West Hartford (1)

Bristol Gravesite
Old Center Burying Yard, Main Street

My hometown makes the grade! And not only that, we get one of the fancy stone monuments to boot!

Interred in the Burying Yard is Bristol (ca. 1731-1814), an African kidnapped into slavery before the Revolutionary War, who purchased his freedom and achieved a degree of prosperity and respect unusual for a black man of his time in America. His life is extremely well documented and includes his mission pepers, his will, the house in which he lived as both an enslaved and free person, and his gravestone in the Old Center Burying Yard.

As you can perhaps read above, there are some other local luminaries buried in this very tiny cemetery. This is the oldest official burial ground in town, dating back to 1719. The town’s first two pastors are buried here, as well as Noah Webster’s parents and several Revolutionary War veterans.

I’ll be sure to remember them next time I’m at my dentist’s office, right next door.

CTMQ’s Concept of Freedom Trail page