Historian Rewrites History of Slavery in Eastern Connecticut

Cheshire, CT, December 05, 2022 --(PR.com)-- Lyme, CT native Bruce Stark, retired Assistant State Archivist at the Connecticut State Library, has just authored an essential new history of slavery in colonial Connecticut.

The Myth and Reality of Slavery in Eastern Connecticut: The Brownes of Salem and Absentee Land Ownership (The Connecticut Press, 2023) is the story of slavery, the early history of Salem, Connecticut, the people who lived there, and the role played by absentee landlords in the region prior to the American Revolution.

Stark draws on an extraordinary array of primary and secondary sources to reinterpret slavery, tenant farming, and absentee land ownership in Eastern Connecticut. Through an effective use local, personal, and public records, Stark thoroughly dispels the myth that a massive “slave plantation” once flourished in rural Salem, Connecticut prior to the American Revolution. In doing so, Stark reveals the significance of slavery, free Blacks, and the importance of tenant farming in the development of colonial Connecticut.

No one intentionally spread a false story, but a combination of lack of historical knowledge, the reliance on questionable secondary sources, and the failure to examine eighteenth-century records on the subject led to a profoundly wrong conclusion - that a slave plantation existed in the wilderness of eastern Connecticut.

The book also focuses on the early history of the region, the people who lived there, the Browne family of Salem, Massachusetts, and the management of their Connecticut lands. One Browne family member purchased some fifteen square miles of what was later to become Salem, Connecticut between 1718 and 1729 and his grandson lost these lands in 1779 due to his loyalty to the Crown.

The result of Stark’s effort is a masterwork in historical research. Forget about what we want our history to tell us. Stark’s decade-long quest clearly demonstrates the invaluable role that archival materials can play in the hands of an accomplished historian. The outcome is The Myth and Reality of Slavery in Eastern Connecticut: The Brownes of Salem and Absentee Land Ownership. It is more than a dismissal of the slave plantation story that has cast a shadow over Eastern Connecticut history. It also offers an equally valuable lesson to us all. We must always base our findings on data drawn from historical records rather than what later generations may want to remember about the past. Only then, can we truly begin to understand our shared experiences and what continues to shape our society today.

The Myth and Reality of Slavery in Eastern Connecticut: The Brownes of Salem and Absentee Land Ownership, illustrated, annotated, with full index (The Connecticut Press, 300 pp.) is available both online and through your favorite bookstore in hardcover and softcover editions.

- Hardcover edition (ISBN 9798218063351): $32.50
- Softcover edition (9798218000899): $21.50

Press inquiries concerning the book and requests for author interviews and presentations can be made through The Connecticut Press at: pjmalia@connecticutpress.com or by calling at: 1.203.257.6020.