Abused in life and death, a slave known as Mr Fortune will be honoured with an elaborate funeral more than 200 years after he died in Connecticut.

Mr Fortune's remains will lie in state in the Capitol rotunda in Hartford before taken by state police escort to Waterbury for a memorial service at the church where he was baptised and burial in a cemetery filled with prominent citizens.

Organisers say it is a long overdue honour for a slave who was never properly buried. His owner, a bone doctor, preserved his skeleton for medical study and a descendant eventually gave the bones to a museum which displayed the skeleton for decades.

Recent tests by Quinnipiac University confirmed Mr Fortune lived with painful injuries, but did not determine his cause of death.

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