A collaboration between The Country School and the Witness Stones Project
This Witness Stones memorial was installed on December 5, 2023 at the Deacon John Graves House in Madison, Connecticut where Tome lived and worked.
As New England residents, the stories we hear about slavery in our region tend to focus on abolitionists and the Underground Railroad. For the last five years, Country School 8th Graders have set out to tell a more complete and truthful narrative. Working with Dennis Culliton, co-founder and executive director of the Witness Stones Project, they have researched documents buried in local archives, seeking to restore the history and honor the humanity of the enslaved individuals who helped build our small Connecticut town. Following the model of the Stolpersteine Project in Germany, which has installed thousands of brass plaques to honor Jews and others who lost their lives during the Holocaust, their work culminates with the installation of a permanent brass marker to commemorate — and to invite the public to remember — these enslaved individuals whose stories and contributions had been forgotten.
During the first year of the project, members of the class of 2020 focused on a woman named Lettuce Bailey, who was enslaved for much of her life by the minister of the Congregational Church in East Guilford, known today as Madison. While poring through documents extracted from local archives, students managed to identify some of the milestones in her life and then piece together the evidence so they could write biographical narratives. After a workshop with poet and educator Jumoke McDufieThurmond, whose collection, Recipe for Resurrection, was inspired by archival research into his enslaved ancestors, they also opted to write poetry. At the conclusion of the project, a Witness Stones marker was installed on the green in front of the church where Jonathan Todd, the minister who enslaved her, served as pastor. Two hundred years after her death, the marker invites all passersby to honor Lettuce Bailey’s memory, and her biographical narrative and poetry inspired by it are collected in a book called Searching for Lettuce Bailey.
During the 2020-21 school year, a second group of 8th Graders sought to restore the history and honor the humanity of Lettuce Bailey’s mother, Tamar, whose journey began around 1744 in West Africa and ended with her death in Madison in 1816. Using the same methodology, the project for Tamar concluded with the placement of a brass marker in front of the Congregational Church alongside her daughter’s. A biography and student artwork and poetry inspired by their research is collected in Searching for Tamar, Finding Ourselves.
In year three, members of the class of 2022 turned their attention to a man named Theophilus Niger, who was enslaved for much of his life on the outskirts of town and yet managed to build a family and amass property he could pass on to them. Some of his descendants served in the Revolutionary War, some became small business owners, and one became a Black voting rights activist.
Our fourth stone honored the life of Stepney, a man enslaved by the Grave family in what is now Madison during the mid-18th century. The class of 2023 discovered that Stepney was an integral part of the community, completing important projects for the Grave household and for others in town. His legacy has carried on through the “Stepney Stairs”
in the Grave House, but his story is much more than that, as he helped the Grave family amass a great deal of wealth from his labor.
During the 2023-24 school year, students researched a man named Tome, who was enslaved by the Grave family in the late 17th-and early-18th centuries. It is likely that he helped to build the Grave house, and in doing so, left his mark as a pillar of the community.
The Witness Stones Project begins with an exploration of the history of enslavement in Connecticut, showing how great wealth was amassed through engagement with the West Indies trade. Students learn how local farmers and small business people became provisioners to support agricultural slavery on the sugar islands, how some locals actively engaged in the slave trade and how many became enslavers themselves. They also learn about the people of African descent who — whether forced or willingly — contributed to the creation of the Connecticut we know today.
After exploring the broader story of enslavement in Connecticut, the focus becomes specific, with students setting out to research one particular individual who was enslaved in their town. They are given access to primary and, when available, to secondary source documents related to the person they are researching. Mostly found in local archives, these documents might include wills, ledgers, bills of sale, birth, death, and marriage records, and probate court inventories as well as recorded family stories or histories that have been passed down through generations. As they explore these documents, students are asked to consider how each one relates to the five themes of enslavement as identified by the Witness Stones Project: dehumanization, paternalism, the economics of slavery, treatment of the enslaved, and agency and resistance.
