney Memorial Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and the generosity of our members.
(Please note that you can watch the video below full-screen after starting the video by clicking the icon in the bottom right corner of the player’s screen).
The next activity asks a little more from you physically than just watching a video. It’s the Introduction to Black History in Wethersfield Scavenger Hunt.
Directions: At a 1998 celebration of Black pioneers in the medical field, this Wethersfield High School graduate was recognized for becoming Hartford’s first Black army nurse during World War II. Search for clues in the following places in Wethersfield to decode the name of this nurse. Click here for your own PDF copy of the scavenger hunt. You can download and print it or work from your mobile device. Good luck!
Learn More: What follows are a series of links and recommendations to curated sources for additional detailed information on Connecticut Black History.
Abolition:
- Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame, “Maria Miller Stewart”:
- Peter Hinks, “Early Anti-Slavery Advocates in 18th Century Connecticut”
- Peter Hinks, “Gradual Emancipation Reflected the Struggle of Some to Envision Black Freedom”
- Andy Piascik, “Jackson v. Bulloch and the End of Slavery in Connecticut”
Amistad:
- “The Amistad”
- Stacey Close, “Reverend James Pennington”
- Steve Thornton, “A Different Look at the Amistad Trial”
The Arts:
- Anne Farrow, “Marian Anderson”
- Connecticut’s Women’s Hall of Fame, “Anika Noni Rose”
- Steve Thornton, “‘Negroes Who Stand Up and Fight Back’ – Paul Robeson in Hartford”
- Steve Thornton, “Rock and Roll vs. Racism”
Civil Rights Movement:
- Andy Piascik, “Constance Baker Motley”
- Steve Thornton, “Malcom X in Hartford”
- Steve Thornton, “The Rise of the Black Panther Party in Connecticut”
- Steve Thornton, “Selma, Not So Far Away”
Civil War Era:
- Nancy Finlay, “The Great Remedy”
- Charles (Ben) Hawley, “Connecticut’s Black Civil War Regiment”
- Carolyn Ivanoff with Mary Mycek and Marian O’Keefe, “Ebenezer Bassett’s Historic Journey”
Education:
- Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame, “Edythe J. Gaines”
- Susan Eaton, The Children in Room E4 (2006)
- Amanda Gurren, “Connecticut Takes the Wheel on Education Reform”
- Diana Moraco, “Prudence Crandall Fights for Equal Access to Education”
- Andy Piascik, “Edward Alexander Bouchet”
- Andy Piascik, “The Northern Student Movement”
- Brigit Rioual, “Sheff v. O’Neill Settlements Target Educational Segregation in Hartford”
Miscellaneous:
- Mary Donohue and Whitney Bayers, “Site Lines: Fortresses of Faith, Agents of Change”
- Hartford Black History Project, “A Struggle from the Start”
Slavery:
- “Citizens All: African Americans in Connecticut 1700-1850”
- Nancy Finlay, “James Lindsey Smith Takes the Underground Railroad to Connecticut”
- Peter Hinks, “James Mars’ Words Illuminate the Cruelty of Slavery in New England”
- Brenda Milkofsky, “Connecticut and the West Indies”
- John Wood Sweet, “Venture Smith, from Slavery to Freedom”
- Christina Vida, “Nancy Toney’s Lifetime in Slavery”
20th Century:
- “African Americans in the CT National Guard, 1870 to 1919”
- Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame, “Denise Nappier,”
- Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame, “Ruth A. Lucas,”
- Victoria Ellison, “Hartford’s Great Migration through Charles S. Johnson’s Eyes,”
- Dawn Byron Hutchins, “Laboring in the Shade”
- Savahna Reuben, “Education/Instrucción Combats Housing Discrimination”
- Steve Thornton, “Hartford’s Challenge to ‘Birth of a Nation’”
Voting Rights:
- Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame, “Mary Townsend Seymour”
- Katherine Harris, “‘No Taxation without Representation’: Black Voting in Connecticut”
- Steve Thornton, “Literacy Tests and the Right to Vote”
- “The Work Must Be Done”
Wethersfield:
- Diane Cameron’s “Circumstances of Their Lives”
- Paul Courchaine, “Foodways: The Middle Passage: African Americans”
- Allison Golomb, Rachel Zilinski, and Mary Pat Knowlton, “London: A Black Governor or Connecticut”
- Nora Howard, “Black History in Wethersfield”
- Melissa Josefiak, “The Woman Came To Do Laundry…”