Fortune’s 2013 reburial reframed him as a child of God rather than a slave.

Evidence

More than three hundred people came to attend his funeral service, which was led by Amy Wellin, the rector of Saint John’s Episcopal Church on the Green, the parish in Waterbury where Mr. Fortune had been baptized in 1797. She quoted scripture that spoke to the ills of slavery, then ended the service by saying, “It is with restored dignity his bones will be buried…. We bury Mr. Fortune not as a slave but as a child of God who is blessed…. We must refuse to give in to the forces that seek to diminish us.” — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 335