The new Museum of Springfield History will kick-off its spring lecture series at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 14, with a talk on "Slavery in the Connecticut River Valley." The program will be held in the museum’s SIS Hall and is free with museum admission.

The lecture will be presented by Robert H. Romer, Amherst College professor emeritus. The talk is based on his book, Slavery in the Connecticut Valley of Massachusetts, in which he demonstrates that slavery was pervasive in the Pioneer Valley during Colonial times when many ministers and other community leaders owned black slaves. Using Deerfield as an example, Dr. Romer presents a snapshot of slaves and their owners in 1752.

The history lecture series is co-sponsored by the Pioneer Valley History Network, a coalition of historical museums, libraries, and societies.  

Future talks in the series are:

•     March 28 – Crystal Products of the Frost King: Ice Harvesting and the Natural Ice Industry in New England

•     April 11 – The Underground Railroad in Western Massachusetts

•     April 25 – Springfield and the California Gold Rush