Slavery existed in Fairfield County and New England, but yet we still know so little about it. Because slavery ended in the North before the start of the Civil War, over time it has become increasingly identified as a Southern institution. The fact that slavery existed in Connecticut and the North has been largely forgotten. History books published in the 19th and early 20th centuries frequently glossed over the cruelties of Northern slavery; other history books, such as Johnson Edward's A School History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1890 celebrated the achievements of black Americans both before and after Emancipation.

Image: Frederick Douglass (detail), Johnson Edward, A School History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1890 (1897). Courtesy The Connecticut Historical Society Museum, Hartford, Connecticut.