Racial Justice Team Visit to Hinesburg

Date/Time
Date(s) - 08/15/20
10:30 am - 12:00 pm


The Racial Justice Team takes you to Hinesburg to learn about the Black Farmers of 1790-1890:

Saturday, August 15, 10:30 a.m.-12 p.m. Leave from FUUSB at 9:45 a.m. to carpool with face masks and windows open (or meet the group by the Black Settlers Historic Marker in Hinesburg). Carpools will be limited to two people, one sitting in front, the other in back. Bring snacks and water for yourself. Please register at this link. Maximum 20 adults, $10 each.

From 1795 to 1865 an African American farming community thrived on Lincoln Hill in what we now know as Hinesburg. The first settlers at the bottom of the road in 1798, from Massachusetts, were Samuel Peters, Hannah Lensemen and husband Prince Peters. Prince served in Captain Silas Pierce’s MA Line for three years during the American Revolution. Samuel Peters volunteered at the Battle of Plattsburgh during the War of 1812.

Violet and Shubael Clark, from Connecticut, arrived at the top of the hill in 1795. Their farm grew to 175 acres spilling over into Huntington, and one son owned 100 acres nearby. The original settlers expanded to five related families just before the Civil War; many are buried in an abandoned cemetery at the top of the hill.

We will go for a walk around Lincoln Hill (on a road) with historian Elise Guyette to see where the farms were, learn what their lives in Hinesburg were like, and see some of the remnants of the cemetery. Elise is author of Discovering Black Vermont: African American Farmers in Hinesburg, 1790-1890.