Unforgotten is a cross-platform series and podcast chronicling 黑料吃瓜网's ties to slavery. Learn more.
Adrienne Joy Burns spends a lot of time digging through old documents. In these historic wills, court papers and church records, she finds connections to the past.
She鈥檚 also finding difficult truths 鈥� like in a 1680 probate inventory from New Haven.
鈥淚t mentions things like three cows, five horses, two barns, one enslaved Negro woman and one Indian boy,鈥� Burns says. 鈥淧eople as property in a probate inventory? And the answer to that is enslaved people were considered property. Like a cow or a horse.鈥�
There鈥檚 a deeply-rooted perception that the North was home to the 鈥済ood guys,鈥� the abolitionists. The truth is far different. Slavery existed across colonial 黑料吃瓜网, as well as colonial New England. Enslaving people was legal in 黑料吃瓜网 for more than 200 years and did not officially end until 1848. Thousands of people were enslaved in 黑料吃瓜网, and thousands more were enslaved across New England.
This unforgotten history is being brought back to the surface in 黑料吃瓜网 and beyond thanks to efforts from historians, experts and volunteers.
Burns is a public historian who has worked with Yale & Slavery Research Project and the , which helps 黑料吃瓜网 communities learn about their past. She says the reality of seeing enslavement casually documented in real records contrasts with America鈥檚 sanitized pre-Civil War history often taught in school.
鈥淭hey tell us about the famous people. They tell us about the founders,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 tell us that 20 men 鈥� Black men from New Haven 鈥� went and fought in the American Revolution. There is no monument in this city that tells you that.
鈥淪o I went in search of Black history,鈥� Burns says. 鈥淎nd that led me to the story of enslavement in New England.鈥�
'Intentionally erased'
It鈥檚 a story that鈥檚 not easy to find 鈥� how enslaved Africans and Indigenous peoples helped to build New England.
鈥淪lavery in New England has been intentionally erased 鈥� the history of slavery in New England,鈥� says Akeia de Barros Gomes, senior curator of Maritime Social Histories at the Mystic Seaport Museum.
鈥淚f you think about cemeteries, and where you see some of the burials of the enslaved, they usually don't say 鈥榮lave of,鈥� they say 鈥榮ervant of,鈥欌�� she says. 鈥淎nd so the story we tell is 鈥� this is family slavery. This person was a member of the family, they helped to support the household.鈥�
鈥淚t comes off as very benign,鈥� de Barros Gomes says. 鈥淎nd not dehumanizing. When, in fact, it was violent and dehumanizing.鈥�
In the early 1600s, the first European explorers and settlers arrived in what would later be called 黑料吃瓜网.
The land was already home to a thriving civilization, says Elizabeth Normen, founding publisher of 鈥�,鈥� a magazine of state history.
Tens of thousands of people 鈥� with a 10,000-year history of governance, land management and culture 鈥� were here, Normen says.
But as Europeans arrived, they began clearing forests and building farms and ships, creating a labor shortage. Meanwhile, English and French colonies in the Caribbean had already started the enslavement of Africans.
鈥淎t the end of the Pequot War in 1637, the captured Pequots were enslaved as war prizes, and traded in the West Indies for enslaved Africans, and brought back to 黑料吃瓜网,鈥� Normen says. 鈥淪o that's probably around the time the first Africans, enslaved Africans, end up in the colony.鈥�
Slavery was taking hold in 黑料吃瓜网.
'It was everywhere'
In 1650, 黑料吃瓜网 passed its first law allowing "hostile Indians" to be captured and either enslaved or shipped out and exchanged for enslaved Africans.
From there, enslavement didn鈥檛 take long to spread, de Barros Gomes says.
鈥淭here were enslaved men on ships,鈥� she says. 鈥淭here were enslaved women and girls working in households. There were enslaved men building roads.
鈥淚t was everywhere.鈥�
黑料吃瓜网 and New England soon became players in an international market supported by the work of enslaved people. The colonies established what became known as the 鈥淭riangle Trade.鈥�
Here鈥檚 how it worked.
