Sydney Harris Chilmark Deaf Community

Sydney Harris (1911 - 2002) was an engineer and farmer and spent part of his growing up years in Chilmark on the Brickyard property which was owned by his father. In this clip from a 1995 interview recalls his fellow classmates who grew up in the Deaf community.
Families that came from England to the Vineyard in the late 17th century carried a recessive gene for deafness. Their descendants settled in Chilmark, where isolation reinforced the effects of the gene, causing rates of hereditary deafness far higher than on the mainland. Deafness became part of everyday life in Chilmark, with a unique local sign language used by deaf and hearing residents alike. As Chilmark grew more connected to the outside world, the effect of the gene diminished and deaf culture faded. The last native speaker of Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language died in 1952.
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