Heritage Trails Sightseeing Tours

House built for the Amistad men.
The room of Cinque seen second floor corner.

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD,
BLACK HISTORY FREEDOM TRAIL
AND AMISTAD SITES
TOUR IN FARMINGTON

Farmington, Connecticut was involved twice during a period of over eighty years of black suffrage. Settled in 1640, the town was a busy crossroads for almost 150 years when, in the 1780s, and until the 1860s, the town was an important stop or transit point on the Underground Railroad. Many local abolitionists helped to feed, hide, protect, guide and transport thousands of fugitive slaves on their way north. Farmington was known as "Connecticut's Grand Central Station" on the Underground Railroad.

View the 1796 Elijah Lewis house where fugitive slaves were
hidden in the side of the basement fireplace in a 'hidy-hole'.

Farmington meetinghouse
where freed Amistad slaves worshipped.

The second period was only eight months, eight lost or forgotten months in the pages of history, when the remaining 36 Amistad captives, now free, were brought to Farmington after winning their appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court in March of 1841. The Amistad Mendi lived in town until November when they returned to Africa. While here they raised money for their return by telling their stories, giving autographs, performing African music on instruments they made, singing hymns and sitting for their portraits during abolitionist tours throughout Connecticut and New England.

This tour is a blending of both the Underground Railroad and Amistad and follows Farmington's Black History Freedom Trail to sites and locations throughout town.Learn the whole story on this award-winning two hour guided bus tour.

See the documented Timothy Wadsworth house which had a hiding place in the attic and another in the basement for fugitive slaves. Wadsworth and his family hid fugitives on canal freight boats which passed behind their house on the Farmington Canal.

Timothy Wadsworth House

Only on our guided bus tour can you hear their stories, see the same locations, view from the outside former 'station houses' where fugitive slaves were hidden by 'conductors' and hear about the 'hidy-holes'. See from the outside the homes of the three men who sponsored the Africans from the Amistad, visit the 1771 church to photograph and look inside through large, ancient windows to see where the seats for "colored" were located and see where the Amistad Africans sat in the balcony. See where the Amistad Africans lived, went to school, the bridge they crossed to reach the meadows and see where they farmed. Visit Riverside Cemetery to see graves of town abolitionists and the final resting place of Foone, one man who was on the Amistad who drowned in the Farmington Canal.

See this 1833 stone bridge over which the Amistad men crossed to reach the meadows where they farmed along the Farmington River.

Fugitives on the Underground Railroad were hidden under the floorboards of this
mid-1800s barn.

Available Monday-Saturday mornings

9am thru 11am - About two hours.

Please click-on step-on guide for prices.

Grave of Foone, one of Amistad slaves who drowned in the canal basin.	John Treadwell Norton House home of an abolitionist who sponsored the freed Amistad slaves.

Visit the pink granite grave with elaborate bronze funeral wreath of the Rev. Noah Porter, who was pastor of the Farmington Congregational church for 60 years. He spoke out from the pulpit against slavery.
	The grave of Sarah Porter, founder of Miss Porter's School, is next to her parents. It is with the Porter family Margru lived, oldest of the three girls who was on the Amistad. Sarah Porter taught Margru her 'lessons' almost two years before Sarah founded Miss Porter's School.

Call for Reservations and Information
860 677-8867

Heritage Trails Sightseeing Tours
P. O. Box 138
Farmington, CT 06034-0138