This year, after examining documents related to Tome’s life, students explored the Grave House to envision his world. They walked through the rooms he inhabited and felt the stone fireplaces he may have constructed. They were also able to see the original beams that he possibly created to frame the house, understanding how the Grave household rested on his shoulders. This experience brought the documents to life, allowing students to connect to their research in a physical way.
The following pages are our attempt at enabling the rest of the world to “see” Tome. As we do so, it’s important to remember that, in fact, he has been here all along. Most of us just didn’t know it.
Editor’s Note: After spending weeks collectively researching documents, students worked individually to piece together a biographical narrative reflecting Tome’s life story. What follows is a composite of our sketches. A list of resources used in our research can be found at the end of this book. Like all histories, elements of this narrative are likely to change as more details emerge. We welcome new information; please reach out to alumni@thecountryschool.org if you have something to add.
For Americans, slavery is a tragedy that is widely known about, but not always well understood. Today, historians often claim that America was built on the shoulders of enslaved people. By 1700, there were around 30,000 enslaved people in the colonies, five hundred of them living in Connecticut. Unfortunately, these numbers grew exponentially throughout the 18th century, until slavery was finally outlawed in Connecticut. Tome was one of those people enslaved in Connecticut in the late 17th and early 18th century. He was enslaved by the Graves, a prominent family in East Guilford (modern day Madison) who owned, worked, and rented Tome out. At the time, the Graves family was extremely wealthy, and they lived in this house for about five generations through the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
Despite efforts to erase him from history, Tome's work was generally well documented in an account book that many generations of the Graves Family used. His life provides us with insight about the complex history of the Graves House that appears to be simple on the outside, but contains many stories and memories behind its walls. Tome’s life was a significant part of history and the Guilford community, and it shows us what enslaved people had to go through everyday. His story deserves to be told.
In Madison, Connecticut one main place that enslaved people was the Graves house. George Graves, one of the founders of Hartford, moved from England to Hartford, Connecticut in 1636. His son John I moved to Guilford (modern-day Madison) in the 1670s, where his descendants lived for several generations. Tome lived under the generation of John Graves I and his son John Graves II.
It is not logged how Tome arrived at the Graves House, or what happened to him after 1707, but based on the events that were recorded in the account book, there are multiple theories about his origins. The first mention of Tome in the Graves’ account book was in 1682. From this we can infer that Tome was born between 1660 and 1670 based on the kind of physical work he was doing at the time. Tome’s first mention in the account book said that he was “framing,” which probably means he was framing walls for a house. This kind of labor would have to be done by someone who was at least in their late teens.
There are no records in the account book of the birth of an enslaved person or the family purchasing an individual between 1640 and 1682. This leaves a massive gap between the known and unknown in Tome’s life, but there are some clues about his origins. In looking through records of slave ships landing in New England between 1670 and 1682, there appears to be a ship traveling to West Africa and returning to Newport, Rhode Island in 1681, just one year before Tome began working for the Graves. Although there are no names of enslaved people on the boat recorded, it is possible that Tome was on this ship. Another reason to support this theory is George Graves’ will of 1673. This will did not mention Tome, which means he was most likely not with the family in 1673. Therefore, he most likely was not born into the family and was purchased by the Graves between 1673 and 1682.
In addition, there is record of John Graves buying a “small pair of shoes” in 1681. In that year, he purchased shoes for everyone in his family, listing their names in the account book. This is the only purchase without a corresponding name. Could these shoes have been for Tome? While we do not know for certain, these clues can point us in some interesting directions related to Tome’s origins.
Tome played an important role in the town of Guilford while he was enslaved by the Graves. His first mention in the Graves account book was in 1682, where he was listed as “framing” for John Hoyts and working a day at Nut Plains. For the next twenty-five years,
the Graves mentioned Tome’s work in their account book, mainly when he was “hired out” to work for other families in the community.
