Monday: CLOSED
Tuesday: CLOSED
Wednesday: 10:45AM – 5:00PM
Thursday: 9:45AM – 5:00PM

Friday: 9:45AM – 5:00PM
Saturday: 9:45AM – 5:00PM
Sunday: CLOSED

6000+ Declarations of IndependenceMariangie Pena2026-06-19T12:28:36-04:00

6000+ Declarations of Independence

Through original comic art by artist Joe Young and historical storytelling, this exhibit explores how Black abolitionists claimed freedom, dignity, and humanity in a nation that denied them all three. Centering the lives and writings of figures including Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Sojourner Truth, and Josiah Henson, the exhibition examines storytelling as both resistance and liberation. Through immersive visuals, literary activism, and community engagement designed for visitors of all ages, the exhibit invites audiences to reflect on the enduring pursuit of liberty and the power of declaring one’s own humanity.

EXHIBIT EVENTS

6000+ Declarations of Independence

July 4 @ 11:00 am - 4:00 pm

Meet the Creator:

Joe YoungArtist
Joe's Website

Biography:
A Connecticut native, is an award-winning cartoonist, filmmaker, producer, writer, and teaching artist. He is the president of Joe Young Entertainment, LLC and the Creator of the socially engaged KEMET, THE TIME TRAVELER comic property. Young also is the writer and executive producer of Hartford’s first major homegrown book-to-film project, Diamond Ruff. In early 2015, Cinedigm Entertainment, the largest independent content provider in the United States, nationally distributed Diamond Ruff, the Movie. Currently the movie can be viewed on TubiTV. Young is a Co-Founder and President of Hartford’s Got Talent!, an arts non-profit organization that showcases talent and connects the community. He is a Guinness World Record Holder for creating the World’s Longest Comic Strip, which included the participation of thousands of Greater Hartford-based youth. In 1999, Young received the prestigious Daily Point of Light Award from the White House for volunteering his time in bringing the arts to otherwise access-less youth. He and his work have appeared in People, Ebony, GQ and Jet Magazine, the Boston Globe, New York Times, C-Span, CNN, the Black Family Channel and other national media outlets.

The River of History:

Christopher Hager is a writer who explores the lives of ordinary Americans through their writing—diaries kept by enslaved people, letters written by the wives and children of Civil War soldiers, magazine stories by factory workers.

His first book, Word by Word: Emancipation and the Act of Writing, won the 2014 Frederick Douglass Prize for the best book of the year on the subject of slavery. The research for his latest book, I Remain Yours: Common Lives in Civil War Letters, was supported by a Public Scholar award from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Hager is the Hobart Professor of the Humanities at Trinity College and lives with his wife and two children in northwestern Connecticut.

Chris Hager contributed historical scholarship to the 6,000+ Declarations of Independence exhibit, featuring artwork developed from original sketches by Hartford artist Joe Young. This exhibit is on view in the Stowe Visitors Center from June through December 2026. The development of this exhibit was made possible by the America250 Creation of New Work Grant from the Roberts Foundation for the Arts and is presented by the Roberts Foundation for the Arts and the Travelers Arts Impact Grant. Our America250CT celebration July 4 is made possible in part by CT Humanities

Presented by

Artwork developed from original sketches by Joe Young. Final illustration by Davide Gentile. Color design by Mirco Maiorano. The development of this exhibit was made possible by the America250 Creation of New Work Grant from the Roberts Foundation for the Arts.