The realities of slavery in Connecticut and the North were neatly sanitized and distorted in school textbooks, history books and popular literature. Johnson Edward, in his book A School History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1890 (1897), did not highlight aspects of slavery, but chose instead to celebrate the achievements of African Americans, both enslaved and free, throughout their history in the United States. The book includes entries on doctors, artists, soldiers, educators, religious figures and institutions as well as those who risked their freedom to assist the Underground Railroad. Recent scholarly research continues to broaden our understanding of these individuals and the institutions they founded, but scholars are also now beginning to examine more closely the role of slavery in the North.

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