Stories of Connecticut's Black Patriots

Lecturer John Mills is a trained Genealogist, descendant of the enslaved and President of the Alex Breanne Corporation, a Connecticut-based non-profit. The Alex Breanne Corporation focuses on research, interrogation and presentation of lesser known stories of the American enslaved. John unearths little known people, with intent to inject them into the landscape of the communities where they lived, worked or died. He then finds current-day descendants and gives them back their history.
Mills’ research led him to the Lathrop family of Norwich, CT, whose patriarch, Primus, was captured as a child from his home in Africa. While enslaved to Ebenezer Lathrop, Primus married a woman named Venus and together they had a son named Job. Job would go on to fight in the Revolutionary War, only to return and remain enslaved. Mills will share details about the Lathrop family’s journey for freedom and their long-lasting patriotic legacy. Mills’ research was published earlier this year in a new book, The Narrative of Primus: A Lineage Woven into American History, available for purchase and signing at the event.