Some of the people who hired Tome were Mary Eliot, Benjamin Hand, John Hoyts, Janna Meigs, and Benjamin Stone. For these families, he made fences, framed houses, collected shells for mortar, and then made mortar for chimneys. He also did larger projects such as clearing a swamp and “tending mason.” It can be said that Guilford and Madison would not be the same without him. Tome’s accomplishments throughout his life with the Graves family were many. The Graves, in turn, got paid for renting Tome to these people, often receiving 3 shillings for one day’s work. Not one single cent went to Tome.
The Deacon John Graves House was made mostly by hand, including the massive original beams. This is easy to tell by the way the beams look; there are little cuts and indents that show where individuals worked on them. One of Tome’s main jobs was carpentry, so it would make sense that he worked on this. The date of the house’s construction in 1685 would also support this, since it was built three years after Tome first appears in the account book. This makes it likely that Tome did the original framing of the house. We saw another good example of this when we went down into the basement. The stone bricks that made up the walls were also made by hand, as they were uneven and had indents. Was Tome one of the people who built these walls? This is certainly a possibility.
After Tome was last mentioned in the account book in 1707, a new generation of enslaved people appeared in the record, including Stepney and Cate. We know that Cate was enslaved by the Graves in 1726, as she was mentioned in John Graves’ will in that year. Stepney was enslaved by 1732, when he was first mentioned in the account book. Stepney may have worked alongside Tome, and it is even possible that Tome was Stepney’s father. While Tome was last mentioned in 1707, it is possible that he was here past that date and lived with Cate and Stepney.
It is also possible that Tome unfortunately was the only person enslaved here, as no other names are mentioned in the record between 1682-1707. If this was the case, we still hope that he had a community around him.
We aren't exactly sure what happened to Tome later in life, but we have some theories. He was not mentioned after 1707 which led us to think he died of a sickness, was sold or he escaped. Another possible theory is that he died of old age. We aren't sure of how old he was but we do have some information from account books that can help a little. The work he did in 1707 included getting pipe staves and collecting shells, which is not overly laborious. This could mean that he was in his old age.
Oral histories of the Graves House mention someone named “old Toby” who worked at the house when it was a tavern in the early 1700’s. It is possible that this “Toby” was actually Tome. If this is true, it would mean that Tome moved from heavy physical labor to domestic work later in his life. However, we cannot know for certain. Because there is no clear record of him after 1707, we can only guess what his fate was.
Editor’s Note: Like the students who researched Lettuce Bailey, Tamar, Theophilus Niger, and Stepney, members of the class of 2024 found that while a straightforward nonfiction account could restore Tome’s history, it might not be fully capable of honoring his humanity. They had seen the possibilities inherent in a more creative treatment of archived material, thanks to Jumoke McDuffie-Thurmond’s work from Recipe for Resurrection, showing how through poetry, he was able to “conjure a creative space of reckoning, listening, remembering, and longing” while bearing “witness to the humanity of enslaved ancestors held within the documents of a dehumanizing archive.” After reading some of his poems, students learned techniques for writing in ways that would allow them to stay true to the archived material while also conveying some of the “unsayable” things held in those archives.
This second half of our book features poetry inspired by our research and the questions left unanswered.
By Liam Balogh
It started as one day working on a fence, Building a chimney, for someone else.
The man, Tome, ripped of his rights. Only as a young man.
Paternalism acting at its finest, Treated as a child, with sadly nothing to say but sob. Life in that way was unfair, Always living on the edge, wondering what's going to be next: Work? Punishment?
Being used for money? When does it stop?
You get the point, There was nothing he could do, Sitting there alone by himself With nothing to say, but wondering will he be set —---- free?
By Ryan Antman
Living free. Doing what you want. Being free.
We all take these privileges for granted. When these privileges are taken from you, What are you?
Being used as a tool, not a human, This is what it was like. Doing work with no pay, No bed, no bathroom, Not being able to live free. These things are things we overlook. Waking up on a pile of cold hard bricks, When you get up it feels like your whole back just falls away with the pain of the cold hard floor.
