Mid-Atlantic Symphony Recognizes Black History Month

 Mid-Atlantic Symphony Recognizes Black History Month by Performing First Symphonic African American women composer, Florence Price

Florence Price

Born in Little Rock to a black dentist and a Caucasian teacher, Florence Price garnered many accolades and achieved many firsts as an American composer during her life. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in American history, she was the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and she was the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra when the Chicago Symphony premiered her Symphony No. 1 in 1933. Her works were always well received by critics and the public alike.

Price’s life’s work consists of more than 300 works including four symphonies, four concertos, chamber music, music for various solo instruments, choral works, and art songs. Most of her works, unfortunately, went missing for decades, and this undoubtedly contributed to the dearth of performances of Price’s works until recently. Fortunately, in 2009 a treasure trove of her lost works and papers were found in Illinois in Price’s abandoned summer home. This sparked an exciting renewed interest in Price and her works and is bringing well-deserved attention to them from new audiences around the world.

In honor of black history month, the Mid-Atlantic Symphony, led by Grammy award-winning conductor, Michael Repper will perform Price’s Symphony No. 1. This symphony, commonly for Price’s works, draws from the musical traditions (such as gospel and jazz) of Black communities in America and from western European traditions that Price would have learned from her studies at the New England Conservatory of Music.

This piece consists of four movements with the opening movement featuring melodies and rhythms from Afro-American folk music and showing inspiration from Anton Dvorák's New World Symphony. Price features a hymn tune she composed in the second (slow) movement, and the final two movements are fast and draw from the African juba dance. The work is scored for two flutes, two piccolos, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings.

This piece is fiendishly difficult, which makes it thrillingly energetic. It is enjoying a rightful renaissance and being recognized for its worth. In 2022 the Philadelphia Orchestra’s recording of this symphony received a Grammy award in the Best Orchestral Performance category.

…CONCERT DETAILS FOLLOW…

WHEN and WHERE: This concert will be performed at three venues on three days on the Delmarva Peninsula.

Thursday, March 9, 2023 – 7:30 PM – Easton Church of God, 1009 North Washington Street, Easton, MD

Friday, March 10, 7:30 PM – Community Church, 11227 Racetrack Road, Ocean Pines, MD

Saturday, March 11, 3:00 PM – Epworth United Methodist Church, 19285 Holland Glade Road, Rehoboth Beach, DE

TICKETS

Individual tickets for this concert are $50 per person at each venue. The Mid-Atlantic Symphony offers a group discount for the purchase of 10 or more tickets to a single concert.

The Orchestra also makes a limited number of free tickets available for students 18 years and under; tickets for accompanying parents are $10 each. Reservations are required for the free tickets and may be made by calling 888-846-8600.

PODCASTS

Podcasts for the season preview, for each concert, and for special MSO events are available on the MSO Web site at midatlanticsymphony.org/podcast. Podcasts are posted on the site approximately 7 to 10 days before a concert or event.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about the 2022-2023 season, or to order tickets, please visit www.midatlanticsymphony.org. Tickets may be ordered by telephone at 888-846-8600.

ABOUT THE MID-ATLANTIC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

The Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra is the only professional symphony orchestra serving southern Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore with a full season of programs. The MSO is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council; the Talbot County Arts Council; the Worcester County Arts Council; the Sussex County, DE Council; and the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore, Inc.

A complete schedule of the 2022-2023 season’s Masterworks and Ensembles programs, venues, times, and other information is available at www.midatlanticsymphony.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (February 27, 2023)

CONTACT: DANE KRICH (410-917-7587)

Museum of African American History and Culture - Washington DC is Being Built

 The Museum of African American History and Culture is being built on the National Mall in Washington DC. Americans will get their first national museum devoted exclusively to African American life, art, history and culture. When complete the Museum of African American History and Culture will be the Smithsonian Institution's 19th museum. The $500-million African American History Museum opens in late 2015 and is expected to attract more than 3 million visitors every year. The Museum of African American History and Culture will be the largest museum to focus on African Americans and will display thousands of artifacts.

"When future generations hear these songs of pain and progress and struggle and sacrifice I hope they will not think of them as somehow separate from the larger American story," said President Obama. "I want them to see it as a central and important part of our shared story - a call to see ourselves in one another."

Museum of African American History and Culture - Washington DC
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Black History - Maryland's Eastern Shore

"On Matthewstown Road outside of Easton, near Tuckahoe, is a marker for the farm that was the 1818 birthplace of slave-turned-abolitionist statesman Frederick Douglass. Harriet Tubman, one of the leaders of the pre-Civil War "Underground Railroad," was a slave on a plantation near Oxford, 10 miles southwest of Easton on Maryland Highway 333."

The Eastern Shore

On The Peaceful Side Of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay, History Is More Than Just A Memory

Michael Kilian, Chicago Tribune Staff Writer.

Read the full article about the Eastern Shore

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial - Thousands Gather

Thousands Gather for Dedication of King Memorial
VOA - Sunday, October 16th, 2011

Thousands of people are gathering in Washington Sunday to dedicate a national memorial to slain civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.

President Barack Obama — the nation's first black president — is scheduled to deliver an address before a host of civil right luminaries and members of the King family, honoring the man who gave his life in the pursuit of equal rights for blacks in America.

An estimated 50,000 are expected to attend the ceremony which includes musical performances by artists including Aretha Franklin.

The dedication of the $120 million dollar statue and memorial park on the National Mall was initially set for August but was delayed because of the threat from Tropical Storm Irene.

The monument, which stands some nine-meters-tall, is the only one on the National Mall not dedicated to a president or war. The memorial is also the first on the Mall to honor an African-American.

The project took some 15 years complete. The monument features a statue of King carved out of white granite, gazing into the horizon. It is also engraved with some of the most famous quotes from the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee .

King — a Baptist minister known for his eloquence — conducted a non-violent protest campaign in the 1950s and 1960s to end racial segregation in the southern United States.

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial - Washington D.C.

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Public Preview

VOA - August 22, 2011

Photo: lei yixin

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park

A memorial dedicated to American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior opens to the public Monday in a preview ahead of Sunday's official dedication ceremony.

The King memorial is located on the National Mall in Washington between memorials honoring iconic presidents Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.  This is the first memorial on the mall dedicated to someone other than a president or a war.

The 9-meter tall statue and long granite wall inscribed with key quotations from the slain civil rights leader will be officially dedicated Sunday - the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington and Reverend King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech.  President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak at the dedication ceremony.

The King Memorial is located at 1964 Independence Avenue, a reference to the year the Civil Rights Act was passed into law by the late president Lyndon Johnson.

The King Memorial is the latest in a series of additions to the National Mall in the past two decades.  The Korean War Memorial was built in 1995.  A monument honoring president Franklin Roosevelt was dedicated in 1997 followed by the World War Two Memorial in 2004.

