The Beman Triangle and its residents were a vital part of American history. Beman family members were political leaders in the abolitionist, suffrage, and temperance movements. Family members were clergymen and trustees of the A.M.E. Zion Church. The Bemans and other residents of the Triangle were responsible community leaders within the prospering African American community of Middletown throughout the nineteenth century.
But why did they remain unstudied and forgotten?
Belonging to an all-too-often-forgotten part of history, the Beman Triangle Project was started in 2003 by the Wesleyan University’s Anthropology Department and Archaeology Program. Since then, the Beman Triangle Project has been developed into a collaborative project — a project that works in partnership with the local community. Through this collaboration the project aims to draw the local community into the research process and help each and every one of us better engage with and understand nineteenth-century African American history in New England.