Names hold significance to the people who bestow them. The wall of names holds an even greater significance as many were given by fathers who owned their children as literal goods, parents who themselves were enslaved, or were never given a name at all. These are the records of African Americans listed in the records in the Greens Farms Parish of what is today Westport.
The names on this wall represent baptism, marriage, and deaths of 241 enslaved and 19 free people of color recorded in the Greens Farms Church record book from 1742-1822. Twenty five of the enslaved people were children as were seven of the free people of color.
Green’s Farms Church was established in 1711 as an independent parish within Fairfield called the West Parish. It comprised an area that today lies between Compo Road and the Sasco River, extending northward into Redding.