African-American Belva Davis - Pioneering Reporter Helped Change Face of US TV News

Pioneering Reporter Helped Change Face of US TV News

African-American Belva Davis was among the first to break the color barrier

JoAnn Mar | San Francisco, California - July 11, 2011

 

Through the first half of the 20th century, as television became a fixture in U.S. homes, the reporters Americans saw on TV were white, and almost all men. That began to change in the 1960s. African-American Belva Davis was at the forefront of that shift.

For thousands of TV viewers in the San Francisco Bay Area, Davis is a trusted, familiar face on the evening news. But, she recalls, while growing up, there were few black faces on TV.

"When I was a kid at home, we used to yell, 'Come look, come look. There's a colored man on television.' And the whole family would stop and we'd come to get a little glimpse of whoever that person of color was," says Davis. "Well, my goodness, if you did that now, you'd be exhausted by the end of the day."

Early years

Davis is one of the reasons American television now reflects the racial and ethnic diversity of the country. She grew up in a poor Louisiana family in the 1930s, a place and a time in which segregation and discrimination were rampant.

Things weren’t much different when her family moved west, when Davis was still in school.

"We arrived in California expecting milk and honey, was not at all so," she recalls. "Just being disliked by so many people who didn't like our accents, didn't like our names, just didn't like very much about us because we were so different.”


Challenging times

Davis began her career writing for Jet, a black magazine, before moving on to radio. She remembers the early years as pretty tough.

“All my experience, the majority of it was working in totally segregated media. I could only work at stations that were programmed especially for black people. I could only write for newspapers that were published for a black audience. And no one else would give me even a decent (job) interview for many years."

But Davis persevered. She was among the first to break the color barrier when she was hired by a San Francisco TV station in 1967. As the first woman of color in the newsroom, Davis was seen as an oddball and many of her colleagues thought she wouldn't last.

At that time, Davis says, society at large wasn't ready for a black female TV reporter. She recalls encountering hostility and skepticism.

Breaking in

"I was working, doing the City Hall beat, and I wasn't allowed in the press room. I couldn't even put a telephone in the press room. And when I was asked to leave news conferences, because they'd say 'This is for reporters.' No one could believe that I was a reporter," she says. "Or a couple of times in hotels, being mistaken for the ironing person or the cleaning person. Those were all parts of growing in the business."


Determined to prove the skeptics wrong, Davis worked long hours and eventually reported on some of the most explosive stories in the headlines; Vietnam war protests, the Al Qaeda bombings in Africa that preceded 9/11 and the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and gay activist Harvey Milk.

In addition to the headline news, Davis sought out stories that would otherwise go untold. In the 70s and 80s, she was among the first in the nation to report on breast cancer, dyslexia and the mysterious new disease that was killing gay men - AIDS.

"The very first live interview with someone diagnosed with AIDS was a guy named Bobbi Campbell. Our technicians didn't understand the disease and it moved so swift and was killing so fast, that there was a lot of hysteria around it," she says.


According to Davis, the technicians refusd to set up the microphone because they didn't want Campbell touching any of the equipment.

"It was one of those real demonstrations of women power. They decided that the medical reporter would put the mic on him and the producer would go ahead and crank it up upstairs and we recorded that program and it made history of a sort," she says, "and were rewarded greatly by the fact that some lives were saved because of those early stories."

Today, Davis is still telling important stories. Now in her 70s, she remains active in journalism as host of a weekly current affairs show on public television.

Off the air, she continues to promote the hiring of minorities in the media, and serves as a role model for young journalists who will tell the important stories of the future.

Belva Davis interviewed historic men and women including Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Coretta Scott King.



VOA - J. Mar

Pioneering African-American reporter Belva Davis



Pioneering Reporter Helped Change Face of US TV News

Article from VOA

Museum in Washington, DC. - Lives and rich traditions of descendants of West African slaves who live in southern coastal regions of the eastern United States are being showcased.

Exhibit Showcases Endangered Culture Embraced by African Americans in US South

VOA - Chris Simkins May 16, 2011

Photo: VOA - C. Simkins

A vintage photo of a Gullah woman by Lorenzo DowTurner

The lives and rich traditions of descendants of West African slaves who live in southern coastal regions of the eastern United States are being showcased at a museum in Washington, DC. The exhibit at the Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum also profiles an African American scholar whose research first connected the Gullah-Geechee people with the language and culture of their ancestors. Our correspondent reports on efforts to educate people about the Gullah people while promoting preservation of their culture and traditions.

U.S. Civil War History - 150th Anniversary

150 Years Later, US Civil War Still Resonates
War between the states threatened nation's survival

VOA - Susan Logue | Manassas, Virginia April 08, 2011

Burying the dead - 620,000 Americans died during the Civil War.

This month marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the U.S. Civil War - a conflict that nearly tore the United States apart. Eleven southern states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, vowing to maintain their economic system based on agriculture and slavery.

On April 12, 1861, Confederate soldiers fired on Union troops at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. It was the first act of open aggression by the South against the North. After four years of bloody battles, the Confederates surrendered.

Today, the war between the states still resonates with Americans, and in some ways, the nation is still healing from that division.

Record casualties

Well over a half million Americans died during the Civil War, the equivalent of losing 2 percent of the population. "You can imagine the impact that this would have on whole communities throughout the country," says Ray Brown, chief of interpretation for Manassas National Battlefield Park, site of one of the war’s first battles.

Brown believes that loss is responsible for "passions that have been passed on from generation to generation even at the remove of 150 years."

On a recent visit to Manassas, there is little evidence of that passion, but there is a desire to connect to the past. Park superintendent Ed Clark says the battlefield is a good place to do that.

"You can actually stand out here on the fields, see what they saw. But I think there is also an emotional connection that can be made on battlefields. This is a place where Americans fought. This is a place where Americans died."

The park gets about 600,000 visitors a year. People like Marianne Lee, who came with her children and their friends.

"I think it is important to look back at this particular war, because it is what made our union. We separated and yet managed to come back together."

Photo: National Park Service
In 1961, Manassas National Battlefield hosted a re-enactment. Although still popular with many people, re-enactments are now deemed an inappropriate way to commemorate the Civil War by the National Park Service.

Mutual sacrifice

Yale historian David Blight, one of the leading experts on the Civil War, says the United States reunited after the war "by finding the mutuality of sacrifice between the two sides."

By the 50th anniversary soldiers who fought on both sides were getting together for reunions. In 1913, some 50,000 veterans assembled in Gettysburg, the site of the war’s bloodiest battle.

"What we did in this country is we suppressed having to talk about what caused that war or what its results or legacies were, focusing largely on honoring the soldier," says Blight.

Americans continued to ignore the issues 50 years later, during the centennial of the Civil War, according to Kevin Levin. A history teacher in Charlottesville, Virginia, Levin also maintains the popular blog, Civil War Memory.

"The dominant interpretation of the early 1960s would have been focused on the bravery of Union and Confederate soldiers, the theme of reconciliation. Americans were more interested in remembering a war that united Americans rather than divided Americans."