Tucked away where no-one would ever look. Standing up with bruised imprints on your back. His skin is as tough as a rock, it's been molded and shaped like clay by his daily events.
These are the inevitable marks of Tome.
By Keve Frusztajer
His life, His story, cloaked behind the opaque curtains of slavery. All that’s left are fingerprints covering the walls of the Grave House and work records. Is that all that he was to the Grave Family?
An entry in an account book, an asset to rent out?
After his use benefiting the Grave family diminished with age, would he be thrown out like an old pair of shoes? Only to be replaced by another?
By Connor Duffy
Taken from their homes, Stripped of their land, Sent to the strange shores of America. The only information is strewn about Across account books.
Held by the Grave Family. Rights taken, Cruelly taken, Lives taken.
Tome was only one, One of many Taken to torment. Deprived of a normal life, Tome was forced to build The Grave House.
Tome worked for money, Yet it went to the Grave family. But only the account book tells The pieces of Tome’s life.
By Gabriel Johnsen
Inequality is common even nowadays. Sexism, Racism,
And much more.
Even though there is an improvement, Just like a child being born, This is only the beginning of this movement, It is still bad. Don't get me wrong. But when Tome was alive, He was just treated wrong. It all started in 1682. He was treated unlike me and you, But this was not that long ago. We have to realize this history. Is a part of us, like a state that makes up our country. And how it is terrible, To treat others wrong. Inequality, injustice, and inhumanity.
On top of all that, Tome was treated like rubbish left out on the road. But he was human too, Just like me and you.
By Will Laurans
Was he captured from West Africa?
We don’t know.
Was he brought on a ship to Newport?
We don’t know.
When was he enslaved by the Deacon John Grave family? We don’t know. When was he born?
We don’t know. Who were his family members?
We don’t know.
When did he die?
We don't know.
We can assume a date, but we still don’t know. The awful atrocities of slavery, are often silently shied away from l like when you are asked a question you don’t want to answer. Why?
Tome was brutally ripped from his home and stripped of all his human qualities. And what did he do to deserve it? Nothing. Nothing at all.
This is a dark past because Tome was taken from his home to work for countless hours for a random family he did not know for zero pay. This is a dark past because there were children enslaved at birth to build our founding fathers’ houses. This is a dark past because of the process of dehumanization. We know such little information, about these people, real people, who were not even treated as humans. This dark past should not be shied away from, but recognized. We must lift these people from obscurity to immortality.
By Rafael Muyombwe
America, a country known most notoriously for its wealth. With its general strength and complete economic domination, America has been branded the land of possibilities, But how did it forge its renowned name?
Was it always this colossal, sovereign might?
How can a nation so recently established paint itself as the best land for living, and find concurrence among other notable nations?
Well, the elites and other political figures of the government glorify the narrative that this beautiful country was created from the glorious fight for freedom dating back to the English wars.
But what really happened?
The forgotten history. Forgotten history. History.
His Story. Their Stories.
What stories emerge from the multitude of people, Ripped from their homes, and compelled to work against their will? What are the stories of those mistreated, raped, their rights stripped as if another being can have authority over them?
They are treated as mere objects and instruments. What about their stories?
Do people care?
No matter where in the US, There is always a link to the tragedy of slavery. Here in Madison, Connecticut, one of the oldest homes in the state was formerly owned by The John Grave Family.
A wealthy lineage that had their home built in the 1780s.
A family who supposedly carried great virtues, Yet were also the enslavers of dear Tome.
A blameless man, severed from his cultural roots. Forced to tolerate this new, alien culture. They allegedly offered extended care to those they enslaved, But how can one who imprisons another soul, Forces them into cruel labor, And bends them to their bidding
Be one of kindness and virtue? Omitting his name, And any other form of identification.
Taking from him what he had been born with,
what made him a person.
How can they be so kind, so virtuous?
