“Coloring Our Past”- the Untold Story of a Free Family in Northwest Connecticut.
Join Noble Horizons, the Scoville Library and the Salisbury Association for a follow-up program to “Coloring our Past”, the film created by Salisbury School students revealing the legacy of slavery in the northwest corner.
Noble Horizons premiered Coloring Our Past in May of 2021, a film made by Salisbury School students in the Searching for Slavery class. The film chronicles their discovery of the lost stories of local black and indigenous peoples whose contributions have been hidden from history for the last 200+ years. Throughout the year, the students have conducted extensive research, fieldwork, interviews and other efforts to uncover the lives of people who have long been buried, forgotten, or ignored.
Community programs showcasing the students’ discoveries were held and on May 1, 2021 James Mars Day was celebrated with an official decree issued by Governor Lamont. A memorial ceremony was held in Norfolk, where the enslaved Mars began and ended his life. The Witness Stones Project, which seeks to acknowledge and confront a past that did not live up to the nation’s founding ideals of justice and equality, installed a stone marker to forever honor Mars.
Coloring Our Past details the ongoing and exhaustive efforts undertaken to reveal the extensive contributions of people like the James Mars and members of the Cesar family, who fought in wars, owned land, worked, paid taxes, had businesses, and contributed to our communities but were never accounted for in local histories. The film includes commentary from descendants of the Cesar family
Our 2022 series
February 17, 2022 will be an introduction to the history of slavery in Connecticut using five themes: dehumanization, treatment of the enslaved, paternalism, economics of slavery, and agency and resistance. Students will also share their research on the owners and customers of the Beckley Furnace and their ties to the cotton industry.
February 24, 2022 will focus on the life of Joseph Mars, son of James Mars, as students will present their investigation as they seek to highlight his humanity and contributions as someone who helped build our community. We will conclude with a call to help us examine more primary sources such as property, church, vital records (wills and probate inventories), account books, and census data to develop a further biography of his life.
March 7, 2022 we will review using the primary documents to create a biographical sketch of Joseph Mars that we can read at a public installation of a Witness Stone to not only honor Joseph Mars’s contributions with a brass marker at a place where he lived, worked, worshiped, or contributed.
To Register go to: https://www.scovillelibrary.org/events/
Cancellation:
Occasionally, events may be cancelled due to inclement weather or other conditions beyond our control. In that case, we will make every effort to update our website and contact registrants.
Photography policy:
Official photographs taken at the event may include you as a subject and could be used in future editorial and promotional contexts in print and electronic media. Images will not be identified using full names without written approval from the individual. Please notify Noble Horizons staff if you would prefer that your photo not be used.