In the last few years, there has been renewed scholarship on the Civil War by Blight and other historians.

He says that we shouldn’t forget the military history. "But this time, we need to put the story of emancipation at the center of this narrative, because what really transformed the United States, were not those battles. What really transformed the United States was the process by which 4 million slaves were freed that necessitated a recrafting of our Constituion."

Three new amendments

Following the War, three amendments were added to the Constitution. The 13th amendment abolished slavery forever. The 14th granted citizenship to anyone born in the United States and guaranteed equal protection to all citizens. And the 15th amendment guaranteed all citizens the right to vote.

VOA - S. Logue

A monument to Confederate general Stonewall Jackson overlooks the battlefield at Manassas. Americans have honored the military leaders of the South as heroes, even though they led a rebellion against the U.S. government.

Blight says the Civil War launched "a revolution in civil and political rights." But it did not last. It would take the Civil Rights movement, a full century later, to force the government to deliver fully on those promises.

Today, with an African-American in the White House, we have come a long way, but the legacies of the war are still being debated, says Blight.

"Every time Americans debate the problem of States’ rights, the relationship of federal power to state power - which we are indeed having a roiling debate again, and every time we debate, not only race relations, but the very idea of what it means to be an American, multi-racial, greatly diverse society, we are debating the direct legacies of the Civil War."

That, says blogger Levin, is one of the reasons Americans are still fascinated by the Civil War.

"Even if we don’t know much about this period, there is a hold on us, an emotional hold. I think that explains why we still have a need to talk about it, because we are still struggling with many of those issues that came out of it."

And as Americans mark the anniversary over the next four years, there will be plenty of opportunities to discuss the legacies - and lessons - of the Civil War.






150 Years Later, US Civil War Still Resonates
War between the states threatened nation's survival
Ariticle and Video from VOA

Underground Railroad - Eastern Shore of Maryland Sites

Freedom takes on new meaning after trip to Underground Railroad sites
Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network / By Cindy Ross - Bay Journal

A yellow dog sleeps in the dirt under the Bucktown Store overhang. The sky is a deep blue. Except for a fly buzzing around the dog's head, all is peaceful. But as I step across the worn threshold of the door jam, visibly dipped and smoothed where thousands have placed their feet while entering, my mind whizzes back to the 1830s.

The black slave, Jim, has just entered the store without his master's permission. This infuriates the overseer, who corners him. He commands another slave, Harriet Tubman, who followed Jim here, to help capture and tie him up. She does the opposite. She blocks the door so he can not be pursued. A 2-pound weight is lifted off the counter and flung, slamming Tubman to the ground and fracturing her skull. The blow nearly kills her.

It is her first act of civil disobedience. From now on, everything in the life of this future "Moses of the Underground Railroad" will change.

After months of rehabilitation, Tubman was left with a peculiar symptom of suddenly falling asleep throughout the day. While unconscious, she experienced profound and lucid visions from God...instructions on how to lead her people to freedom.

This scene doesn't feel like it took place that long ago. Inside the Bucktown Store today, 2-foot wide wooden counter tops are smooth with wear. Shelves line all the walls. Single light bulbs are screwed into the painted ceiling with dangling cotton strings.

I, too, am traveling on the Underground Railroad in Dorchester County, MD, only it is 2007. The Bucktown Store is just one of the historical stops on the 105-mile Underground Railroad Driving Tour, a part of the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network, which runs through Dorchester and Caroline counties.

Nineteen historic sites and 14 areas take the visitor on one of the finest tours of our nation's history. Here to trace the paths of these courageous people, I am starting with Harriet Tubman, my hero, as well as the hero for the more than 300 people she guided to freedom.

The geography of the Chesapeake and its many tributaries was ideal for conducting the Underground Railroad. An old Choptank Indian path that was followed through these counties is now the route of a driving tour.

The water routes enabled small rafts and canoes to traverse the streams, while larger boats sailed the open waters of the Chesapeake, hiding the slaves in their holds.

The location was also perfect because Maryland-directly south of the Mason-Dixon Line- was the last station that separated bondage from freedom. For 30 years leading up to the Civil War, this area was a hotbed for some of the most daring escapes and frightening rescues in history.

Of course, the Underground Railroad wasn't a locomotive with cars and a track at all, but a 500-mile network of secret passages. Historian Robert C. Smedley enlightens us to the origin of the term:

"In the early part of the Underground Railroad, slaves were hunted and tracked as far as Lancaster County in Pennsylvania. There, pursuers lost all trace of them. The most scrutinizing inquiries, the most vigorous search, failed to educe any knowledge of them. These pursuers seemed to have reached an abyss, beyond which they could not see, the depths of which they could not fathom, and in their bewilderment and discomfiture they declared that, 'There must be an underground railroad somewhere.'"

I began the driving tour in Cambridge, at the Dorchester County Visitors' Center at Sailwinds Park East. They have a well-researched exhibit on the Underground Railroad as well as excellent maps.

Just 8 miles from Bucktown, where Harriet Tubman lived, Cambridge is located on the banks of the Choptank, the river "highway."

Although the slave auction block is gone, the Dorchester County Courthouse in Cambridge is virtually unchanged since 1850. Tubman, who had successfully escaped to Philadelphia, returned to this courthouse to conduct her first rescue. Her niece, Keziah and her two young children were about to be sold and shipped south. During the auction, a ruckus was staged to disturb and divert the crowd as the three were whisked away. My interpreter, Royce Sampson, with REI Heritage Tours, brings the story alive, reliving the excitement, the commotion, the narrow escape.

The courthouse sits on brick-lined High Street, where period homes housed all of the lawyers and judges who tried free and enslaved blacks alike.

Tubman would walk behind these houses, her head wrapped in a colored cloth, singing the Negro spiritual, "Steal Away." This was her secret message to the slaves inside that her train was about to leave.

We drove out of town past the fields that were once part of plantations. The land on this part of the Eastern Shore remains remarkably unchanged since the days of the Underground Railroad.

The marshes that once hid runaways are still present. The forests once were the domain of woodchoppers, like Tubman's father and Harriet herself, who, after her blow, proved to be "unfit for indoor, domestic work." She grew unusually strong as she chopped wood, plowed fields, drove oxen and hauled logs.

Her father taught her how to read the stars. This enabled her to navigate the skies through places like the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge that we pass on Key Wallace Drive.

We turn onto Greenbriar Road and stop at Tubman's historical marker and the spot where the Brodess Farm, where Tubman grew up, once stood. I shield my eyes from the sun and look down the stony drive that led to the house. I wonder if she ever skipped happily down this path. Or did her daily beatings since the age of 5 cast a sorrowful pall over her entire childhood?

On the night before she was to be sold to a southern slaveholder, Tubman crept along these very field rows, sleeping by day, traveling by night, eventually making it to Philadelphia in a cart covered with vegetables.

"There are two things I got a right to," she said, "freedom and death. One or the other I mean to have."

There is so much Underground Railroad history to experience in Dorchester County and adjoining Caroline County that a full weekend is necessary.

