Recognizing history
Marker for Caesar, a slave from 1750. Markers are meant to serve as recognition of America’s history in new project.
BENNINGTON - The Stopping Stones project is a national effort intended to engage communities with the local and broader history of slavery by memorializing the names of enslaved persons with markers in the places they were once held. The organization works toward repairing inequality in education, health, justice, and economics, the effects of American slavery, and to move our nation toward racial equity and equal opportunity. Stopping Stones believes that communities must recognize history in order to shape the future.
In support of bringing this project to Bennington, Bennington Museum has been designated as the Vermont recipient of a Historic New England Herbert and Louise Whitney Fund Community Preservation Grant.
Museum volunteers have begun research to identify enslaved individuals in Bennington. With funding from this grant the museum intends to partner with schools to continue the research and engage students in the project in order to develop a broader understanding of our community’s past as well as put its present into context.
For more information on how to get involved email Deana Mallory at dmallory@benningtonmuseum.org.