You can only fathom the horror and anguish that one must have endured. Your home despoiled, Plundered.
Foreign men level muskets with your eyes and threaten your life. After complying with them, they constrict your movement with tight ropes and put you on a ship headed to an ominous place. Your life will never be the same, And the trauma they inflict on you is indelible, no matter how hard you try to cope.
They don’t let you cope.
They don’t see you as human at all.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness.”
The Declaration of Independence claims all humans are created equal, But where did these regulations stand when human beings were enslaved, Brutally beaten, Hung,
And treated like animals?
Political speakers and representatives often respond with “Times have changed,” when questioned on the topic. But have they really? How is history just forgotten about?
Society tries to erase it.
But it can only be pushed away. Neglected.
Buried by people in power.
How can you truly forget about the fundamental days of your own country? Millions are like Tome's life, A whisper, only mentioned in an account book. All the stories of the forgotten slaves.
You can not forget about them.
You can not truly forget about their Stories. You can not forget about Tome’s story.
Their Stories. His Story. HiStory.
By Abigail Calarco
1682, the year he was stolen, Forced to the house base that HE would build. Tabby concrete, wood, bricks, A new task, Over, and over and over. He was treated like a work dog. Robbed of his sense of being human. Keep going, keep going, keep going, Waiting for death even if it didn’t know his name. Hidden from history, Forgotten... He didn’t deserve that... Gone and forgotten... Why?
Bring him out of the darkness, Immortalize the lost. Immortalize HIM. There was a life HERE. But they didn’t care... They never did. And so, the cold grasp of time enveloped him Down deeper into history. Bring him out of the darknessImmortalize Tome.
By Nolan Beichner
Trapped in a house, Endless work.
Nothing for you to chooseNo agency. Child labor. No relatives.
Everything human stripped away. Taken away from your home, Trapped in a home that isn't yours, Doing work with no reward. Your family exists, but might as well be dead. Sleeping in a hole in the wall, Your soul wouldn't be whole.
By Alex Duques
Not in my town,
That’s what we all thought. Not the town I know and love. It feels like a stab in the back, A punch to the stomach, The evil reality of enslavement.
Real people with real feelings. The dehumanization, The abuse.
It’s sickening to know their lives were taken, Each part of them stripped away, Trapped.
We need to shine light on these people's lives And regain their humanity once again.
By Emma Ferency
In 1682, he emerged, Building chimneys, and framing houses Like he was a professional carpenter. He collected shells to make mortar, Dumped the shells in a pile and Stacked the wood on top and Lit it on fire, to go whoosh to make white dust. He walked up and down Stepney’s Stairs, To dump out chamber pots And make meals. He was a foundation of East Guilford Until 1707, When we don’t have, Any accounts of him. And he disappeared Like white dust in the wind, Before it's mixed with water to make mortar. He was forgotten by everyone, But like that mortar, The strength of his memory now remains.
By Maybeline Hladky
1682,
This is the year you arrived, And your story started. Like the beginning of a book, But it has secrets that only the author knows. You were a mason. You were a builder. You were a constructor. You were a foundation of Guilford. ButWere you a poet? Were you an artist? Noahdiah, Did he work with you? Did you know him? 1707,
This is the year you disappeared. Like the end of a story, But -
Only the author knows what happens next. We don’t know where you went, Or
How your life was after that year. Did you run away? Were you too old to do work? There are many events in your life, We will never figure out. Those are your secrets to keep. How you came to the Grave House. Who you knew, and loved. If you told stories. If you sang songs. These secrets, These stories, These songs, Will always, And Forever Be yours.
By Charlie Ogeneski
Lost, pages lying still. The few records concealed, Yet visible.
Many names fall into the abyss. Many names. Many people. Real people. People.
People Dismissed as nothing but words on a page. They blend in. Camouflaging with other, ordinary words.
Yet these words are different, these words have meaningA whole lifetime of meaning, and suffering, and pain, and injustice.