Before calling it a day, we meander down Choptank Road right over the county border, toward the Choptank River Landing. The orange sunset lights up the marshland. The river burns as if on fire. Back in the 1800s, it would be getting close to "pushing off time," stealing away to the next station. On this very landing, freedom seekers were escorted upriver to Tubman's parents' home on Poplar Neck.

There, Conductor Harriet would meet them and lead them to freedom. She made 19 trips back to Dorchester County, rescuing 300 relatives and friends from the "Jaws of Hell."

Standing here in the fading light, I think of how she carried opium to quiet babies and a six-shooter strapped to her leg under her skirts to ward off pursuers. If her passengers got scared and wanted to return to their slaveholders, her reply was, "Dead niggers tell no tales. You go or you die. I never run my train off the track and I never lost a passenger."

After our Chesapeake Underground Railroad experience, I traveled across the Mason-Dixon Line into Lancaster County, PA, to immerse myself in the story even more. This is the spot where the tracks of the Underground Railroad disappeared for the pursuers.

As soon as the entrance song ends at Lancaster's Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Rev. Edward Bailey raises his arms to the heavens and prays aloud with mighty enthusiasm. He asks if we "runaway slaves" are scared, hungry, tired and lonely and want to be relieved from our bondage? If we want to loosen the pain and misery we have experienced? Some in the audience cry out, "Amen!" "That's Right!" and "Lord have Mercy." The entire audience participates in this re-enactment, and we have lost ourselves in the drama of the moment.

The actors and actresses of the Bethel Harambee Historical Services have a mission: to share the story of the Underground Railroad, and one of its "tracks," which passed through the heart of Lancaster. The audience has a role, too. We are freedom seekers, resting only a short time, before moving toward Canada and freedom.

Back in 1848, this African-American church was a refuge and a stop on the Underground Railroad. Freedom seekers journeyed from as far away as the Deep South and as close by as neighboring Maryland and Delaware. Tubman probably led people through this church.

Slaves came here to listen for directions, times, the people and the places that would help them become free. The messages came through the songs that were selected. When the song, "Hush!" was sung, it meant there were special people in the group that needed attention, such as babies and children. If six verses were sung, there were six little ones to look out for. The message in the song "Wade in the Water" announced that their route would cross water. The lyrics to "Steal Away" communicated that it was time to leave quickly. Perhaps a storm was predicted that would obliterate their tracks while the lightning would provide intermittent light for their journey.

Phoebe M. Bailey, sister of the Rev. Bailey, walks the aisles of the church, portraying Olivia, a young slave girl named from the area. She related an unbelievable and horrifying story. Olivia discovered that her master brutally chopped off her beloved brother's body parts, one by one, before killing him. The heartless man informed her of this while she was serving his guests. Olivia acted as if she were actually serving us, fighting back tears, anger and intense fear, while keeping her calm. Everyone's eyes in the congregation were wet with tears. These stories are a compilation based on real history researched by interns from local colleges, and it touched something deep inside me.

For the last eight years, the nonprofit organization has presented the Living African History of Lancaster, PA, and the enslavement saga to a variety of audiences.

The script for the performance was a collaborative effort between researchers, cast and directors. The company, which ranges in age from 10 to 70, has performed for more than 26,000 visitors from around the world. The show runs weekdays and Saturday from February through December, and is set in the original 1821 historic church building. They tell the stories of Harriet Tubman and many other unsung heroes.

As the two-hour performance came to a close, we were suddenly startled by the sound of baying hounds (over a loudspeaker) and a U.S. marshal burst through the church doors. He carried a gun, and in a raucous voice, demanded that we give up the runaway slaves we have hiding in the church pews.

"You got to help me!" he demanded. "The Fugitive Slave Law says you got to give them up!" The actors and actresses began singing "Freedom!" and was joined by everyone in the church. Our combined voices chased him out.

As we "slaves" filed out the pews, shepherded on to freedom, singing "Jacob's Ladder," we were told to look for candles in windows-two candles means keep moving, one candle means welcome. Even the quilts hanging on the wash line have hidden directional messages.

We are different from the people we were when we entered. The experiences we've had exploring the Underground Railroad have left their mark on us. We understand a little better how ordinary people, like Harriet Tubman, and every soul connected to this astounding Underground Railroad, could do the extraordinary. The thirst for freedom is insatiable.

All American Road
In February, Maryland's Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway will be nominated as an All American Road, a designation that would bring eligibility for federal funding to preserve key resources, create interpretive programs and improve the road for pedestrians, cyclists, driving tours, trucks and farm equipment.

The Underground Railroad
Maryland

• Dorchester County Department of Tourism: Call 1-800-522-TOUR or visit http://www.tourdorchester.org/.
• The Underground Railroad / Maryland's Network to Freedom: To obtain a copy of this brochure, visit http://www.visitmaryland.org/ or call 877-663-8477.
• African-American Heritage Guide: There are 10 Maryland-based tour services for African/American heritage experiences. Pick up this guide at the Maryland Office of Tourism or call 800-719-5900.

Pennsylvania

• Living the Experience: Bethel Harambee Historical Services in Lancaster, PA: Visit http://www.bethelamelancaster.org/, call 717-509-1177 or 800-510-5899, or e-mail LiveItBethel@aol.com.
• Lancaster County Pennsylvania Dutch Visitor's Bureau: Call 717-735-0311 or 800-PA-DUTCH, or visit http://www.padutchcountry.com/.
• Gettysburg Visitors Bureau: Call 717-338-1052.
• Greater Philadelphia Tourism: Call 215-599-7433.

Delaware

• Delaware-Greater Wilmington Visitors Bureau: Call 302-295-2212.
• Kent County Visitors Bureau: Call: 800-233-KENT.

Learn more:

• Underground Railroad Scenic Byway

Cindy Ross lives in Pennsylvania and unlike some children today, has a hard time coming indoors. She has written six books about it; her latest, from McGraw-Hill, is "Scraping Heaven: A Family's Journey Along the Continental Divide." She fears she has inflicted her children with the same addiction to fun in the outdoors.

Freedom takes on new meaning after trip to Underground Railroad sites
Article from Bay Journal - Feb 2008

Black Gotham - Book Sheds Light on Black Elite in 19th Century New York

Book Sheds Light on Black Elite in 19th Century New York

'Black Gotham' explores the experiences of African-Americans who lived free in the north, while the slavery debate raged in the south

Adam Phillips | New York February 25, 2011

 

Prominent black businessman George Downing and other members of New York’s black elite tried to establish themselves as full Americans, not merely as 'Africans.'

While many Americans are familiar with black slavery in the South during the 19th Century and its role in igniting the nation’s great Civil War, less attention has been paid to the black experience in northern cities such as New York, where so-called "freedmen" lived.

Now, a new book, "Black Gotham," by University of Maryland Professor Carla Peterson, shines a light on their remarkable stories.

