MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT
Enrollment is currently open for fieldwork during the June Wesleyan summer session. A course description about the class can be found here Details about Wesleyan summer session (including enrollment) can be found here Information about the community archaeology project can be viewed in this video. You can also learn about further details of the research … Read more
Cross Street A.M.E. Zion Church «crossstreetamezion.org» Cross Street A.M.E. Zion Church Online Exhibition «crossstreetchurch.site.wesleyan.edu» Middletown Materials 2010 «middletownmaterials.research.wesleyan.edu» Middlesex County Historical Society «www.middlesexhistory.org»
At the Cross Street Archaeology Lab, our class spent few hours washing the artifacts that we found during the first week of the excavation. We have largely found metal composites, pieces of glassware, bricks, and some pieces of ceramic. All of the artifacts were excavated from the trash pits behind 19 and 21 Vine Street, … Read more
5 Questions With Sarah Croucher on Middletown’s Beman Triangle Lauren Rubenstein April 17th, 2012 In this issue of The Wesleyan Connection, we ask 5 Questions of Sarah Croucher, assistant professor of anthropology, assistant professor of archaeology, assistant professor of feminist, gender, and sexuality studies. Croucher will lead an archaeological dig on the site of the Beman … Read more
Beman Triangle Archaeological Dig Brad Horrigan, Hartford Courant April 14, 2012 Wesleyan archeology Prof. Sarah Croucher, center, at an archeological excavation site at the 5-acre Beman Triangle in Middletown on Saturday. The Beman Triangle was an influential African American community from 1847 to the 1920’s whose residents included abolitionists and Civil War veterans. For full … Read more
Along with the abolitionist movement and fight for immediate emancipation, the Beman family members were also very keen on fighting for the right of suffrage for the African Americans. As a delegate to Colored Conventions, a democratic platform for the disenfranchised African American community to discuss issues related to people’s well-being, livelihood, politics and other … Read more
As a response to slavery, racial prejudice, and the colonization movement, the black abolitionist movement commenced in the early 19th century. Being race-conscious and politically active, Jehiel Beman was deeply involved in the anti-slavery movement from 1831. Jehiel very much believed in the power of writing. Both as an agent and a writer, he heavily … Read more
With his manumission, Cesar named himself Cesar Beman, for he aspired to explicitly claim his right to “be a man.” This is the start of the Beman family, of whose members were active participants in many of the social and political activist movements of the 19th century. After serving in the Revolutionary War, Cesar gained … Read more
from “Jehiel C. Beman: A Leader of the Northern Free Black Community” by Jennifer Lee James, published in Winter 1997 in Vol. 82 of The Journal of Negro History
Founded by Reverend James Anderson in 1823, the Cross Street A.M.E. Zion Church was formed before the Civil War forced an end to the institution of slavery. Strenuously following the race-conscious mission statement, the Church provides a secure place for people of color to worship freely. With the help of many men and women who … Read more