Like an insignificant memory, they were forgotten. But they will be remembered, Even if only by few, Their legacies, Their stories, will live on forever.
By Liam Morris
Walked up throughout the long path that is life. Up and down, over and over again. Left behind. Forgotten. A piece of the community. A friend. A foundation of our community that has been disrespected. Been hurt. Been harmed. Been broken into puzzle pieces that we cannot solve, Pieces that have been left behind. Pieces that have been forgotten. Like a rock thrown into a river, they will never be seen again. Like being one piece off of finishing a puzzle and finding out the piece is missing. Then, over there
There's something that catches your eye.
By Eloise Lafferty
With your cruel, brutal, wicked, narcissistic lifestyle
You are inactive, unbothered, and negligent. Why do you choose to ruin people?
What caught me to stop was that you stepped on your help. If you didn’t have a slave, then you would suffer. You couldn’t do anything for yourself. You were raised in wealth.
You are choosing to treat people terribly. They are either shivering or sweating.
Taking away their name, their family, and even their lives. Anywhere and everywhere there is harm. You continued this reign for millions of years.
Did you ever wonder how it felt to be trapped behind bars?
Imagine yourself in their shoes. You would view your life or even the world with doubt. You had no right.
Timmy, Tod, and Tanner were people.
By Luke Schupp
A Farmer–A Friend.
Stairs, stairs that lead to freedom
That Tome built with his own Human body, but was seen as A tool, just an old useless tool.
Treated like an animal, Disrespected and never Well treated.
A person that founded Guilford,
A true piece of Connecticut. His life was like a Puzzle piece, finally solved And finally remembered.
By Charlie Sinclair
A field hand, A farmer, A carpenter, A mason. So much talent gone to waste. A cart with a missing wheel. He was dehumanized, He was paternalized, He was forced to work. Tome worked hard, for no vengeance. He built the fence that trapped him, Built the roof that covered him, Built the house that oppressed them, Built the community that shunned him.
By Chloe Ryan
As I stand on the coarse, hay-like grass, I think that where I stand now
He stood three hundred years ago.
I look at the old, water-damaged fence and think, He stuck each piece of wood into the ground. I run my fingers along the rough concrete foundation. I try to imagine him strenuously picking up the seemingly endless amount of concrete. I step through the doorway of the house now.
Unknown history fills the presence.
I place my hand on the face of the seasoned wood–I check the rings that speckle the wood - it’s old.
Hundreds of years even.
The empty chimney was once filled with wood that was cut by Tome–The ancient trees still stand tall outside, showing us that time never stops. The roof that he built.
The walls are lined with stories from another time, And they say so much without saying anything at all.
By Henrik Sharp
A tree, Fenced in,
A ceiling overhead.
Nowhere to stretch its branches out, Nowhere to grow.
The owner comes by to shape the tree to his liking, The branches, Cut and taken away, Any hopes of growth or dreams were cut off, Yet the tree keeps trying, Like little arms trying to pull themselves out of a holeNo luck.
Over time, the tree is cut and chopped Until it is merely a stump. The tree has stopped trying
To grow,
To be free, It will remain trapped there, Like a bird in a cage. Unchanging, Until it dies in the same place. No one will ever shed a tear, Almost like they never existed.
We were honored to be joined at our installation ceremony by Jumoke McDuffie-Thurmond, a poet, educator, and performer whose day job is serving as Culture and Equity Program Manager at Pace Gallery in New York City. Mr. McDuffie-Thurmond has participated in The Country School’s Witness Project since our first year, when he visited campus to lead a writing workshop and share poems from Recipe for Resurrection, a collection he had written after researching his own enslaved ancestors. Hearing from Mr. McDuffie-Thurmond changed the way students chose to respond to their archival discoveries. We have been so fortunate to have him engage with us each year, and are grateful he is here today to share his wisdom. The following is the text of his keynote address honoring Tome.
