Branford

Branford students honor formerly enslaved man with Witness Stone installation

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The installation ceremony for a Witness Stone honoring Cambridge Gould was held in Branford Friday morning.

The ceremony started inside of the First Congregation Church of Branford where Branford High School students and members of the clergy gave speeches honoring Gould, an enslaved individual who lived in Branford around the 1750s.

“I really didn’t know much about the history of Branford,” said student Leandro Ramirez. “It was cool to learn about that. And how he struggled and how he persevered through all his hardships.”

The installation was made possible through a partnership with Branford High School’s 10th-grade history classes and the Witness Stones Project. The Witness Stones Project is an initiative with a goal to honor the history of formerly enslaved individuals.

“These young people today,” said Rev. Esau Greene. “Showing the initiative to learn, to understand. I think we would all be better off if we took on the same attitude as these children.”

“It was something that was very forgotten in our history,” said instructor David Standrowicz. “But they got to find their own creative ways to bring this part of history to light.”

The first Witness Stone was installed in Guilford in 2017 and since then the group has installed stones all over the state, including in Hartford and Old Lyme.

“Honoring these people is very important because of the hardships they went through,” said Ramirez. “The way they persevered through that and how much of a step that was in our history to get over that.”

Students in the classes spent time learning about Cambridge Gould but said finding records was hard due to the treatment of enslaved people at the time.

“They lived through a hard life,” student Mathias Verdesoto said. “They never been treated equally. I think we need to remember them, because we did it as a whole nation.”

According to Yale University, there were more than 5,000 slaves in Connecticut during the mid-1770s.

“There are several unmarked graves here in the Town of Branford of former enslaved individuals,” said Greene. “We are formulating now, to see how we are going to celebrate these individuals and again bring awareness.”

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