As we move into the month of June and the celebration of Juneteenth, a particular story from the JDPP repertory comes to mind—that of the Hempstead House in New London.

The piece, titled In This House and told from the perspective of the house (voiced by prominent jazz percussionist Alvin Carter Jr), premiered at Charter Oak Cultural Center in 2011.

The Hempstead House’s story reveals a fact in Connecticut history that is frequently not foregrounded: that chattel slavery existed in early Connecticut and throughout New England.

In 1727, Joshua Hempstead II, after losing his beloved wife and son and with his other sons grown, “bought” a third-generation, New London-born Black man named Adam Jackson. From Joshua’s diary:

Thursday, September 21…, I was at Samuel Fox’s. I bought Adam for 85 pounds. I paid down and gave bond for 80 to be paid this day in 12 months with interest.

Adam worked side by side with his white master, slept in an attic room with his sons, and came and went with relative freedom, but never moved from the status of slave to freeman.

On December 22, 1758, when Joshua died—a wealthy man with more than 500 acres, the last item listed among his possessions was:

 An old Negro man named Adam, value 2 pounds

Here is a well-documented example from our Connecticut history – with a complex story attached to it. But an irrefutable outcome is that slavery was real as is the systemic racism that followed in its wake.

From In This House, we learn that 8 generations later the Hempstead women and husbands become outspoken abolitionists, opening a school for children of all races, resigning from churches that supported slavery, making secret attempts to aid fugitive slaves, and housing an underground anti-slavery press.

But interviews with community members of color living in the neighborhood in 2011 indicated that the job was not done then, nor is it today.

As we celebrate the resilience and accomplishments of the Black community on Juneteenth, let’s remember to be the change we would like to see happen.

We can do this—together, one step at a time. November elections are only 5 months away.

• In This House received an Award of Merit from the CT League of History in 2012. To watch excerpts from the piece, click here
• It was developed in cooperation with CT Landmarks with Allegra di Bonaventura, author of “About Home: Master and Slave in Old New England,” based on the lives of the yeoman Hempsteads, the radical Rogers, and the enslaved Jacksons who lived in the Joshua Hempstead House; staff and members of the New London County Historical Society; and New London town historian, Sally Ryan.
• DON’T MISS our next A Response and a Call presentation at Hartford Public Library with curator Mellissa Craig on 9/26 during National Banned Books week—‘Story Power: Reclaiming the Narrative’.