Student project aims to memorialize Cornwall’s first Black female landowner

CORNWALL — The story of Naomi Cain Freeman will continue to be told for generations to come thanks to the work of Cornwall Consolidated School’s seventh grade girls.

Four of the students, Skylar Brown, Izabella Coppola, Halley Villa and Willa Lesch, attended the Board of Selectmen meeting March 4 with a request to rename a section of Great Hollow Road in honor of the historic figure. This suggestion was inspired by research into significant women in Cornwall’s history.

According to Cornwall Historical Society records, Naomi was born in 1794 and was adopted by Colonel John Sedgwick and his wife Abigail, of Cornwall, in 1801. This act protected her from slavery, which was still legal in Connecticut at the time.

Sedgwick included Naomi in his will and she received a dowry after his death in 1820.

Naomi Freeman’s deed for “one acre of land with a dwelling House thereon,” Aug. 27, 1828.Courtesy of the Town of Cornwall

Naomi later married Obadiah “Obed” Freeman, a man who had been enslaved in Cornwall. She purchased an acre of land in Cornwall, becoming the town’s first Black woman to own land, and the two settled on Great Hollow Road in 1828.

Nearly 200 years later, the road itself may commemorate her legacy.

The selectmen were receptive to the students’ suggestion and agreed to help establish a memorial street name.

“We could name a section on an honorary basis in view of this extraordinary effort and extraordinary story,” said First Selectman Gordon Ridgway. “I commend the seventh graders.”

The students hope to achieve their goal within the month of March. An update is expected at the next selectmen’s meeting Tuesday, March 18.