On June 17th, 2023, John Mills will be a speaker at the Wallingford Juneteenth Service hosted at St Paul’s Episcopal Church.
The service will include prayers, reflection and music. In addition, it will feature a string quartet playing the music of Sawney Freeman, a Black musician, who was born into slavery and emancipated in the 1790s. After gaining his freedom, Freeman moved to Essex, CT, where he lived with his family. Freeman’s sheet music was discovered in an archive at Trinity College in Hartford.
The service will be followed by the inaugural “Enslaved Wallingford” walking tour, where among other things, attendees can view the Witness Stones for Grace and Essau.
