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06/01/2022 08:45 AMThe Country School of Madison last week conducted its third installation for the Witness Stones Project, which is a national movement that allows students and municipalities to explore the history of enslavement in their towns. This current stone has an even more special meaning for many in town as investigation has revealed the incredible history of a Madison slave and his contributions.
According to Liz Lightfoot, head of alumni relations and outreach at The Country School, the project has students researching local archives to restore the history and honor the humanity of an enslaved peoples who were integral to the creation of Madison.
In 2020, students researched a woman named Lettuce Bailey, who was enslaved by Jonathan Todd, the minister of the First Congregational Church. A Witness Stone marker was installed in her honor in front of the church. The following year, students researched her mother, Tamar, who was also enslaved by Todd, and her marker, too, is in front of the church.
This year The Country School students researched a man named Theophilus Niger, who was enslaved near Horse Pond and who, with his wife, Peneleope Tantipen, a Native American, raised a family and ultimately gained his freedom.
Lightfoot said the students’ investigation found that Niger had a large property when he died, and was able to leave a legacy for his children, several of whom were important historical figures in their own right; two fought in the Revolutionary War and a grandchild led a successful Black voting rights movement in Providence, Rhode Island, where he was also an agent for William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, according to the information uncovered by the students.
The students were able to discover that his enslavers, Thomas and Abigail Hodgkin, actually lived in the house First Selectwoman Peggy Lyons and her family live in now. According to Lightfoot, Lyons shared information and property records, helping students learn interesting details about the house. Lyons said she was surprised and honored to find out about the history of her home.
Rather than an ominous distinction for her family’s home, Lyons said it is an important piece of the town’s history and has allowed her and her family to reflect on how far Madison has come and what the future might bring.
“I feel very honored that these students are researching the history of someone who owned our house,” said Lyons. “I was quite stunned when I learned about the history and it is so exciting to learn the background and story of this person. You look around town and see all the names on the older historic houses and the rich history of families, and yet there is no record of these important people that helped shaped our community. I am really thrilled to participate in this.
“The person who we are celebrating was a slave in the house we own and the students now believe that he may been involved in the original construction,” Lyons continued. “It really brings to home for us living in New England and Connecticut who generally kind of feel that slavery didn’t have a direct impact on their lives, but it did occur here and we need to recognize that. It hits home literally for us to learn about that history.”
Will McDonough, middle school history teacher and director of community engagement at The Country School, said the program is a vital component of the school’s mission.
“When considering the role of a history class in the year 2022, it is imperative that we, both as educators and inhabitants of the world, ask ourselves to consider the capabilities of our students. No longer is school merely an exercise of assessing ability; instead, it needs to be about providing space for young people to explore and grow and extend their learning beyond the ceiling of a mandated grade level curriculum,” McDonough said. “Certainly, students can memorize, research, write, recite, and present. Those are skills, yes, and they can certainly be valuable in the right circumstances. But, as this Witness Stones Project reminds us, they are also skills that can be enveloped into an opportunity for young people to consider the danger of a single narrative.”
McDonough said the project will help students to view other parts of their world in different light.
“Witness Stones is important because it reminds us all that there are stories and forgotten lives hidden in the margins of recorded history, but also around us today. It is a project about exposing painful truths…but more importantly it is also about the future and equipping each of us with the keen desire to seek truth and to deepen our understanding of the way things are,” he said. “Many things can be true at once, and pausing to reflect on the life of Theophilus Niger who, as the students note, left a legacy, allows us to continue the legacy by imagining a more compassionate future for everyone who lives, or works, or visits our town.”