Palisado Cemetery

The End of Slavery in Connecticut

By the time Connecticut passed its full emancipation law in 1848, only a few enslaved individuals remained in the state. Some of them, deemed too elderly to care for themselves, continued to live with their former owners.

Nancy Toney: Connecticut’s Last Known Enslaved Person

Nancy Toney, formerly enslaved by the Chaffee/Loomis family of Windsor, is believed to have been the last surviving enslaved person in Connecticut. She passed away in 1857 and was laid to rest in Palisado Cemetery. Her grave is located at the rear of the cemetery, on the left side of the road, in an area with few markers.

Virgil Simmons: A Civil War Veteran

Also buried in Palisado Cemetery is Virgil Simmons, a soldier in the Connecticut Twenty-ninth Colored Regiment C.V. Infantry during the Civil War. His grave is located next to Nancy Toney’s, symbolizing a connection between Connecticut’s history of slavery and the fight for freedom during the Civil War.

This site is open to the public.