Much of the history of black 19th-Century New York has been lost, in part because it was eclipsed in the popular imagination by the saga of southern slavery. Additionally, mostly-white academic historians minimized the contributions of African-Americans. And no comprehensive archive of black life existed until the 20th Century, when the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture was established.

Peterson's ancestors were distinguished members of the city’s black elite and she felt theirs was a powerful story that needed to be told. She spent 11 years researching and writing her book.

 

"Writing this book was very important to me," says Peterson. "It was a journey of hard work, but also of love and passion."

Led by free blacks such as clergyman Alexander Crummell, newspaper editor Charles Ray and businessman George Downing, members of New York’s black elite tried to establish themselves as full Americans, not merely as "Africans" or "coloreds" as black slaves had once been called and called themselves.

Like members of outsider groups before and since, this African-American elite considered education to be the key to full citizenship. They also embraced values of character and responsibility.

"A good, upright moral citizen, valuing temperance, a Protestant ethic of hard work, sobriety and all those kinds of inner values. Respectability then is the outward manifestation of character," says Peterson. "It’s in your appearance, how you dress, how you comport yourself, especially when you’re out on the streets of New York, and especially with whites. No loud, boisterous behavior but being utterly respectable and respectful."

 

 

'Black Gotham' explores the history and contributions of New York's black elite during the 19th Century.

That didn’t mean the status quo went unchallenged. Peterson's book describes salon-style meetings in the back of James McCune Smith’s pharmacy. Smith, who was one of antebellum New York’s most important black leaders, hosted lively debates about voting rights for blacks and the abolition of slavery.

Alliances with whites were often forged. And like white New Yorkers, many in "Black Gotham" also wanted to be rich - but success could be fleeting.

"You see black New Yorkers make tremendous gains and then lose. Gains in terms of entrepreneurship, finding a trade, finding a profession, setting down roots, buying property, and feeling they were at last becoming a genuine part of city life. They would refer to ‘color-phobia’ as ‘fast disappearing in our city.’ But then there would be a loss."

Racial violence was also an issue. Peterson cites a riot in 1834, which began in a chapel where both black and white choirs were scheduled to rehearse at the same time.

"And the white choir went nuts. It was only a pretext, but a race riot broke out, and a lot of black property was damaged. Saint Philip’s Episcopal Church, which was the church of my family, was desecrated."

The Draft Riots of July 1863, during the height of the Civil War, were an especially low point in the history of black New York.  When President Abraham Lincoln instituted a military draft, many immigrants, especially the Irish, thought they were being asked to fight and perhaps to die in a war being waged for the benefit of blacks. Angry mobs set out to destroy the dwellings and businesses of the city’s prosperous African-Americans.

But there was also some goodwill between the races. Peterson's great grandfather owned a pharmacy in a largely Irish neighborhood. He was known as a kind man who gave free medicine and clothes to the poor.

"So they came to see him as a pillar of the community. So at the time of the Draft Riots he was warned to leave. A group of white merchants in the area came to him and said ‘You’d better get out. Your pharmacy is going to be attacked.’ And he said, ‘As many men who are going to come and attack me, there will be as many who come to defend me.’ And that is exactly what happened. His Irish neighbors protected his pharmacy."

Then as now, New York was an ethnic melting pot, and Peterson says many black New Yorkers saw themselves as citizens of the world. Her own ancestors had roots in England, Haiti, Jamaica, Venezuela, American Indian territory as well as Africa.

She points out that more than a century later, many American blacks still lack the educational and economic opportunities that the mainstream enjoys. But Peterson adds that she has been gratified to learn that many black groups are inspired by the struggles and incremental successes of 19th-Century "Black Gotham."

Book Sheds Light on Black Elite in 19th Century New York

Article from VOA

Home of Frederick Douglass in Cedar Hill is Drawing Tourists in Washington, D.C.

Home of Slave Turned Civil Rights Leader Draws Crowds

Tourists visit the house that belonged to Frederick Douglass, a renowned orator and leading abolitionist

Chris Simkins | Washington, D.C. February 22, 2011 - VOA

Photo: VOA

The home of Frederick Douglass, Cedar Hill, is drawing tourists in Washington, D.C.

In the United States, February is Black History Month, a time when observances pay tribute to people and events that shaped the history of African Americans. Communities across the country have promoted historic sites that serve as tributes to the past. One of those places is in in Washington, D.C., where people are learning about the African-American leader Frederick Douglass, who was born a slave in 1818, but escaped to become a leading abolitionist.

Tourists come to it in search of a slice of African-American history. A tour guide takes them through.

"Now the irons that you see up here are the various irons the Douglass family used," says the guide. "This iron is really interesting. This is an iron for putting ruffles in a woman's dress. So it demonstrates the type of people who were living in the house."

The home, Cedar Hill,  belonged Douglass after slavery was abolished in 1865.  National Park Service Ranger Kamal McClarin says visitors come away inspired.  "That transition from slavery to freedom and living in a home like this really provides the public with tremendous inspiration and demonstrating those notions of self determination, you can rise from nothing to something."

Douglass purchased Cedar Hill in a "whites only" neighborhood. He lived there with his family from 1877 to his death in 1895.

More than 60,000 people have visited the home since it was restored in 2006. Thomas Fenske, a historian who came with friends, is one of them. He says tourists stopped coming in the 1970s because the house had fallen into disrepair. He's glad it's been renovated and is now a national historic site.

"Frederick Douglass was very very important as a founder of the civil rights movement," says Fenske. "He talked with President Lincoln and advised Lincoln on various things and of course was one of our country's great writers. So I think its important to have a house like this to keep his memory alive."

Today, vistors see how he lived and learn about his journey from a dedicated opponent of  slavery in the early 19th century America, to an advocate of women's rights, to one of the most respected African-American orators of the 1800's.

"I learned that Frederick Douglass escaped from being a slave and he went through a lot of hard times but he taught himself how to read  and write and became very educated and successful," says Sarah Ward, who toured the home recently.

Susan Nako brought her family from New York so her son, Simon, could learn about Douglass.

"Simon's list for his first grade class for Black History Month did not include Frederick Douglass," says Nako. "and I am appalled because he is my hero from when I was a little girl."

Michael Scott and his wife came from nearby Virginia. He says its important for African Americans to learn about their leaders.

"In this day and time, a lot of African American children don't know about Frederick Douglass. In order for us to go forward, we have got to remember our past and where we came from and those who paved the way for us."

The National Park Service, which manages Frederick Douglass' home, is working on expanding the tour as interest grows among people seeking knowledge about African-American leaders.

Home of Slave Turned Civil Rights Leader Draws Crowds
Article from VOA

Thurgood Marshall - 'Marshalling Justice: The Early Civil Rights Letters of Thurgood Marshall - Letters Provide Insight into Civil Rights Giant - Book News



'Marshalling Justice: The Early Civil Rights Letters of Thurgood Marshall,'
by author Michael Long.



