BRATTLEBORO — The Vermont Historical Society is sharing what it calls groundbreaking research into the history of slavery in Vermont through a series of public programs and teacher workshops around the state.
Harvey Amani Whitfield, author of The Problem of Slavery in Early Vermont, 1777-1810, presents his research on Tuesday, May 6, at 7 p.m. at the the Brattleboro Historical Society's History Center in the Brattleboro Masonic Center.
Whitfield, an associate professor of history at the University of Vermont, will touch on important questions about a history that many Vermonters have taken for granted.
Whitfield writes Vermonters have long been rightly proud that our state was the first to outlaw slavery in its Constitution of 1777, and textbooks and scholars routinely highlight Vermont's landmark act as evidence of the absence of slavery in our state.
But is this what really happened? Whitfield says his extensive research shows that the enslavement of people in various guises persisted in Vermont for at least another 30 years.
The program, co-sponsored by the Brattleboro and Vermont historical societies, with support from the Alma Gibbs Donchian Foundation, is free and open to the public.