October 28, 2025

The Historian

History is a living, breathing thing for Nicole Thomas.

A lifelong New London resident, 40-year-old Thomas’ roots run deep in Southeastern Connecticut. She has traced her ancestry through generations, finding records of a great-aunt who arrived in New London in the late 1800s and DNA links reaching back to the 1600s. For more than two decades, she has studied and shared the stories that shape her city’s past. Today, she serves as Assistant Site Administrator for Connecticut Landmarks, overseeing the Hempsted Houses in New London, the Palmer-Warner House in East Haddam, and the Amasa Day House in Moodus.

Her journey into local history began with a small detail: the whale plaque on her mother’s house. When her mother purchased a home on Carroll Court bearing the historic New London Landmarks marker, curiosity struck. She visited the public library and began pulling books from the shelves. “The first history book I ever picked up was “The Whaling City” by Robert Owen Decker,” she recalls. “Then I picked up ‘The History of New London’ by Francis Manwaring Caulkins, who was a woman historian.”

Over time, Thomas became known as a go-to source for New London’s past. She jokes that she “talks about the 1600s like it was yesterday.” In 2018, New London Landmarks invited her to lead a Jane’s Walk through the city’s historic sites. That same year, she joined Joseph McGill, founder of the Slave Dwelling Project, for an overnight stay at the Hempsted Houses, a profound experience that deepened her connection to the stories of the enslaved Black residents of early New London. Soon after, she began volunteering there and eventually joined Connecticut Landmarks as staff.

“The last time someone’s name is spoken on earth, they’re forgotten. I get to speak truth to their power. I’m blessed with the opportunity to do that. That’s a gift – to me and to my ancestors.”

— Nicole Thomas

Built in 1678, the Hempsted House is one of New England’s oldest and best-documented dwellings. Nearly fifty years of diaries written by Joshua Hempsted record daily life in colonial New London, including the story of Adam Jackson, a Black man enslaved to Hempsted from 1727 until Hempsted’s death in 1758. Historical records later list Jackson as a free man by 1760, and his name appears in local tax rolls until 1764, after which his trail fades.

Thomas has devoted years to researching Jackson’s life. Her work led to an invitation to write his biography for the New London Black Heritage Trail, a collection of fifteen sites honoring Black strength, resilience, and achievement in the city which was unveiled in October of 2021. Former City Councilor Curtis Goodwin, a classmate from New London High School, helped spearhead the project and knew he wanted Thomas to collaborate on it. “It was a no-brainer for me to do Adam Jackson,” Thomas says. “I also wrote about Florio, Hercules and Connecticut’s Black Governors.”

Finding Jackson’s burial site has become a personal mission. “I will die trying to find out where Adam Jackson is buried,” she says.

For Thomas, history is alive through memory and storytelling. “As long as we’re talking about people and telling their stories, whether they’re still here or not, they still live and breathe within our community,” she says. “The last time someone’s name is spoken on earth, they’re forgotten. I get to speak truth to their power. I’m blessed with the opportunity to do that. That’s a gift – to me and to my ancestors.”

Her passion for uncovering hidden histories also stems from what she wasn’t taught in school.
“I really loved history when I was in high school,” she says. “But they were teaching me about George Washington’s wooden teeth and the Declaration of Independence. They weren’t teaching me that twelve U.S. presidents owned slaves. They weren’t telling us the factual stuff that had been hidden.”

Thomas carries her ancestors’ stories with reverence and responsibility. When she was invited to sleep aboard the Amistad, the replica of the 19th-century Spanish schooner seized by enslaved Africans in 1839, she accepted without hesitation. “I feel like I owe it to my ancestors. They had no option,” she says, “they had no choice and I have the choice to do that and see what that was like for them.”

Though she describes herself as an introvert, Thomas has steadily pushed beyond her comfort zone. “As much as I love talking about history, I’m very shy about speaking in public,” she admits. “I am a mother of two beautiful daughters so I push myself to show my daughters that they can do anything they put their mind to.”

Her daughters, twenty-one-year-old Aliyana and fourteen-year-old Talya, are both her inspiration and her legacy. “I'm the only person of color that works here,” Thomas says, “I'm the only Black person that works here. I'm the only person who looks like me when you come here. And the fact of the matter is Adam Jackson's mother probably looked a lot like I do.”

Outside her role with Connecticut Landmarks, Thomas also works at the Homeless Hospitality Center in New London and serves on several local boards, including the New London County Historical Society, Eastern Connecticut Housing Opportunities, the Connecticut Freedom Trail, and the New London Zoning Board of Appeals.

Though she admits to moments of self-doubt, she carries herself with conviction and confidence. Her message to others is clear: “You are enough,” she says. “You don’t just bring things to the table. Sometimes you are the table.”

Brenda’s Note: This profile is part of my “Small City, Great Women” Photo Project, which celebrates the women of New London, CT who are doing great things. If you know a woman who would be a good fit for the project, NOMINATE HER HERE.