Letters Provide Insight into Civil Rights Giant

New collection of writings by Thurgood Marshall published

Faiza Elmasry | Washington, D.C. February 16, 2011 - VOA

Thurgood Marshall is perhaps best known as the first African-American justice on the Supreme Court, where he served from 1967 to 1991. But he had a long history of working for justice. As an attorney for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), he waged legal battles against racial discrimination which helped reshape American society.
Now, a new collection of letters from that period offers a new portrait of Marshall as an important force in the civil rights movement.

Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s leadership of the black boycott of the city’s public transportation system are widely acknowledged as pivotal events in the civil rights struggle. But almost 20 years before that, a young attorney with the NAACP laid the groundwork for the movement’s success.

 

"Martin Luther King Jr. emerges as the most important civil rights leader in the latter half of the 20th century exactly because of Thurgood Marshall’s work in the 20 years that led up to 1957," says Michael Long, author of "Marshalling Justice: The Early Civil Rights Letters of Thurgood Marshall." "It’s unfair to believe that King had just emerged from nowhere. He emerged out of a culture and society that had already begun to break down racial discrimination. In fact, Rosa Parks was a member of the NAACP."

The letters Marshall wrote between 1936 and 1957 reveal the depth and breadth of his civil rights work.

"The basic idea behind the letters is this, let’s get rid of segregation," says Long. "He played a role of African-American male in the south at the time. He ate in segregated restaurants. He drove in segregated taxis. He played the role of the segregated black man in order to further the cause. He never wanted to draw attention to himself as he put it. He wanted to fight for the cause."

Marshall used everything from points of law to righteous indignation to make his case. In a letter to the New Mexico Department of Education about segregated schools in the city of Alamogordo, he wrote: "It seems that the one school for Negroes in Alamogordo is taught by one teacher who teaches grades from the first grade through the junior high school. It’s almost unbelievable that in this modern system of education one teacher can be expected to be proficient in teaching all grades from the first grade to the junior high school at the same time and in the same small building."

"Marshall was a great letter writer," says Long. "He would sit down at the typewriter and just pound out a letter. He also wrote them on a yellow legal pad, in blue ink. He wrote letters to all the major personalities of his day. He wrote to presidents, he wrote to politicians."

He also wrote to generals. In 1940, as war raged in Europe, he complained about segregated wards in military veterans' hospitals to the adminstrator of Veteran Affairs, Gen. Frank Hines, highlighting the relationship between democracy and racial justice.
"It is to be regretted that this type of discrimination should exist in any project using federal funds exclusively," he wrote. "With the present unsettled conditions throughout Europe, the United States is itself on trial as the last proving ground for democracy."

Marshall also wrote to everyday African-Americans struggling against racial discrimination, especially in the South.

"Some of the letters ended up on his desk were very illiterate. They were full of misspelling and typos, very difficult to read some of these letters, it's just difficult to figure out what they're saying," says Long. "Marshall would sit at his desk and he would read those letters very carefully and he would craft a beautiful response to them and mail a letter back. In some of the letters that he wrote, we can see a very compassionate, warm, sensitive side of Marshall that we don’t normally see."

Long believes it is important for younger generations to read these letters, and learn about the man whose work still impacts lives.

"I think we can see how he shaped history today, if we look at the White House and we see who is there. I think we can trace the presence of President Obama to Marshall’s work. I think Obama is a very rich legacy of the civil rights work of Thurgood Marshall. Marshall worked for that not only here in the United States, but also worldwide. He assisted some countries in crafting their constitutions, Kenya for example. Marshall played a leading role in helping people think about liberty, freedom and equal justice under law."

And because liberty, freedom and equality are basic rights, "Marshalling Justice" author Michael Long hopes Thurgood Marshall’s words will continue to inspire people everywhere in their battles for justice.


Letters Provide Insight into Civil Rights Giant
Article from VOA

Black (African-American) History Month - February - History and Facts

As Americans continue to celebrate Black (African-American) History Month this February, read interesting facts and history provided by the U.S. Census Bureau’s Facts for Features series.

Black (African-American) History Month:
February 2011

To commemorate and celebrate the contributions to our nation made by people of African descent, American historian Carter G. Woodson established Black History Week. The first celebration occurred on Feb. 12, 1926. For many years, the second week of February was set aside for this celebration to coincide with the birthdays of abolitionist/editor Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, as part of the nation's bicentennial, the week was expanded into Black History Month. Each year, U.S. presidents proclaim February as National African-American History Month.
The population figures shown here are based on various sources but not on the 2010 Census. We expect to release 2010 figures for the black population and other races by April 1, 2011.

Population

41.8 million

As of July 1, 2009, the estimated population of black residents in the United States, including those of more than one race. They made up 13.6 percent of the total U.S. population. This figure represents an increase of more than a half-million residents from one year earlier.
Source: Population estimates

65.7 million

The projected black population of the United States (including those of more than one race) for July 1, 2050. On that date, according to the projection, blacks would constitute 15 percent of the nation's total population.
Source: Population projections

18

Number of states with an estimated black population on July 1, 2009, of at least 1 million. New York, with 3.5 million, led the way. The other 17 states on the list were Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Source: Population estimates

38%

Percentage of Mississippi's population that was black in 2009. Although New York had the largest number of blacks of any state, Mississippi had the largest share of blacks in its total population. Blacks also made up more than a quarter of the population in Louisiana (33 percent), Georgia (31 percent), Maryland (31 percent), South Carolina (29 percent) and Alabama (27 percent). They comprised 55 percent of the population in the District of Columbia.
Source: Population estimates

72,100

The increase in Texas' black population between July 1, 2008, and July 1, 2009, which led all states.
Source: Population estimates

23

Number of states in which blacks were the largest minority group in 2009. These included Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Blacks were also the largest minority group in the District of Columbia. (Note: Minorities are part of a group other than single-race non-Hispanic white.)
Source: Population estimates

1.4 million

The number of blacks in Cook County, Ill., as of July 1, 2009, which led the nation's counties in the number of people of this racial category. Harris County, Texas, had the largest numerical increase in the black population between July 1, 2008, and July 1, 2009 (15,700).
Source: Population estimates
Among counties with total populations of at least 10,000, Claiborne County, Miss., had the largest percent of population that was black (85 percent). Claiborne led 77 majority-black counties or equivalents.
Source: Population estimates

30%

The proportion of the black population younger than 18 as of July 1, 2009. At the other end of the spectrum, 8 percent of the black population was 65 and older.
Source: Population estimates
Note: Unless otherwise noted, the estimates in this section refer to the population that was either single-race black or black in combination with one or more other races.

