Our Mission
Our mission for this project has been to search for names of enslaved individuals in the town of South Hadley. Through our research we have come to understand that this topic deserves careful and long term consideration which a college semester cannot provide. And so, we propose and call for a community-wide task force to be formed in South Hadley to further engage community efforts in researching and memorializing the lives of enslaved people in this town. To assist further research, we have synthesized our known knowledge and point towards other tools and resources to help find more names and possibly descendants of enslaved people. Below you will find our proposal as well as the topical guide to our research.
Memorial and Task Force Proposal
Pages to navigate to:
Read the full document here.
Topical Guide
This document and record set intends to collate resources in the Pioneer Valley Area that center around looking for the names of enslaved peoples in South Hadley. This topical guide is a general overview of some of the research avenues that can be used to develop a more thorough understanding of the topic. The aim of this document is to give a starting point for researchers. It should be regarded as a living document, meaning information can be included or excluded as time persists. We welcome suggestions for other collections to include or incorporate as well as general feedback.
Pages to navigate to:
Read the full document here.
Acknowledgments
This project was created by Emily Jones, Ina Dombrowski, Audrey Gavitt, and Benjamin Brabble.
Decolonizing Museums, Anthro-316DM, Spring 2023, Mount Holyoke College. Professor Mark Auslander.
Thank you to all of the community members and researchers who helped to provide us with resources, information, and guidance. We would not have been able to start this invaluable project without their support. And, a special thanks to Leo Labonte and Kijua Sanders-McMurtry for taking the time to meet with our team personally. Your guidance was been vital to this project.