Traders in New England would import molasses and sugar made by enslaved workers in the Caribbean. Distilleries in 黑料吃瓜网, and elsewhere, would take those materials and make rum, which was then sent to West Africa, in exchange for more enslaved workers sent to the Caribbean.
Some of those enslaved workers would also be brought to New England.
鈥淚f you think about the triangle that New England was involved in, the Caribbean was a really important center. That is where the sugar cane would be cut and the molasses would be created,鈥� de Barros Gomes says. 鈥淭he distilleries were in places like Newport, New Haven, New London, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.鈥�
Slavery could be found across 黑料吃瓜网. Not all Africans in colonial 黑料吃瓜网 were enslaved, but there were very few free Black residents.
Colonial show a particularly high percentage of people of color in southeastern 黑料吃瓜网. These included enslaved people, Indigenous people and free Black residents.
But those records are not necessarily complete, says Nancy H. Steenburg, a professor of history at the University of 黑料吃瓜网, Avery Point. That鈥檚 because enslaved people were treated as property.
鈥淚n some communities, they may have been taxed as such,鈥� Steenburg says. 鈥淧eople may have concealed people of color because of the potential of being taxed.鈥�
Meanwhile, 黑料吃瓜网鈥檚 economy continued to prosper off the transatlantic slave trade, with companies even insuring enslaved people as property into the 1850s.
Slavery in the state grew, peaking around the time of the Revolutionary War.
In 1784 黑料吃瓜网 passed a Gradual Emancipation Act, which did not immediately abolish slavery. Instead, it allowed for the phasing out of slavery over time.
Slavery would still persist in the state for generations, de Barros Gomes says.
鈥淎ll that law really did was it said that the children born to the enslaved would be free after 25 years, right? So it didn't say slavery could no longer be practiced in the state,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t just said, you would not be enslaved for life if you were born after 1784.鈥�
黑料吃瓜网 was the last of the New England states to formally end slavery.
Slavery didn't legally end in 黑料吃瓜网 until 1848, just 13 years before the Civil War.
'A deeply prideful thing'
Several efforts are now underway to recover 黑料吃瓜网鈥檚 hidden stories of enslavement. They include , and the .
For some, the stories are personal. John Mills founded the , a nonprofit that works .
鈥淚t鈥檚 powerful. Oh my goodness, it鈥檚 so powerful,鈥� Mills says.
He says he began researching lives of the enslaved to reclaim his own family story.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a deeply prideful thing,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd I don鈥檛 know if that's a common thought that a person digging into their lives and finding enslaved people would be so prideful, but it is for me.鈥�
When Mills was growing up, he heard stories of the "exceptionalists," people like Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman.
鈥淭he one-in-a-millions. But I didn't get the million side of the story,鈥� Mills says. 鈥淲hen I started learning about my own ancestors 鈥� like my own great-great-grandfather Ned Mills; he was enslaved in Texas 鈥� I realized his was the common story. And I didn't know a lot about the common story.鈥�
Other efforts to reclaim these stories in 黑料吃瓜网 include the and 鈥�.鈥�
Uncovering these stories of enslavement opens doors to a better understanding of family histories 鈥� and how the impact of slavery resonates today.
But de Barros Gomes, from the Mystic Seaport Museum, says society still needs to change the way it speaks about enslavement.
鈥淢y hope is that by reframing narratives, by validating and honoring Indigenous and Black perspectives, that people come to see history as complex,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a story of hero and villains. It鈥檚 a story of systems. Slavery was a system.鈥�
A system that 黑料吃瓜网 was part of.
Talking about it strengthens everyone, Adrienne Joy Burns says.
鈥淚f a young person were to say to me, 鈥榃as this history, my fault?鈥� The answer to that question is, 鈥楴o, it was not your fault. It's not associated with you, it neither makes you a good or a bad person.鈥�
鈥淟earning about this history is something that's going to be of benefit to you,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ecause it helps us to understand how we got here. And that's the important part, because that's what we can change. We can change it when we understand it.鈥�
Read more from Unforgotten: 黑料吃瓜网's Hidden History of Slavery
Chapter 2: 鈥楾his is my country': A family learns their ancestors were enslaved in 黑料吃瓜网
About the series: Why we're reporting on 黑料吃瓜网's history of slavery
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