Once again, we are pleased to present one of our amazing student interns, who processed a portion of the New Haven County Superior Court records this summer. We thank her, and all our students and volunteers, for their wonderful assistance in bringing the Uncovering New Haven project to fruition.
Please be advised that this post discusses sensitive topics that some might find upsetting, triggering, or offensive. These subjects include, but are not limited to, murder, death of children, and violence against members of marginalized groups. In addition, these cases may contain detailed descriptions of crimes committed.
See our previous profiles here:
Lauren carefully peruses a case document with a magnifying glass—early American cursive can be challenging to decipher!
Educational background:
What drew you to volunteer/seek an internship with the Uncovering New Haven project and/or the Connecticut State Archives?
I chose this site after I was introduced to the Assistant State Archivist, Allen Ramsey, by the Deputy Director of the Illinois State Archives, Cathy Popovitch, after attending a virtual program at my university. I went to meet Allen as well as the Government Records Archivist, Damon Munz, and after a great conversation, tour around the facility, and learning more about the work being done on the Uncovering New Haven project, I knew it would be a great fit. I wanted my internship experience to help me learn the best practices of reading, analyzing, and identifying important information in historical documents, which I was able to do.
Main hallway of Van Block Storage Facility, Connecticut State Archives.
Describe a normal day in the archives for you:
The main activities I am doing at my practicum are unfolding, flattening, reading/deciphering colonial cursive, creating labels, and making notes for the New Haven County Superior Court Criminal Files from 1797-1822—with special focus towards Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). This involves extracting information about plaintiffs and defendants, dates/court session, and other information from the case documents, then writing labels on slips of paper to be placed with the records.
The New Haven County Superior Court Criminal Files contain many fascinating cases.
What is the most interesting, memorable, surprising, and/or bizarre thing(s) you’ve found while processing the court records?
What has intrigued me most about reading these court documents is the way they are written and the language they use. For instance, the crimes are often described as “feloniously, wickedly, willfully, and with malice.” It has been very intriguing to read these historic “true crime” snippets of cases from 200+ years ago in the county where I live/am from. It is also interesting to see through these documents how much laws have changed since the early 1800s, such as adultery being prosecuted by the state. While there are several cases of counterfeit money, forgery, fraudulent bills, and stealing from people and/or businesses, there are also cases of murder, attempted murder, rape of women and children, physical assaults, etc. In one example, a woman in my neighboring town, Derby, killed her 3-month-old daughter by striking her on the head with an axe. Another case read, “a single unmarried woman was pregnant with a child which when born would by law be a Bastard and is since dead.” Women who committed infanticide may have done so as a result of not having options. “In Connecticut after 1700, single women... found it increasingly difficult to garner child support for children born out of wedlock... Indeed, new laws (borrowing language from England’s poor laws tradition) linked ‘lewd,’ impoverished women with unmarried mothers... under these unequal legal and social structures, infanticide cases commonly drew self-indicting confessions and wide public interest. By the early eighteenth century, witchcraft accusations were becoming rare, but infanticide charges were increasing; both depended upon the concept of woman as synonymous with wickedness” (Sharon M. Harris, Chapter 1. Executing Race: Infanticide Narratives, Executing Race: Early American Women's Narratives of Race, Society, and the Law, p. 33).
State of Connecticut vs. Anna Gilbert, August 1813—a chilling case, indeed!
What aspects of working on this project did you enjoy the most, and why? What aspects did you enjoy the least, and why?
I really enjoyed handling the court records and reading through these cases. They were certainly fascinating, bizarre, and memorable. I also loved learning from State Library staff Sarah, Allen, Damon, Lisa, and Todd in the various conversations I have had with them. The aspect I enjoyed least was my commute since I am in New Haven County. Also, the monotony of the work sometimes grew tiresome after several hours, but I never felt in a rush or that I needed to meet a quota, so it was nice to work at my own pace. Depending on how clear the colonial cursive was written, it could make for a rather quick read or be very challenging to decipher. Luckily, there was a magnifying glass to help zoom in on the little details in each letter to make the word clear!
Counterfeit three-dollar bill from State of Connecticut vs. Raymond Carrington, January 1813. He had many charges against him since he was a major counterfeiter from Woodbridge, CT. He was described in the documents as being a “person of an evil and wicked disposition.”
What have you learned about court records, history, or in general over the course of working on the Uncovering New Haven project?
I have learned SO much about court records, Connecticut history, and archival work in general! Sarah Morin, the project archivist, especially shared a lot of knowledge with me from all she has learned the last few years doing this important work, explaining various outdated, barbaric, and strange laws in Connecticut’s history and how that has impacted lives of many people, but especially BIPOC. Even though I joined in a couple years into this project, there is still so much to discover and learn!
State of CT vs. Elexis Johnson, March 1807—a provocative glimpse into a blasphemy prosecution.
Is there anything else that you would like to share about your volunteer/internship experience?
I loved it so much I plan to stay on as a volunteer!
There is always processing to do in the Connecticut State Archives!
This project is made possible through funding from the Historic Documents Preservation fund of the Office of the Public Records Administrator. We also recognize the past support of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).
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