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Rocky Hill church wants to right wrongs in its past by honoring enslaved woman
Дата публикации: 04-02-2026 17:46:53
Members at the Rocky Hill Congregational Church have been gathering for worship for 300 years, but hidden at the top of sanctuary is a tiny closet, which was used to keep enslaved people.
“From 1808 to 1842, there was a slave gallery,” said church historian Edward Chiucarello.
The gallery is a small room that had a ladder for access. According to Chiucarello, inside there was hay on the floor and chicken wire to keep the slaves inside during the church’s service.
“It was not for the enslaved people to learn religion or engage in worship,” said member Christine Kainamura. “It was specifically for the enslavers to keep their property safe.”
Chiucarello says church documents show that its members had at least 22 enslaved people.
“I looked in these records, and I found many, what they call, servants, and servants is an euphemism for an enslaved person,” he said.
One of the people listed was an enslaved woman named Cloe Prut, who was owned by the church’s pastor, Rev. Daniel Russell.
“She was a remarkable woman from what we can see,” said Stopping Stones School and Youth Program Manager Liz Lightfoot.
Lightfoot says once Russell died, he left Prut to his wife, who freed Prut in her will and left her items that suggest Prut was literate and a talent weaver.
“One thing that’s really unusual about Cloe Prut and her entire family is that there’s a lot of documentation to show us how and where they spent their lives,” said Lightfoot.
Prut’s history will now live at the church permanently as part of the Witness Stone Project, which aims to restore and honor the humanity of enslaved individuals.
“We feel called to make right what was wrong in the past,” said Rocky Hill Congregational Church Pastor Rev. David Figliuzzi. “The project isn’t about shame. It’s about embracing what was true and what was factual.”
He says the stone will be installed this summer, joining hundreds of others throughout the country.
“The contributions that all of us have made matter in the growth and the breadth of this country,” said Pat Wilson Pheanious, who is a descendant of the first-ever Witness Stone honoree. “When you try to ignore that fact, America loses.”
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Members at the Rocky Hill Congregational Church have been gathering for worship for 300 years, but hidden at the top of sanctuary is a tiny closet, which was used to keep enslaved people.
“From 1808 to 1842, there was a slave gallery,” said church historian Edward Chiucarello.
The gallery is a small room that had a ladder for access. According to Chiucarello, inside there was hay on the floor and chicken wire to keep the slaves inside during the church’s service.
“It was not for the enslaved people to learn religion or engage in worship,” said member Christine Kainamura. “It was specifically for the enslavers to keep their property safe.”
Chiucarello says church documents show that its members had at least 22 enslaved people.
“I looked in these records, and I found many, what they call, servants, and servants is an euphemism for an enslaved person,” he said.
One of the people listed was an enslaved woman named Cloe Prut, who was owned by the church’s pastor, Rev. Daniel Russell.
Connecticut In Color
“She was a remarkable woman from what we can see,” said Stopping Stones School and Youth Program Manager Liz Lightfoot.
Lightfoot says once Russell died, he left Prut to his wife, who freed Prut in her will and left her items that suggest Prut was literate and a talent weaver.
“One thing that’s really unusual about Cloe Prut and her entire family is that there’s a lot of documentation to show us how and where they spent their lives,” said Lightfoot.
Prut's history will now live at the church permanently as part of the Witness Stone Project, which aims to restore and honor the humanity of enslaved individuals.
“We feel called to make right what was wrong in the past,” said Rocky Hill Congregational Church Pastor Rev. David Figliuzzi. “The project isn’t about shame. It’s about embracing what was true and what was factual.”
He says the stone will be installed this summer, joining hundreds of others throughout the country.
“The contributions that all of us have made matter in the growth and the breadth of this country,” said Pat Wilson Pheanious, who is a descendant of the first-ever Witness Stone honoree. “When you try to ignore that fact, America loses.”
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