Join us on Tuesday February 8th at 7 pm in the Ballroom of the Keeney Center for "Not Being Contented Ashore: Black Mariners of Connecticut" with Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes.

 

Join us on Tuesday February 8th at 7 pm in the Ballroom of the Keeney Center for "Not Being Contented Ashore: Black Mariners of Connecticut" with Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes.

Dr. de Barros Gomes’ talk will concentrate on the unique experiences of the large number of Black men – both enslaved and free – who were employed at sea throughout the eighteenth century in Connecticut. Maritime work provided a space of integration, an arena of relative freedom, and was largely merit based. By exploring the historical contexts that Black seafarers navigated and individual stories of Black mariners from Connecticut, we can explore Black maritime culture and communities. We can also begin to understand how these men, their families, their communities and their legacies became, as James Rose asserts ‘an integral part of the historical tapestry of the state of Connecticut.’

Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes is the Senior Curator of Maritime Social Histories at Mystic Seaport Museum and is Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University. She is responsible for working on curatorial projects of race, Indigenous histories, ethnicity and diversity in New England's Maritime activities. She leads a multi-disciplinary team to examine Mystic Seaport Museum's and other regional collections to develop contemporary re-imaginings of people's actions in the past and present, and translating that into content relevant to today's social environment. Akeia received her BA in anthropology/archaeology at Salve Regina University and her MA and PhD in anthropology/archaeology at the University of Connecticut.

Admission is $10 for the general public and free to current members of Wethersfield Historical Society. The talk will take place in the Ballroom at the Keeney, 200 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT 06109.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, masking will be required indoors and social distancing will be observed in seating.

Wethersfield Historical Society's 90th Birthday falls on February 3. We would invite all the attendees at Dr. Gomes lecture to join us for cake afterwards and help us celebrate this milestone.