Black history in Vermont includes some of the major events and personalities of Black history in America. The Underground Railroad passed through the Champlain Valley. Famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered impassioned speeches in the state. The son of the Great Emancipator lived in a Vermont house that to this day hosts discussions about the inequalities of race in America.

There are also the quieter stories of Black history in Vermont. A Chittenden County farm became one of the largest African-American farms in the state. A small African-American community thrived in southern Chittenden County starting in the late 1700s. One Black Vermonter is said to be the first Black college graduate in the U.S., while another became the nation’s first African-American college president.

The state has designated these moments and more as part of the Vermont African American Heritage Trail consisting of buildings and markers commemorating significant moments in Black history. Consider visiting some of these sites in February to celebrate Black History Month. You might also want to keep them in mind to travel to when the weather is warmer and more of these sites are open, with the idea that Black history is a topic for every month of every year.

Sites in the Champlain Valley

Winooski United Methodist Church – Many of the renowned Buffalo Soldiers, a Black regiment known for fighting in the West and during the Spanish-American War, came to Fort Ethan Allen in Colchester in 1909 and became members of this nearby house of worship. “These church members played an active role in rebuilding the church, donating both time and money,” according to the church’s website.

Clemmons Family Farm – This 138-acre site in Charlotte protects the historic farm as “a model for preserving other African-American owned agricultural land,” according to its website. The Clemmons Family Farm also collaborates with artists from the African diaspora and, as its website notes, strives to “build a loving multicultural community around African-American/African diaspora history, arts and culture.”

Rokeby Museum – “Rokeby was the home of the Radical Abolitionist and devout Quaker Robinson family,” the Vermont Historical Society writes on its website about the Ferrisburgh home. “Rowland and Rachel Robinson wrote extensively, organized meetings, and lobbied on anti-slavery issues. They were part of the Underground Railroad network.” The museum presents exhibits and programs telling those stories.

Middlebury College/Town of Middlebury – The college was the first institution to grant an honorary degree and a Bachelor of Arts to men of African descent and was the first to graduate a Black man and a Black woman, according to the brochure for the Vermont African American Heritage Trail. The town, the brochure reads, was the site of the founding of the Vermont Anti-Slavery Society.

Sites elsewhere in Vermont

Senator Justin S. Morrill State Historic Site – The U.S. senator who lived in a brightly toned Gothic Revival home in Orange County sponsored an 1890 act to prevent racial discrimination in admissions policies for colleges receiving federal funding. The home’s website notes that it celebrates Morrill’s work toward dismantling of slavery and affirming equal rights while acknowledging “the shortcomings and unfulfilled promises of some aspects of his work.”

Orleans County Historical Society/Old Stone House Museum – This Northeast Kingdom site tells the story of Alexander Twilight, who, the Vermont African American Heritage Trail brochure notes, was “an African American educator, preacher, and Vermont’s first Black legislator.” The museum’s website mentions that “Middlebury claims him to be the first African-American to earn a baccalaureate from an American college or university.”

Rutland Sculpture Trail – The sculpture trail in this central Vermont city covers many sites and stories, some of which highlight Black history in the region. The trail displays depictions of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment that included Black soldiers from Vermont as well as a bust of Martin Henry Freeman, an abolitionist, educator and first African-American college president (at the all-black Allegheny Institute).

Hildene, the Lincoln family home – Robert Lincoln, the son of President Abraham Lincoln (“the Great Emancipator”), was president of the Pullman Palace Car Co. when he moved to southern Vermont in the early 1900s. “The site’s 1903 Pullman Car and ‘Many Voices’ exhibit highlight the history of the company and the story of the Black Pullman Porters,” according to the Vermont African American Heritage Trail brochure.

• Hildene, the Lincoln family home, 1005 Hildene Road, Manchester. www.hildene.org

A selection of historic markers

Thaddeus Stevens – A marker in Danville commemorates the town native who became a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and, according to the marker, “was both renown and reviled for his eloquent call for the abolition of slavery.”

Andrew Harris – Located at the University of Vermont in Burlington, the sign honoring the 1838 UVM graduate remarks that he was one of the first African Americans to earn a college degree and co-founded the American & Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.

Centennial Field – The Vermont African American Heritage Trail brochure notes that the three ballparks that have occupied the current’s park’s space at the University of Vermont hosted exhibition games for Negro League baseball clubs.

Early Black settlers – A sign at Lincoln Hill and North roads in the town of Hinesburg pays tribute to “at least six related families by the end of the Civil War (who) cleared the land, joined the local Baptist church, had home manufactories, and exercised their voting rights at Freeman Meetings.”

“The Great Convention” – “Frederick Douglass delivered a fiery abolitionist speech here in July 1843,” reads a marker on U.S. 7. “The Ferrisburgh meeting, organized by local activist Rowland T. Robinson, was one of the ‘100 Conventions’ sponsored by the American Anti-Slavery Society.”

Court Square – The first Addison County courthouse in Middlebury had an 1804 court case involving a man trying to reclaim an escaped slave. Justice Theophilus Harrington famously declared he would accept “Nothing short of a bill of sale signed by God Almighty Himself.” The former slave went free.

If you go

Rokeby Museum in Ferrisburgh is presenting events during Black History Month in February:

• 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15, free museum day includes an opportunity to visit the site’s main exhibit, “Seeking Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Legacy of an Abolitionist Family.”
• 6-7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18, the virtual winter book discussion group talks about “The Life of Frederick Douglass” by David F. Walker, Damon Smyth and Marissa Louise
• www.rokeby.org

For more information

Vermont African American Heritage Trail – www.vtaaht.org

Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.