Black History: Somerset Plantation Presents “Slave Voices in North Carolina”
by Kathy Grear 01/30/2017Saturday, February 18
Photo: Engraving from Harpers Magazine, 1860, of slaves escaping to New Bern. Click here to download a high resolution version of this image.
CRESWELL, N.C. – History has captured many distorted images of the enslaved in America. Somerset Place State Historic Site will share a Black History Month lecture “Slave Voices in North Carolina,” Feb. 18, 1 p.m., off site at Creswell High School. The free program will present words from the enslaved themselves.
Personal narratives, letters, poetry and interviews of slaves in North Carolina will be shared. Retired N.C. State University Professor Linda MacKethan focuses on Southern and African American literature in her research. MacKethan will discuss how these works challenge the often distorted picture of slavery before the Civil War. The narratives of Moses Roper, Lunsford Lane and Harriet Jacobs; the poetry of George Moses Horton, and narratives gathered through the Works Progress Administration will give a realistic picture of the lives of slaves in North Carolina.
This authentic look will explore how slaves lived, created families, worked, worshipped and sometimes escaped from bondage. The lecture will focus on Somerset Place in Creswell, and Historic Stagville State Historic Site in Durham. A reception will follow the program. This project is made possible by funding from the North Carolina Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
For additional information, please call (252) 797-4560. Somerset Place is a representative state historic site offering a comprehensive and realistic view of 19th-century life on a large North Carolina plantation. Originally, the plantation included more than 100,000 densely wooded acres. Over the life of the plantation more than 50 white employees and more than 850 enslaved workers lived at Somerset.
Somerset Place is located at 2572 Lake Shore Road, Creswell. It is within the Division of State Historic Sites of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
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