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NHS Virtual Winter Lecture Series -The Reign of Black Governors in Norwich, Connecticut and Beyond
February 25, 2021 @ 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
FreeIn collaboration with the Connecticut League of History Organization, the Norwich Historical Society is sponsoring a free virtual winter lecture series based on topics from our Walk Norwich Trail system. The four-part lecture series is free and open to the public. The lectures will be recorded and available on our website and social media platforms for on-demand viewing.
In honor of Black History month, our second lecture will focus on topics from the Norwich Freedom Trail. Dr. Kerima Lewis will present the lecture: The Reign of Black Governors in Norwich, Connecticut and Beyond.
This talk will discuss a tradition that emerged in colonial New England during the eighteenth century when enslaved Africans elected their own Kings and Governors when denied basic liberties including the right to vote. Many of these elected black officials were African royalty and heirs to a throne in their homeland. After taking a general look at slavery in Norwich, Connecticut, a more specific look will be made of Boston Trowtrow who served as the Black Governor of Norwich from 1770 to 1772 and Sam Huntington who served from 1772 to 1800. An overview of other Black Governors in Connecticut will also be included to demonstrate how these elections by enslaved persons combined an African tradition of honoring African royalty with an electoral process that was already in place in the American colonies.
The lecture will be held Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 3:00pm via Zoom. The lecture is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required.
This webinar is offered in collaboration with the Connecticut League of History Organizations. For more information about CLHO, please visit www.clho.org.
Lecture Registration
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About the Speaker
Kerima Lewis teaches history part-time at Massasoit Community College, Quincy College and Emerson College in Massachusetts. Having worked in the fields of social work and law before becoming a historian, she holds a B.A. degree from Northwestern University, a M.S.W. degree from the Hunter College School of Social Work, a Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law, and a Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Lewis wrote her dissertation on the history of slave resistance in Colonial New England. Her article “Captives on the Move: Tracing the Transatlantic Movements of Africans from the West Indies to Colonial New England,” was published in the Historical Journal of Massachusetts (Summer 2016). Dr. Lewis was a Massachusetts Historical Society Fellow in 2009 and she is presently working on the publication of her first book with an American Council for Learned Societies Fellowship for 2020-2021. As a local historian in the field of slavery in New England, Dr. Lewis is often asked to make presentations on this topic within the community.