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Black litigants regularly appeared in colonial Connecticut'scounty courts. Participating as plaintiffs, defendants, and third-partysubjects, free Black New Englanders in New London often relied on the courts toprotect their economic and social interests, especially when discrimination inthe community limited their ability to settle disputes informally. For the mostpart, Blacks entered a judicial process that tended to […]

In 1839, Connecticut’s Old State House was the site of thefirst of the famous Amistad trials. The trials grabbed international headlines,but after the US Supreme Court resolved the case in 1841, the story faded fromcollective memory. In 1997, Steven Spielberg reintroduced the dramatic Amistadincident to the world, sparking new interest among historians, educators, andthe public. […]