The Project

Since 2021, Slavery and Loomis Chaffee: An Ethical History Project has investigated the lives of Black people enslaved by the Chaffee, Loomis, and Hayden families as well as the historical contexts in which they lived. Our committed, collaborative, and ongoing student-faculty research project seeks to center the lives of people whose lives were forever altered by the experiences of enslavement. 

With research in online archival collections of public and private records, archives, object collections, and libraries in Connecticut and South Carolina, and many other scholarly sources in print and digital media, including the inspirational and seminal work of Marisa Fuentes, this project seeks to tell new stories about these enslaved persons’ experiences and to craft narratives that, despite these investigations, remain frustratingly uneven and incomplete. 

By investigating the lives of Black people enslaved by the Chaffee, Loomis, and Hayden families as well as the historical contexts in which they lived, we have sought to understand how their lives could shape longer narratives about the history of The Loomis Chaffee School as well as contemporary circumstances of the school community. As a member of the University of Virginia’s Universities Studying Slavery consortium, we believe that an equitable school must seek a fuller understanding of itself and its origins, and, in so doing, should inspire community members to learn more and to take action. 

Importantly, as we learned more about the history of enslavement, the production of historical knowledge about slavery, and the ethics of using archives and sources shaped predominantly by the perspectives of enslavers, we found ourselves asking as many questions as we were answering. We are mindful of the many ways this work will continue to generate new inquiry and, for this reason, remain both an inspiration and unfinished. 

Student and faculty researchers alike have found this work to be equal parts frustrating and rewarding.  We feel strongly that our school community benefits from continued efforts to uncover important truths about this history and our relationship with it. We remain grateful for the opportunity to engage in this project.