Serving Our Nation

2.3 million

Number of single-race black military veterans in the United States in 2009.
Source: 2009 American Community Survey

Education

84%

Among blacks 25 and older, the proportion who had at least a high school diploma in 2009.
Source: Educational Attainment in the United States: 2009

19%

Percentage of blacks 25 and older who had a bachelor's degree or higher in 2009.
Source: Educational Attainment in the United States: 2009

1.5 million

Among blacks 25 and older, the number who had an advanced degree in 2009 (e.g., master's, doctorate, medical or law). A decade earlier, in 1999, about 900,000 blacks had this level of education.
Source: Educational Attainment in the United States: 2009

2.5 million

Number of black college students in fall 2008. This was roughly double the corresponding number from 25 years earlier.
Source: School Enrollment — Social and Economic Characteristics of Students: October 2008

Voting

16.1 million

The number of blacks who voted in the 2008 presidential election, up by about 2.1 million from the 2004 presidential election. The total number of voters rose by 5.4 million, to 131.1 million.
Source: Voting and Registration in the Election of 2008

55%

Turnout rate in the 2008 presidential election for the 18- to 24-year-old citizen black population, an 8 percent increase from 2004. Blacks had the highest turnout rate in this age group.
Source: Voting and Registration in the Election of 2008

65%

Turnout rate among black citizens in the 2008 presidential election, up about 5 percentage points from 2004. Looking at voter turnout by race and Hispanic origin, non-Hispanic whites and blacks had the highest turnout levels.
Source: Voting and Registration in the Election of 2008

Income, Poverty and Health Insurance

$32,584

The annual median income of single-race black households in 2009, a decline of 4.4 percent (in 2009 constant dollars) from 2008.
Source: Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2009

25.8%

Poverty rate in 2009 for single-race blacks, up from 24.7 percent in 2008.
Source: Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2009

21.0%

The percentage of single-race blacks lacking health insurance in 2009, up from 19.1 percent in 2008.
Source: Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2009

Families and Children

64%

Among households with a single-race black householder, the percentage that contained a family. There were 8.6 million black family households.
Source: 2009 American Community Survey

44%

Among families with single-race black householders, the percentage that were married couples.
Source: 2009 American Community Survey

1.3 million

Number of single-race black grandparents who lived with their own grandchildren younger than 18. Of this number, 50 percent were also responsible for their care.
Source: 2009 American Community Survey

Homeownership

44%

Nationally, the percentage of households with a householder who was single-race black who lived in owner-occupied homes.
Source: 2009 American Community Survey

Jobs

28%

The percentage of single-race blacks 16 and older who worked in management, professional and related occupations.
Source: 2009 American Community Survey

Businesses

$137.4 billion

Receipts for black-owned businesses in 2007, up 55.1 percent from 2002. The number of black-owned businesses totaled 1.9 million in 2007, up 60.5 percent.

37.6%

Percentage of black-owned businesses in 2007 in health care and social assistance, repair and maintenance and personal and laundry services.

28.2%

Percentage of businesses in the District of Columbia in 2007 which were black-owned, which led all states or state-equivalents. Georgia and Maryland followed, at 20.4 percent and 19.3 percent, respectively.
Source for statements in this section: Preliminary Estimates of Business Ownership by Gender, Ethnicity, Race and Veteran Status: 2007 http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/economic_census/cb10-107.html

Following is a list of observances typically covered by the Census Bureau’s Facts for Features series:

• African-American History Month (February)
• Super Bowl
• Valentine's Day (Feb. 14)
• Women's History Month (March)
• Irish-American Heritage Month (March)/
        St. Patrick's Day (March 17)
• Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month (May)
• Older Americans Month (May)
• Cinco de Mayo (May 5)
• Mother's Day
• Hurricane Season Begins (June 1)
• Father's Day
• The Fourth of July (July 4)
• Anniversary of Americans With Disabilities Act (July 26)
• Back to School (August)

• Labor Day
• Grandparents Day
• Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15)
• Unmarried and Single Americans Week
• Halloween (Oct. 31)
• American Indian/Alaska Native Heritage Month (November)
• Veterans Day (Nov. 11)
• Thanksgiving Day
• The Holiday Season (December)

Editor’s note: The preceding data were collected from a variety of sources and may be subject to sampling variability and other sources of error. Facts for Features are customarily released about two months before an observance in order to accommodate magazine production timelines. Questions or comments should be directed to the Census Bureau’s Public Information Office: telephone: 301-763-3030; fax: 301-763-3762; or e-mail: <PIO@census.gov>.

Archeologists Uncover Slave Village in Fredrick, Maryland

Archeologists Uncover Large Slave Village Near Washington

Recovered artifacts offer glimpse into lives of enslaved men and women

Kavitha Cardoza | Frederick, Maryland February 15, 2011 - VOA

Photo: VOA - K. Cardoza

The Vincendieres, a French family from the colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), lived on a 748-acre plantation that called L'Hermitage.

 Archeologists in Fredrick, Maryland are digging up the past, trying to piece together what the lives of slaves might have been like. French refugee farmers from Haiti kept slaves there in the early 1800s, and the National Park Service says the largest slave village in the Washington region is buried on the grounds.

Archeologist Joy Beasley walks across the land now known as Best Farm. But approximately 200 years ago, it was a 300- hectare plantation called L'Hermitage, owned by the Vincendieres, French farmers from Haiti. Their stone home and outbuildings still stand. The National Park Service archeologist says her team discovered evidence of six other homes on the property where slaves were kept. The Vincendieres owned 90 slaves.

"That's roughly 10 times the number you'd expect them to have for the size of plantation they were operating," says Beasley. "That made them the second-largest slave holders in Fredrick County and one of the largest in Maryland at that time."

VOA - K. Cardoza

Joy Beasley, archeologist at Monocacy National Battlefield, stands next to the foundations of the slave village. The homes of the Vincendieres are in the background.

The Vincendieres were also one of the most brutal, according to Beasley, who says it's likely the family imported the harsh slave system practiced in Haiti to Maryland.

"There's an eye-witness account that refers to stocks and whipping posts and wooden horses - torture devices, in other words -  being visible on the farm."

The harsh treatment prompted Maryland officials to take the family to court a few times.

"Charges ranged from what are called cruel and unmerciful beatings to, there was one instance, where they were accused of not providing appropriate food and clothing for their enslaved population," says Beasley.

At least twice, Beasley says, the Vincendieres were found guilty. Very little is known about these enslaved men and women. That's why anything that personalizes them -  every coin, shell and artifact found by archeologists - is so relevant.

"These individuals had lives beyond what their masters expected them to do," says Stephen Potter of the National Park Service. "Here we get to see glimpses of their private lives, as a community and as families."

VOA - K. Cardoza

Bones of animals - such as cows and fish - discovered at the site, help archeologists piece together what the slave population's diet might have been.

Back in their offices, Kate Birmingham is painstakingly cataloging all the items the team has found into plastic bags. The archeologists try to interpret what certain items might mean. For example, meat bones cracked open could mean slaves ate the marrow, and glazed ceramic fragments could explain how they cooked their food.

Birmingham says they've found many more buttons than they would normally expect. "We know that, based on where the chimneys were placed on the houses, it would have been very cold inside. A working guess is that they had excess clothing they were taking the buttons off of because the primary reuse of clothing would be as quilts. "

But digging up the past is painful, says Mary Harris, who has researched African-American history in Fredrick County. She's been following the excavation with interest. Harris says these slaves wanted what everyone wants: a home, family. She says they were survivors who provide a lesson for everyone.

