Exploring Connecticut and the Slave Trade: Tuesday, April 21 at Noon

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For Immediate Release
April 15, 2015
Contact: Chris Zaccaro
chris.zaccaro@cga.ct.gov
(860) 246-1553 ext. 116

Hartford, CT – On Tuesday, April 21 Connecticut’s Old State House will explore the Nutmeg State’s seldom discussed role in America’s slave trade as it welcomes historian Anne Farrow, author of The Logbooks: Connecticut’s Slave Ships and Human Memory, to be the featured speaker during the next installment of Conversations at Noon. Farrow has spent the last decade exploring the content and meaning of an 18^th-century New London slave ship’s set of logbooks. Her new book discusses three 1757 voyages of the slave ship Africa, including a journey from New London to the tiny island of Bence in Sierra Leone to take on fresh water and slaves.  These voyages, documented by the ship owner’s son, unearth new realities of Connecticut’s slave trade and question how we could have forgotten this part of our past so completely. 

Following Farrow’s talk, she will be joined by Dr. Robert Wolff, Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University, and Dr. Allegra di Bonaventura, author of For Adam’s Sake: A Family Saga in Colonial New England, for a panel discussion moderated by the Connecticut Network’s (CT-N) Diane Smith. Following the program, there will be a book signing with Ms. Farrow and Dr. di Bonaventura in the Old State House Shop.

This installment of Conversations at Noon is co-sponsored with the Stanley Whitman House. This program is free to attend and begins promptly at Noon on Tuesday, April 21.

Located in Hartford, a short walk from the Wadsworth, Connecticut’s Old State House served as a seat of government for the Constitution State from 1796 to 1878. The Old State House Shop, located on the Main Street side of the building, provides visitors an opportunity to purchase great, quality-made Connecticut and Hartford themed gifts, products and apparel. The interactive History is All Around Us exhibition by the Connecticut Historical Society, located in the Mortensen Gallery of the lower level of the Old State House, allows visitors to explore over 300 years of Hartford and Connecticut history. For more information on admission prices, upcoming events and parking discounts nearby, become a fan of Connecticut’s Old State House on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or visit us online at http://www.ctoldstatehouse.org.