Monday thru Friday, August 3-7, 9 AM to 12 PM daily. Children ages 8-11 (or entering 3rd-6th grade) will explore Windsor history while having fun in a historical setting! Learn about Windsor’s people and their [...]
The sparks that ignited the American Revolution were already smoldering 250 years ago, in the winter of 1775. Word of the fighting traveled fast to Windsor, thanks in large part to Isaac Bissell, who is now credited as the alarm rider who first brought word of the skirmish to Hartford.
As the Revolutionary War reached its end, Nancy Toney and her father Anthony went to New York City, one of the last British strongholds left in the colonies. There they were supposed to be safe until the British could send them to Nova Scotia in the fall of 1783. Unfortunately, they were not. Nancy was kidnapped, and she never reunited with her father.
Nancy Toney's portrait hangs in Chaffee House, where we talk about her connection to the site, her time in town, and her status as one of the last people enslaved in Connecticut. Recently, new information on Nancy and her family has surfaced. This new knowledge fills in missing years and places much of what we’ve known about Nancy into a new context. This is a story about Nancy, her father Toney, and a bid for freedom.
Six of the seven Black Revolutionary War soldiers from Windsor lived through the war. Here are their post-military stories, as best as we have been able to learn.
Did you know that almost 450 Windsor men served in the American Revolution, and that as many as 14 (maybe more) of them were Black? We know a little about some of them, and almost [...]
Learn how spies helped the Patriot—and sometimes the British—cause during the American Revolution. Join us on Thursday, July 13 at 7 p.m. when board member and educator Liz Burke will share fascinating stories about Revolutionary [...]
Hands-on learning, with guest presenter Jim Trocchi Learn drill formations, how to pitch a soldier’s tent, and identify the gear a Patriot would carry in their haversack during the Revolutionary War. Ideal for ages 8-12. [...]
Piecing together someone’s life from scant documentary records is a bit like closing your eyes through a silent film and only opening them for a second every few minutes. Such is the case for the Black men of Windsor who fought in the Revolutionary War. To see more of the picture of their lives, we must fill in the blanks with what we can infer from the records, what is known about other people in similar situations, and what we can speculate might have happened.
Join us on Saturday, March 24, 2018 at 2 p.m. when board member and educator Liz Burke will share fascinating stories about Revolutionary War period spies. We know George Washington as the father of our [...]