"It's what they overcame. It's strength and perseverance," says Harris. "And we can use those things in our lives today."

National Park Service archeologists resume their work at the L'Hermitage site this summer. Joy Beasley says they hope to eventually set up a permanent exhibit, featuring the artifacts they recover, to tell visitors the story of the plantation's history.

 

Archeologists Uncover Large Slave Village Near Washington

Aticle from VOA

Harriet Tubman Fought Slavery and Oppression - History

Harriet Tubman, 1820-1913: She Fought Slavery and Oppression
12 February 2011 - VOA


SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: I'm Shirley Griffith.

RAY FREEMAN: And I'm Ray Freeman with the Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about Harriet Tubman, an African American woman who fought slavery and oppression.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Historians say Harriet Tubman was born in the year Eighteen-Twenty. Nobody really knows. In the United States in the Nineteenth Century the birth of slaves was not recorded.

We do know that Harriet Tubman was one of the bravest women ever born in the United States. She helped hundreds of people escape from slavery on the Underground Railroad. This was a system that helped slaves escape from the South to states where slavery was banned.

Because of her work on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman was called Moses. In the Bible, Moses was the leader of the Jewish people enslaved in Egypt. He brought his people out of slavery to the promised land. Harriet Tubman died in Nineteen-Thirteen. All her life, she always tried to improve life for African Americans.

RAY FREEMAN: From a very early age, Harriet knew how slaves suffered. Her parents were slaves. They belonged to Edward Brodas, a farmer in the middle Atlantic state of Maryland. Harriet's parents tried to protect her and their ten other children as much as they could. There was little they could do, however. Slaves were treated like animals. They could be sold at any time. Families often were separated. Slave children were not permitted to act like children. By the time Harriet was three years old, Mister Brodas ordered her to carry notes from him to other farmers. Some of these farmers lived as far as fifteen kilometers away. Harriet was punished if she stopped to rest or play.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: When Harriet was six years old, the Brodas family sent her to work for another family who lived near their farm. While there, Harriet was infected with the disease measles. Even though she was sick, she was forced to place and remove animal traps in an icy river. She was sent home when she became dangerously ill. Harriet's mother took very good care of her. The child survived. Then she was sent to work in the Brodas's house. Her owners never gave her enough to eat. One day she was working in the kitchen. She was looking at a piece of sugar in a silver container when Missus Brodas saw her. Harriet ran away in fear. She was caught and beaten very severely. Her owners decided that Harriet never would make a good worker in the house. She was sent to the fields.

RAY FREEMAN: Harriet's parents were sad. They worked in the fields and they knew how difficult it was to survive the hard work. But working outside made Harriet's body strong. And she began to learn things from the other slaves. These things one day would help her lead her people to freedom. Harriet heard about Nat Turner. He had led an unsuccessful rebellion of slaves. She heard about other slaves who had run away from their cruel owners. She was told that they had traveled by the Underground Railroad. They did not escape by using a special train. Instead of a real train, the Underground Railroad was a series of hiding places, usually in houses of people who opposed slavery. These were secret places that African Americans could stop at as they escaped from the South to the North. As Harriet heard stories of rebellion, she became more of a rebel.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: One day when Harriet was fifteen she was at a local store. A slave owner entered and threatened a young boy who was his slave. At first, the slave refused to move. Then he ran for the door. Harriet moved in front of the young man. The slave owner reached for a heavy weight. He threw it at his slave. He missed. Instead, the heavy metal object hit Harriet in the head. Harriet almost died. Months passed before she could get out of bed. For the rest of her life, she carried the mark of a deep wound on her head. And she suffered from blackouts. She would suddenly lose consciousness as though she had fallen asleep.

RAY FREEMAN: Mister Brodas felt he would never get any good work out of Harriet. So he decided to sell her. Harriet thought of a way to prevent this. Each time she was shown to someone who might buy her, she acted as if she were falling asleep. After a while, Mister Brodas gave up hope of selling Harriet. He sent her back to the fields. She dreamed of freedom while picking vegetables and digging in the fields. In Eighteen Forty-Four, at about age twenty-four, she married a free black man named John Tubman. By now, Harriet was sure she wanted to try to escape. It would be very dangerous. Slaves who were caught often were killed or almost beaten to death. Harriet knew she must wait for just the right time.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Suddenly, in Eighteen-Forty-Nine, the time came. Mister Brodas died. His slaves probably would be sold to cotton farmers further South. The situation there would be even worse. John Tubman tried to make Harriet forget about running away. He was free. Why should he make a dangerous trip with a woman breaking the law? Harriet decided that her marriage to John must end. Harriet heard that she was to be sold immediately. She knew she needed to tell her family that she was leaving. She began to sing, softly at first, then louder. She sang the words, "I'm sorry to leave you...I'm going to the promised land." Her family understood.

RAY FREEMAN: Harriet ran to the home of a white woman who had promised to help. This woman belonged to the Quakers, a religious group which hated slavery. The Quaker woman told her how to reach another home where she could hide. Harriet went from house to house that way on the Underground Railroad. Each place was a little closer to the eastern state of Pennsylvania. Slavery was banned there. Once she was hidden under hay that had been cut from the fields. Another time, she wore men's clothing. Finally, she crossed the border into Pennsylvania. Later, she told a friend, "I felt like I was in heaven."

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Now that Harriet was free, she did not forget the hundreds of other slaves back in Maryland. During the next ten years, she led a much expanded Underground Railroad. She freed her parents, her sister, brothers and other family members. She found a home for her parents in Auburn, New York.

Harriet traveled back and forth eighteen times, helping about three-hundred slaves escape into free territory. She became an expert at hiding from slave hunters. At one time, anyone finding Harriet was promised forty-thousand dollars for catching her -- dead or alive. The people she helped called her Moses. She had rescued them from slavery just as the biblical Moses rescued the Jews.

Harriet found another way to fight slavery after the Civil War began in Eighteen-Sixty-One. Seven southern states decided to separate from the United States, mainly over the issue of slavery. The northern states refused to let the United States of America break apart.

After fighting began, Harriet Tubman went into enemy territory to spy for the North. She also served as a nurse. After four years of bloody fighting, the North won the war.

President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in Eighteen-Sixty-Three. There was no longer any need for Harriet to be Moses.

RAY FREEMAN: After the fighting ended, Harriet Tubman returned to Auburn, New York. She married a man named Nelson Davis. This could have been the beginning of a few quiet years of family life for her. But she kept working. She traveled and gave speeches to raise money for better education for black children. She also worked for women's rights and housing. And she sought help for old men and women who had been slaves. Harriet Tubman died in Nineteen-Thirteen. She was about ninety-three years old. By that time, she was recognized as an American hero. The United States government gave a funeral with military honors for the woman known as Moses.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:This program was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Shirley Griffith.

RAY FREEMAN: I'm Ray Freeman. Listen again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.