It’s wonderful to be in this community, and I really want to take a moment to commend you all for the work you’re doing. It’s really important, and it reverberates. I think oftentimes we talk about foundations in a metaphorical sense, but there is something that feels really striking about being in the physical house, on top of foundations that may have been laid by this person who we are talking about today. Just another reminder that the things we do in present moments reverberate and echo, and that’s important context to have.
I think firstly I’d like to begin with a citation, a recognition that many of my own thoughts and words both here and elsewhere are informed by authors and writers like Christina Sharpe, Dionne Brand, Fred Moten, Eleanor Phillips, Saidiya Hartman, to name a few, and I’m continually grateful for the work of many black theorists and black feminist scholars who are prompting us to ask a different set of questions and consequently enact different practices of relation and being in the world. As I was preparing to come here, I was thinking a lot about Tome and about the tensions of memorialization. I think it’s a tension that is always present when discussing slavery and its afterlife, when considering those who lived and died in conditions of bondage, but were not solely defined by these conditions.
It’s a strenuous thing, to at once attempt to engage the scale of incalculable loss and horror that is chattel slavery, that is the reduction of black life to property, to object, to footnote in an archive of the Grave family, while knowing simultaneously that we can’t rescue the dead. And this is the first in a series of truths that we have to acknowledge and understand; that this engagement, what we’re doing here, is not one that offers absolution, or redemption, or even closure. There’s no atonement that can meet the scale
of loss, no adequate justice that can be given to those from whom life and time have been stolen. We cannot save the dead.
We do, however, have responsibilities to them, to ourselves, and there is possibility in this, in this collective responsibility. In her essay, “Venus in Two Acts”, Saidiya Hartman asks a question that I think aptly frames this responsibility, and she asks us, “How does one revisit the scene of subjection without replicating the grammar of violence”. In other words, how do we describe, acknowledge, honor, and bear witness to Tome, without confining him to the language of a colonial archive that through its own structure and omissions makes it impossible to consider the fullness of his life. How can we consider the aspects of that life that are unknown, that have gone unrecorded, or, perhaps, disregarded?
One option that Hartman poses through her notion of critical fabulation and one that I attempt in my practice as a poet is imagination, and this recalls a second truth: that the archive itself is flawed, is incomplete, and therefore is not the only zone for us to consider the truths and possibilities of Tome’s life. And so in this moment, Audre Lorde’s oft repeated words are worth mentioning and uttering again, that “the master’s tools will not dismantle the master’s house”, but as Lorde insists, as Hartman insists, there are other tools, imagination being one of them.
Now when I say imagination, I’m not prescribing a set of practices that romanticizes or emboldens us to speak as Tome or in his voice. I’m not suggesting the production of fiction that seeks to fill in the gaps of his narrative with details that maybe ameliorate or assuage us as we grapple with the terrors of chattel slavery. What I'm suggesting is using our imagination to consider the fullness of Tome’s life in ways that our primary sources might not afford us, to take what we know and conjoin it with what we can imagine to offer a different set of questions, to attend to those gaps that we can’t fill, to consider how those questions can prompt us towards different actions ourselves.
We know that Tome was here, that he walked this land as a living, breathing person. That he couldn’t be a slave, because slavery is a condition, not an identity. It illustrates how one is being viewed, but now who they are beyond that gaze. So let us for a moment address him beyond that gaze. What would ease have looked like for Tome? Where would he have gone to spend time with himself? How would he be listened to? What would nurture his imagination? What would ensure his safety? How would care be modeled
and reinforced in the communities where he lived? How would that care reverberate and inform the ethos and policies of this community today?
These are not questions that Tome can answer, but they bear immense relevance for us to consider in our present that is structured by the afterlives of slavery. If we were to structure our living around these questions, then perhaps Ahmaud Arbery is kept safe. Perhaps Breonna Taylor is kept safe. We cannot rescue the dead, but we can care for them. We can make our living a practice of regard for them by insisting on modes of relation of attentiveness of justice that are informed by the precarity that Tome faced and the knowledge that his life is not summed by that precarity. We can say not only that his life matters, but that our communities are measured by how that life is considered, nurtured, cared for, and protected even after death.
