Peter and Esther Jackson Memorial Dedication Ceremony

Memorial
Written By John Mills

On June 19, 2025 at 10am, the Alex Breanne Corporation in Collaboration with Simsbury Historical Society and the Town of Simsbury will be unveiling a new monument at Simsbury Cemetery honoring a historic black couple and their family. Their names are Peter and Esther Jackson.

In the mid 1770's, Peter was said to have been brought to Simsbury from Barbados in trade for a Native American enslaved man. In the early 1780's, Peter married Esther Wallace, the daughter of a Simsbury enslaved man named London Wallace. London fought in the French & Indian War and had 3 sons (and a son-in-law) who all fought in the Revolutionary War. In later years, 7 of Peter and Esther's grandsons would enlist and fight in various Civil War Colored Regiments (4 in the Connecticut 29th, 2 in the Rhode Island 14th, and 1 in the Massachusetts 54th). Six of these men died while at war, their bodies never making it back to Connecticut.

Peter Jackson died in 1810, drowning in Salmon Brook, but Esther would live until 1857, dying at age 93. Esther was one of the early members of Simsbury Methodist Episcopal Church, having been a member for nearly 50 years on her death. It is said that she walked the 2 miles from her home to church 12 days prior to her death.

In preparation for next years 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, this new monument will honor this heroic black family from Simsbury, as well as list all 12 members of the family who fought in the various wars that established our country. We've also commissioned an artist who will unveil a reimagined portrait of what Esther looked like based on images of 3 of her Great Granddaughters.

The event is being held in historic Eno Memorial Hall in Simsbury. This is a building that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited often during the summer of 1944 while he was here for the summer as a teenager. After the ceremony, we will walk across the street to Simsbury Cemetery to officially dedicate our new monument. A reception will be held at Simsbury Historical Society.

This is a free event! Please join us! Also, please register for the event so that we have a head count. You can register HERE.

Hope to see you then!

John

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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Repairing Nancy Jackson’s Gravestone