A new street sign, located on the corner of Rapallo Avenue and Main Street in Middletown, honors Prince Mortimer and his legacy.

“It is certainly a story of perseverance. Something I hope a lot of our young people here in Middletown learn about,” Middletown Municipal Historian Debby Shapiro said.

Prince was captured off the coast of Guinea in the early 1700s as a boy and brought to Middletown where he was enslaved by Philip Mortimer, who owned a rope-making facility. 

“There were about 5,000 enslaved people right here in Connecticut at the time of the American Revolution, and about 200 here in Middletown,” Middlesex County Historical Society Executive Director and Wesleyan Assistant Professor of African-American studies Dr. Jesse Nasta said.

Every day, Prince would walk on Rapallo Avenue to get to work.

"Rapallo Avenue used to just be a walkway that led only to that enslaver’s house. So, renaming that street in the name of Prince Mortimer aligns to a path he used to walk to get to work, because the ropewalk he worked at is right down Main Street,” Alex Breanne Corporation President John Mills said.

This is the first-ever honorary street sign in Middletown. The Alex Breanne Corporation, in partnership with local historians, made it all possible.

An ordinance was drafted to the common council and later approved.

“We are really proud of Prince Mortimer Avenue being the first,” Mills said.

 Mills said he did not want Prince’s life to be forgotten.

“At the time, there were enslaved people that were doing the hard work and many of them left in the shadows, well now Prince Mortimer isn’t in the shadows,” Mills said.

Nasta said other places in the city are named after enslavers, but this is the first time a former enslaved person is celebrated.

“So, it's a real act of justice,” Nasta said.

Middletown Municipal Historian Debby Shapiro said Prince worked on ropes for decades, contributing to the local economy and beyond.

“The rope was used on the sailing ships that went between Middletown and the West Indies,” Shapiro said.

Prince was promised freedom, but that never happened. Philip, his enslaver, left it all detailed out in his will, but then his son-in-law challenged the will and won.

In his late 80s, Prince was accused of attempting to poison his new enslaver and was placed behind bars at Old New-Gate Prison in East Granby. He later moved to a prison in Wethersfield, where he died at the age of 110.

“You see a person who gets some hope and then his hope is dashed, and it's dashed again and again, how it didn’t break his spirit, I don’t know, but it didn’t,” Shapiro said.

Historians hope people walking along Main Street will take a second to learn about the history that is in their backyard.

“I hope they realize history is all around us, history is local, history is on the streets we walk, it is not just in textbooks. I hope they realize that things like slavery are also part of that history of the places they see every day," Nasta said.