The Primus Project is named in her honor. Her life exemplifies the resilience, insight, and commitment to justice that guide our work.
Rebecca Primus
Rebecca Primus was born in Hartford in 1836, just blocks from Trinity College—then called Washington College. Her great-grandfather had been kidnapped from Africa and enslaved, later gaining freedom through service in the Revolutionary War. Rebecca was never allowed to attend the college up the street, but she forged her own path as an educator. She taught Black children in Hartford and later founded a school for formerly enslaved people in Maryland after the Civil War.
The Primus Project investigates Trinity College’s historical ties to slavery and white supremacy and connects that history to Hartford and the wider Atlantic world. Scott Gac is a co-founder and co-director of the initiative, established by five Trinity professors. Its work brings students, scholars, and community partners into archival research, public scholarship, and conversations about the responsibilities institutions carry in the present.
The 2023 Bicentennial Reports: Coauthored by Scott Gac and Chris Hager, these reports situate Trinity College’s founding and early national Hartford within the Atlantic slave economy and the racial dynamics of gradual emancipation and the Episcopal Church. They provide a foundation for understanding the college’s origins and its place in these broader histories.
Student Research and Discovery: In Scott’s Trinity and Slavery course, students identified Theophilus John Minton Syphax, Class of 1903, as Trinity College’s first Black graduate. Their discovery demonstrates how student archival research can change an institution’s understanding of its own past.
The Trinity–Stowe Partnership: Through a partnership with the Stowe Center for Literary Activism, students and faculty investigate Black life in early Hartford using the Center’s archival collections. Ongoing research includes Hartford’s 1803–1805 Black Census and the histories of Black families, with findings being developed for podcast episodes and public discussion.
The Primus Project Podcast: Conversations with historians and other collaborators bring research on slavery and its legacies to a wider audience. Alongside the reports and student research, the podcast invites listeners to consider how historical knowledge can inform public memory and institutional responsibility.
