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Connecticut slave to get a long overdue
church funeral
Ann Marie Somma | HartfordFAVS.com | Aug 27, 2013 | Comments (0)
WATERBURY, Conn. (RNS) The remains of an 18th-century Connecticut slave whose abuse
continued long after his death will finally be given a dignified burial.
On Sept. 12, more than two centuries after his death, a slave known as Fortune will be interred at
Waterbury’s Riverside Cemetery with all the trappings of a state funeral.
It will be a ceremonial end to the life of a man whose mistreatment serves as a reminder of the
North’s participation in slavery.
Fortune died in 1798. His death is clouded in lore and speculation. Did he drown in the Naugatuck
River? Was he fleeing and fell and broke his neck?
What is certain is that Fortune’s master, a Waterbury bone doctor by the name of Preserved Porter,
stripped Fortune’s skin, boiled his bones and used his skeleton as a medical specimen. The
mistreatment of the slave was recorded in a book about Waterbury’s history by Joseph Anderson.
The indignity continued well into the next century. Porter is believed to have opened an anatomy
school in Waterbury where bone surgeons studied Fortune’s skeleton. In 1910, the slave’s skeleton
surfaced in a closet in a Waterbury building.
It was then donated to the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury where it hung in a glass case with the
name “Larry” scrawled on its skull, horrifying and entertaining curious schoolchildren on field trips.
Museum curators realized the display was in poor taste and took it down in the 1970s.
There he remained boxed up, his story untold, until museum officials began researching the history
of African-Americans in Waterbury and received a letter from a city resident urging them to look into
“Larry” the skeleton at the museum.
What followed was a decades-long Fortune Project for the museum as scientists and
anthropologists examined and studied Fortune’s bones, most recently Quinnipiac University. All the
while, many debated how best to serve his legacy.
For Maxine Watts, the chair of the African American History Project, which partnered with the
museum, Fortune’s bones serve as a reminder of the flawed slave ideology that considered
African-Americans subhuman.
“His living and his death were not in vain,” said Watts, former president of the Waterbury chapter of
the NAACP. “Slaves were not considered totally human. Yet Fortune’s bones were used as a
teaching tool for human anatomy. Fortune is proof that we are all equal underneath the skin.”
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2. The Rev. Amy Welin, who will preside over Fortune’s funeral at St. John’s Episcopal Church in
Waterbury, said the way the slave’s master used his bones is hard for her to fathom, even after
studying the cruelty of slavery. Fortune was baptized in St. John’s in 1797, where Porter’s wife,
Lydia was a member.
Welin said she won’t eulogize Fortune’s life, but will preach about God’s justice.
“The service will be for the rest of us,” she said. “What are we supposed to do with what we’ve
learned about Fortune? What are we supposed to do with the racial injustice around us now, the
ghosts of slavery that still haunt us?”
Fortune and his wife, Dinah, had four children. But because Fortune’s descendants can’t be found,
members of the Southern Connecticut chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians will accompany
his casket down the aisle of the church during the funeral.
Steven R. Mullins, a founding member of the chapter, will serve as master of ceremonies during the
funeral.
“I hope that the Waterbury community comes out to the burial,” said Mullins. “I hope people realize
that there was slavery in Connecticut. Fortune’s burial will be a learning and teaching moment.”
Connecticut abolished slavery in 1848, but it provided gradual emancipation for persons who
turned 25 prior to 1784.
The funeral will be held at 4 p.m. Sept. 12 at St. John’s Episcopal Church.
Topics: Culture, Archives
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