Description

by Daniel Cruson

Much labor has been devoted to documenting the Northern response to the South’s peculiar institution. While the details of anti-slavery are well known, the other side of history is neglected: the enslavement and subjugation of slaves who lived and toiled in Northern states. In this groundbreaking book on the slaves of Fairfield County, Dan Cruson presents a comprehensive picture of rural slavery in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Connecticut.

From the framework of everyday life “including the slave-master relationship, housing and dress” to the role of slaves and free blacks in the Revolution that hastened the demise of slavery in Connecticut, Cruson’s accessible and intriguing rendering of slave life in central Fairfield County will fascinate and inform readers. Utilizing local slave archaeology, Cruson presents exciting recent discoveries that shed light on African American spiritual practices. He goes on to tackle the complicated issue of anti-slavery activity, discussing the problems with the abolition movement in Fairfield County in the 1830’s and 1840’s and questioning prevalent local folklore about the Underground Railroad.

This meticulously researched book uses a database of over seventy slaves from Newtown, enhanced with information from the neighboring town of Redding.