Primus Mural Project

What is the Primus Mural Project?

This project acknowledges the location of the “Colored” section of the Old Norwichtown Burying Ground by placing an interpretive panel. The project also connects the Burying Ground to the story of Primus Armes, who is believed to be buried here. It is an effort to restore visibility, dignity, and historical recognition to individuals whose lives have long gone unacknowledged.

Primus Armes was captured in The Gambia in the early 18th century, taken from his mother, and forced onto a slave ship—where he discovered his father had also been captured. His father died during the brutal Middle Passage, and Primus arrived in America alone.

In New York, he was sold to Ebenezer Lathrop of Norwich, Connecticut.

Enslaved for most of his life, Primus and his wife Venus had two children, Job and Flora, born in the 1750s.

A Legacy of Service and Survival

Job, Primus’s son, fought in the Revolutionary War while still enslaved. He served in Colonel John Durkee’s Regiment under Captain Jedidiah Waterman and was present at the Battle of Trenton. Despite his service, Job returned to Norwich still enslaved.

Disturbed by this injustice, a Norwich resident named Caleb Huntington purchased Job’s freedom and wrote:

“From a principle that no man can justly be reduced to a state of slavery… do therefore by these presents fully manumit said Job; giving him full liberty to go free.”

After gaining his freedom, Job purchased the freedom of his wife Sylvia. However, he was unable to free their one-year-old son, Job II, who remained enslaved for another 26 years.

Generations That Followed

In 1806, Job II had a son named Luke. Around 1833, Luke moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where he married Eleanor Curry. Their son, Daniel Stanley Lathrop, would go on to serve as a Quartermaster Sergeant in the 29th Connecticut Colored Regiment during the Civil War.

Daniel’s image is etched into the monument honoring the regiment at Criscuolo Park in New Haven.