Symposium to Commemorate Yorktown’s 150th Civil War History – July 20
Yorktown, Va. – On July 20, 2013, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Colonial National Historical Park at Yorktown Battlefield will be hosting a symposium, “Contraband, Freedmen and Community”, to explore the African American experience in the Union occupied South during the Civil War. The all-day symposium coincides with the 150th anniversary of the establishment by the commander at Yorktown, General Isaac J. Wistar, of a community known as “Slabtown” for enslaved Americans who had fled Confederate controlled territory for freedom behind Union lines.
The symposium will help tell the story of the challenges faced by the newly freed Americans at Yorktown, as well as challenges in the aftermath of the war. Featured academic scholars and historians include:
Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander-director of the Joseph Jenkins Roberts Center for African Diaspora Studies at Norfolk State University and author of An African American History of the Civil War in Hampton Roads.
Dr. Glenn David Brasher-An interpreter at Richmond Battlefield for 8 seasons, Glen brasher is a history instructor at the University of Alabama and author of The Peninsula Campaign and the Necessity of Emancipation.
Jerome Bridges-With more than 30 years of historical interpretation experience, Jerome Bridges will depict, through first-person characterization, Abolitionist and African-American Chaplain of the 6th U.S. Colored Troops, Jeremiah Asher.
Dr. Ronald E. Butchart– Distinguished research professor and Department Head, University of Georgia; and author of Schooling the Freed People: Teaching, Learning and the Struggle for Black Freedom, 1861-1876.
Dr. Edward G. Longacre-author of over 20 books including A Regiment of Slaves, The Fourth United States Colored Infantry, 1863-1865, a unit which served at Yorktown.
Emmanuel Dabney-A park ranger at Petersburg National Battlefield, Emmanuel Dabney has presented many public programs on African American Civil War history and will speak on the Freedmen’s Bureau in Virginia.
Diane Depew-Chief of Interpretation and supervisory park ranger at Colonial National Historical Park who has spent 20 years researching Yorktown’s Civil War history with an emphasis on the Union army occupation and African American history of the community.
The symposium will be held in the community hall of Shiloh Baptist Church located at 11053 George Washington Memorial Highway in Yorktown. Shiloh Baptist Church was formed in the “Slabtown” contraband community at Yorktown in 1863 and remains to present day a vibrant, active congregation.
Registration for the symposium is $15.00 and an optional box lunch is available for $10.00. For further information and to obtain a registration form, call 757-898-2410 or log on to www.nps.gov/colo and visit the special event section of the park website.
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