Historian sheds light on Hartford's early Black residents in Ancient Burying Ground

The Ancient Burying Ground in downtown Hartford is the oldest historic site in the city, and the only one dating back to the 17^th century.

“Once upon a time, this graveyard was over six acres. There are probably about 6,000 burials here,” Kathy Hermes, Connecticut Explored Publisher, said.

Hermes explains the cemetery was once much larger than it is today, when it served as Hartford’s primary graveyard from 1640 to the early 1800s.

“People might not know it, but the Ancient Burying Ground in Hartford is home to between 400 and 500 graves of African descended people,” she said.

There are no headstones to commemorate them, but Hermes, a historian, said these earliest Black residents shaped the city into what it is today.

“I think it just would not be the same city,” Hermes said. “First of all, much of the work, much of the hard labor was done by people of African descent, but they also contributed things culturally.”

Slavery existed in Connecticut for 200 years, from the 1630s to the 1840s, and the state played a role in the Middle Passage.

“Norman Morrison owned seven-sixteenths of a schooner and brought people from West Africa, right to Hartford,” Hermes said.

Those slaves would have worked on Morrison’s farms across the state, and at his home off Market Street, where Morrison’s tomb is still visible today.

“There should be a plaque here to the enslaved people, I think, because he really was involved in the trade right from West Africa,” Hermes said.

Most of Hartford’s wealthy white residents relied on slave labor, including the minister of Center Church, Timothy Woodbridge.

“The Woodbridge family had over 30 enslaved people living in their household over time,” Hermes said. “Most of the people that they enslaved were baptized, and so became members of the Congregational Church.”

Two slaves are commemorated on a memorial in the Ancient Burying Ground, named Andrew and Tamar. The couple met in the Woodbridge household and had three children, but those kids were quickly given away as wedding presents or in wills.

“These siblings were separated at very young ages,” Hermes said.

Hermes said in the Ancient Burying Ground, there are at least two Black veterans.

“People of color who were veterans of the Revolutionary War,” she said.

There are also musicians.

“A lot of African descended men had fiddles,” she said, citing historic records. “You can imagine them playing their music right on a summer night for the crowds, and that tradition of bringing music to Hartford was something that they contributed.”

Just down the road from the graveyard, the historic Talcott Street Church once stood, led by the Reverend James Pennington.

“It was the first African-American congregation in Hartford that was self-sustaining,” Hermes said. “A lot of Hartford's leaders, Black leaders attended church here and really made a difference in Hartford politics.”

Today, the congregation still exists in the north end of Hartford.

“There's still a living presence of that congregation,” Hermes said.

In the Ancient Burying Ground, the same monument that honors the enslaved couple Andrew and Tamar is also dedicated to Connecticut’s many Black leaders.

“Neptune, who was a Black Sheriff, and prominent barber, Barbers were often leaders in the Black community,” Hermes said.

It lists the names of the state’s five Black governors.

“These were men who were elected to represent their communities by the enslaved people in Hartford,” Hermes said. “They were often mediators between the official white government and the kind of unofficial Black leaders of the community.

Through research, documents and artwork, the lives of hundreds of Harford residents of African descent start to come into color during Black History Month and beyond.