Historic Valley Resident Honored at CCSU

Central Connecticut State University made history on Wednesday, March 20, paying tribute to Ebenezer D. Bassett, its first African American graduate, by naming a building in his honor. A special history wall in his honor was unveiled and the wall was formally designated as a new site on Connecticut's Freedom Trail.

Bassett, whose family roots were in the Naugatuck Valley, was appointed ambassador to Haiti in the Grant administration. While serving there, he successfully saved the lives of many people by making use of the embassy as a sanctuary during a violent period in Haiti. The American Foreign Service Journal described it in their June 2018 issue as follows:

"When the 36-year-old Bassett arrived at his posting in June 1869, the country was in the midst of civil war. Even as hundreds of civilian refugees filled his residential compound in Port-au-Prince to escape the violence, the State Department sent instructions denying Bassett authority to accept any of them, for fear of being seen to take sides in the conflict.

"Bassett was stuck in a quandary: Should he force out the women and children that huddled in his residence, or defy official orders? As rebel forces finally overwhelmed the remnants of the old regime, Bassett not only negotiated safe passage for the refugees but personally escorted them to safety."

Basset's Connections to Oxford:

Bassett's grandfather, Tobiah, was a slave owned by Oxford tavern owner John Wooster, who was sympathetic to the British during the American Revolution. Nevertheless, Tobiah served the Patriot cause and was granted his freedom for helping to win American Independence.

Tobiah's son, Eben Tobias was born in 1805. He married Susan Gregory, a Native American from the Pequot tribe. The family lived for a while in the Litchfield area but later returned to the Naugatuck Valley with their three children, Charlotte, Ebenezer Don Carlos and Napoleon.

There are references of the young Ebenezer attending school at the Five Mile Hill School in Oxford where he impressed Nathan J. Wilcoxson, Oxford's School Visitor, who encouraged his studies, and kept a correspondence with Bassett over many years.

Bassett's sister Charlotte remained an Oxford resident in later years.

For more about Bassett's life, see the article in the American Foreign Service Journal: https://afsa.org/ebenezer-bass...