Historian and cultural anthropology specialist Teresa Vega will present the rise and decline of Hangroot, a little-known and long-lost Greenwich community of Native and African Americans that preceded the 1640 founding of the town. Ms. Vega will provide a fresh perspective on the local inhabitants’ experiences in Hangroot, drawing from her ancestors who lived there for generations.
The Hangroot community was in the area between Lake Avenue, Pecksland Road, Clapboard Ridge Road and just north of Glenville Road, although these boundaries changed over time with the ebb and flow of the African American population. The name “Hangroot” refers to the use of root cellars and storage of winter vegetables hanging from rafters in the basements.
The seminar will offer a fascinating glimpse of the struggles of the Native and African Americans who resided in Greenwich when the town was primarily composed of European settlers. Teresa Vega will also discuss her extended family’s fight to save their “Colored Cemetery” in Byram.
Ms. Vega was featured in a February 28 New York Times article on a young man’s search to discover his ancestry which led him to the once vibrant Hangroot community.
The seminar is part of a series of events sponsored by the Greenwich Historical Society that shine a light on the history, humanity and contributions of enslaved individuals who resided in Greenwich as early as the 1600s. The final event on May 27th will be the installation of “Witness Stone’ markers to recognize four enslaved persons who lived and worked in the Bush House, now Bush-Holley House.
Ms. Vega has a degree in Anthropology from Bowdoin College and worked as an adjunct professor in Cultural Anthropology. She is a member of the NJ and NY Chapters of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society and a BlackProGenLIVE panelist.
For more information and to register: https://greenwichhistory.org/
