Cool map was shown by Michael Morand today at Yale's Beinecke. He talked mostly about how the absence of a last name on the map led him to understand more about the life of Jethro, a black man who lived in the colony before the Revolution of 1776 as a free man, most likely one of the only free black men in the colony at the time, and certainly a part of history. It was told that he worked on the construction of Connecticut Hall, which was built from a mortar of oyster shells, and that he owed a debt to a president of Yale College - as well as that his property eventually became the Yale Law School. This is the etchings of a story of an incredible man, as brought to light in the sketches of a map found and brought to Michael's attention by someone who thought that it might be worth his attention. In the interests of the public school system and of history in New Haven, this well-attended event (in the context of an afternoon thing right there at the Beinecke which was hardly publicized) should be shared in schools.
