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Gravestone
Dorcas Higginbotham's grave in Pomfret. Photo by Donna Dufresne.
POMFRET — The Pomfret Historical Society will be introducing the area to research about enslaved Africans in Windham County with workshops funded by a $5,000 grant from Connecticut Humanities.
The society will offer four historical workshops this October in Pomfret. Titled “Waking the Dead: Archaeology, Genealogical and Archival Research About Enslaved Africans in Windham County,” these workshops are open to the public and will help restore the Randall Higginbotham Burial Ground on the Wyndham Land Trust’s Nightingale Woods property in Pomfret.
Workshop presenters include historian and writer Donna Dufresne; Dr. Nick Bellantoni, state archaeologist emeritus; Dr. Sarah Sportman, state archaeologist; Ruth Shapleigh Brown, CT Gravestone Network; Michael Carroll, Rediscovering History Gravestone Restoration; and William Fothergill, expert in African and Native American genealogy.
Two workshops will be centered around current research on the enslaved Africans buried at the Randall Higginbotham Burial Ground. On Oct. 2, in collaboration with The Last Green Valley’s Walktober, Dufresne will present “The Lost Village of Voices, A New Narrative.” At 10 a.m. at the Pomfret Community Center. A tour of the Higginbotham Homestead at Nightingale Woods follows. The rain date is 1 p.m. Oct. 3. Registration is $10.
The second workshop is “Waking the Dead, The Story Told by Artifacts and Primary Sources,” and will be held at 9 a.m. Oct. 23 at the Rectory School. This day-long symposium includes keynote speakers Bellantoni, Sportman, Brown and Carroll. A demonstration on gravestone cleaning, restoration and repairs at the Randall/Higginbotham Burial Ground and a tour of the historic remains of the Higginbotham farm and mills follows. Registration is $20, including lunch.
The third workshop, “Waking the Dead, Uncovering the Past in Ancient Burial Grounds,” will be held at 1 p.m. Oct. 30 at the Sabin/South Cemetery in Pomfret. A presentation by Brown at the Pomfret Community Center will be followed by a tour of the Sabin/South Cemetery and workshop on gravestone carvers, lichen removal and safe cleaning of gravestones and the care of ancient burial grounds. Registration is $10.
The fourth workshop, “Waking the Dead, Native American and African Descent Genealogy and Archival Research” will be held at 1 p.m. Nov. 6 at the Pomfret Community Center with genealogist Fothergill. He will share techniques he learned while researching Ebenezer Bassett from Litchfield, who was of Native and African American descent and the first person of color appointed as ambassador to Haiti in 1869. Registration is $10.
For more info and online registration: pomfret-historical-society.org starting Aug. 15. Register for individual workshops or all four for a discounted fee of $35.
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