In 2020 we initiated a long-term research project to explore the lives of the free African American Peters family in early 19th-century Hebron, Connecticut. The project includes historical research and an archaeological investigation of the remains of the house that Cesar and Sim Peters purchased in 1806. This work is part of a larger collaborative project that is being carried out by Hebron historian John Baron, the Connecticut Office of State Archaeology (OSA), the Friends of the Office of State Archaeology (FOSA), Peters family descendants, the Hebron Historical Society, teachers and students from the Regional Hebron, Andover, and Marlborough (RHAM) school district, and the Witness Stones Project, to raise awareness of the African-American history of Hebron through public history and archaeology events, popular publications, curriculum building, and the installation of Witness Stone monuments at significant locations in town. This paper presents a summary history of the Peters family and their home site, and reports the preliminary results of the first season of archaeological work at the site.

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