I want to end with a poem talking a lot about imagination. It’s something I wrote for my own ancestors, but I think it applies when we’re talking about legacies of enslavement, and it’s called “Mpemba”.
Our love will never pass Into nothingness we, a quiet bower, Us, asleep, full of sweet dreams and health and quiet breathing, We wreathing a flowery vine to the earth In spite of the inhuman death. Yes, in spite of all, Some shape of beauty moves through our dark spirits.
... Imagine for the mighty dead, lovean endless immortal fountain pouring unto us from heaven's brink.
The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, Vol. 10, page 617
The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, Vol. 14, page 485
Trumbull Papers, Vol. 24, document 178
Graves, Kenneth Vance. Deacon George Graves: 1636 Settler of Hartford, Connecticut and His Descendants (Wrentham, MA, 1995).
Brown, Bill. Making Ends Meet: Financing Every-Day Life for a Madison Family, 1685-1865. (Madison, CT, 2005)
Bushnell, Jane F. “Madison, Boston Street, An Old Neighborhood.” in The Connecticut Quarterly vol. III. 1897
Main, Gloria L. Peoples of a Spacious Land: Families and Cultures in Colonial New England. (Cambridge, MA, 2004)
“Old Graves House. Built in Guilford in Seventeenth Century.” Hartford Courant. April 14, 1903
Connecticut, U.S. Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999 (John Grave II, Hartford). Ancestry.com. October 2023
Connecticut, U.S. Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999 (George Grave, Hartford). Ancestry.com. October 2023
Connecticut, U.S. Church Records. Ancestry.com. October 2023
Grave, John I, “Account Book.” 1678
Connecticut. Madison, Town of. Church Records. pp. 294-295
Connecticut. Guilford, Town of. Vital Records. pp. 325-326
Hinks, Peter. African Slave Population of the Colony of Connecticut, 1690-1774. https://glc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Citizens%20All%20Doc2.pdf
Manwaring, Charles William. "A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records" Hartford District 1635-1700.
(Hartford, Conn., R. S. Peck & Co., Printers) 1904. Vol. I, pp 203-204
Adding to the Witness Stones Project and to the historical record has been a privilege for all of us. We many to thank for their support of, and contributions to, this project, among them (in no particular order):
• Dennis Culliton for developing the Witness Stones Project and for once again leading us in this effort to restore the history and honor the humanity of Tome, a foundation of our community Members of the TCS Class of 2024 for their commitment to unearthing and sharing Tome’s story, while honoring him as a person
• Terry Roberts, President of the Deacon John Grave Grave Foundation, for collaboration on students’ research and hosting our students on our visits to the Grave House.
• Teachers Kristin Liu (English), Peter Burdge (History) and Liz Lightfoot (facilitator) for guiding us through this effort and taking the time to allow students to fully engage
• Jumoke McDuffie-Thurmond, poet, artist, and educator, for inspiring all of us with his powerful words at our installation ceremony and in this book
• John Fixx, Head of School, for the ongoing embrace of this project, and installing Tome’s Witness Stones marker at the Grave House
• Keith Smith, director of Diversity, Equity, Including, and Belonging at The Country School, for supporting this undertaking and expressing why the Witness Stones Project is important
• Jen Hornyak, TCS Lower School Head and Deacon John Grave House Board member, for connecting our 8th graders’ TCS experience to the place where Tome lived.
• Skylar Bartels, Country School Owls Nest Director and English teacher, for drawing the amazing cover art for this book
• Suzanne Sliker, remarkable designer and friend of The Country School, for once again creating this beautiful book. We are beyond grateful for your countless contributions.
Through education, research, and civic engagement, the Witness Stones Project seeks to restore the history and honor the humanity of the enslaved individuals who helped build our communities. Learn more at witnessstonesproject.org.
