2026 Fall Speaker Series | Stories of Connecticut’s Black Patriots
Join us to discover four Connecticut families: Prince Mortimer of Middletown; Robin Starr of Danbury; Job Lathrop of Norwich; and the three sons of London Wallace of Simsbury. As a genealogist and president of the Alex Breanne Corporation, a non-profit focused on research into the formerly enslaved, John Mills traces how Black men served in the American Revolution while still enslaved—and how, in many cases, they returned home to bondage rather than freedom. Grounded in primary records and descendant-led research, this talk reveals a powerful and often overlooked history of service, sacrifice, and resilience, and challenges us to reconsider what patriotism and liberty truly meant for Black people in Revolutionary-era Connecticut.
About John Mills
John Mills is a trained genealogist and president of the Alex Breanne Corporation, a Connecticut-based non-profit dedicated to unearthing the lesser-known stories of the enslaved. His work focuses on research that injects these vital histories back into the landscape of the communities where they lived and worked.
