In life and in death, the man known as Fortune was treated as nothing more than a thing owned by others.
Fortune was a slave in Waterbury, purchased by a doctor and bonesetter, Preserved Porter. When Fortune died in 1798, Porter flayed Fortune's corpse and boiled the bones. The bones were used for more than 100 years by Porter's descendants to learn anatomy and become doctors.
In 1933, one of Porter's descendants donated Fortune's bones to Mattatuck Museum. Fortune's skeleton was propped up for display for more than 30 years at Mattatuck. In the early 1970s, in the wake of the Civil Rights movement, the slave's skeleton was taken down, boxed and put in storage. It remained there for more than 25 years.
This week, Fortune finally will get something of his own: a respectful burial.
St. John's Episcopal Church in Waterbury, the parish in which Fortune was baptized in 1797, will be the site of Fortune's memorial service on Thursday, Sept. 12, at 4 p.m. Interment will follow at Riverside Cemetery. A reception will follow at Mattatuck Museum.
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