Marker Design Funded!

Marker
Written By John Mills

Last July, we had a setback when the Connecticut Chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution told us that they would not honor Prince Mortimer due to lack of primary documentation.  Prince was stolen from his country, given a new name, not required to be listed on any census (because of course he was just property) and not required to be identified in Revolutionary War service especially as a slave serving as a servant, laborer or messenger.  Now imagine, 250 years later, the country you served tells his people, "We can't honor him because there's not enough documentation"; the same country that created the scenario of devalue and lack of documentation.  Shame on this system.

That said, we were fortune in that the town of Wethersfield, CT was more than willing to work with us to create a marker at the location where Prince Mortimer was buried.  Although we had to raise the funds ourselves, we were able to do so!  I am now working with the town to design the marker!!!!  YAY!!!

More to come!

John Mills

Originally from San Diego, John Mills is a technologist by trade, but an equity advocate and independent scholar by passion. The descendant of both southern and northern enslaved, John focuses on unearthing little known people and stories of this country’s history in slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. John presents research through the lens and perspective of a descendant, with intent to inspire understanding and empathy, a means to inspire good, God fearing people, now armed with information, to look into whether they may be unwittingly aligning to biases resulting from the reverberating effects of a past time. John is a member of the Connecticut Freedom Trail and a member of the Webb Deane Stevens Museum Council. John is also working with an international team funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in an effort to deliver transformational impact on digital methods in cultural institutions...a means to decolonize museums. Finally, John is working with the state of Connecticut, business leaders and scholars in Middletown, CT to honor and memorialize a former enslaved individual by the name of Prince Mortimer.

https://alexbreanne.org
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