Local History & Family History Programs: January 29 - March 14, 2020

Since August 2019, the BDC has held 15 programs at 5 locations with 744 attendees. The BDC goes "on the road" with its next five programs before returning to Beaufort Branch (311 Scott Street, 1st floor) on Saturday, March 14, 2020.

Ron Roth reprises his Author Book Talk about The Civil War in the South Carolina Lowcountry on Wednesday at Bluffton Branch.

Two of the three programs scheduled for February are being held in honor of National Black History Month.

We begin with an author panel to talk about the soon-to-be released Gullah Days: Hilton Head Islanders Before the Bridge, 1861 - 1956. Local luminaries Tom Barnwell, Jr., Dr. Emory Campbell, and Carolyn Grant will share their memories and research about what was like to live on the Island before large scale real estate development occurred. Formal publication is scheduled for February 11, 2020 so attendees will get the first look - and hear the first talk the authors will give - about the completed book at this BDC program.

Family history is sometimes called the #1 hobby in America - though fishing is named by other sources as #1. I like to think that fishing for family members is what genealogy is all about. Toni Carrier, Executive Director of the International African American Museum's Center for Family History returns on February 15 to lecture about how you can find evidence relating to your ancestor's Civil War service in the Federal United States Colored Troops at St. Helena Branch Library. The workshop is divided into two parts: Part 1 is the lecture; Part 2 is an opportunity for guided practice.

The lecture is free and open to anyone who would like to attend and we have room for over 100 people. However, the St. Helena Branch Library's computer lab is rather small so we are requiring pre-registration for the guided practice session. Folks who have their own laptops or electronic devices can participate using their personal electronic equipment and the Library's WI-FI. 

• Register for this workshop by calling the fine folks at the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission to save a seat for you: 843-818-4587. 

Can't make it to our session? Ms. Carrier is offering other sessions in Charleston County Public Library branch locations on February 1 and February 8. This African American family history workshop is brought to you by the Charleston County Public Library, the Beaufort County Library, the Center for Family History of the International African American Museum, and the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission.

Neil Baxley brings another law enforcement/historical topic to the BDC local history series on February 20 at Bluffton Branch. His talk back in August about "Bootlegging in Beaufort District and Beyond" whetted everyone's appetite to explore more law and order topics. He's obliging us with "Dueling in Beaufort District" from colonial times to the late 19th century. The Union causeway in the southern part of the district was a popular location for settling matters of honor, particularly for Georgians who wanted to be out of the reach of Georgia authorities. 

Looking into March: 

Thursday, March 12th  - "Historically Speaking" 1.4 lecture presents Dr. Larry Rowland on 1920s Beaufort at St. Helena Branch Library. Registration is now open on the Beaufort County Historical Society's website https://www.beaufortcountyhistoricalsociety.com.

Saturday, March 14th - The BDC participates in the Beaufort History Museum's Living History Encampment with a booth on Craven Street, 10 AM - 1 PM and "Women of Civil War Beaufort" with Cora Newcomb at 2 PM in the Beaufort Branch Meeting Room. First come, first seated.  

Just so you are aware, the Beaufort County Council has added "Presidents Day" to the County's list of holidays. Thus, all units of the Beaufort County Library will be closed Monday, February 17, 2020. 

"Combee" This Saturday

As most of you know, the BDC offers programs throughout the Library system. We are very pleased to be able to offer our community an extra special lecture about the Combahee River Raid and what that meant to the enslaved people freed by Harriet Tubman and the Union forces in June of 1863. 

About five years ago now, Dr. Edda Fields-Black came to my office to ask about research that had been done about the raid. She was thinking about looking at the Raid from the perspective of those who were freed rather than the losses incurred by the planters and the Confederacy as a result of the military action - an intriguing proposal upon which she has spent considerable time and energy ever since. She is researching and writing a second book, tentatively titled ‘Combee’: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and the Civil War Transformations among the Gullah Geechee based on what she has discovered through primary sources to reveal Harriet Tubman’s Civil War activities, reconstruct the communities which were freed from enslavement on Lowcountry rice plantations in the June 1863 Combahee River Raid, and show the Civil War transformations among freed Blacks in the Lowcountry whose descendants are known today as the Gullah Geechee. For her work on the Gullah/Geechee and Creolization, Fields-Black has been awarded a Smithsonian Senior Fellow at the National Museum of American History (Spring semester 2013), an Andrew W. Mellon New Directions Fellowship (2014-2015), and a Senior Ford Fellowship from the National Academy of Sciences (2017-2018).

She's the first historian who I have met who has written a libretto for a new piece of contemporary classical music, Casop: A Requiem for Rice, a modern and African-American inspired take on a classic requiem in the spirit of Verdi, Mozart, Faure, and Britten. It mourns the souls of the enslaved who died on Lowcountry rice plantations, their bodies unburied, their suffering unmourned, and their sacrifices unmarked for future generations. The Orchestral Debut of "Casop: A Requiem for Rice" on February 1, 2019 will feature libretto which recovers the voices of the enslaved by acclaimed historian and executive producer, Dr. Edda L. Fields-Black, and original score by composer, three-time Emmy Award-winner John Wineglass.

 
When she's not working on her manuscript or performing the duties of an executive producer and writer of classical music librettos, she's consulting on permanent exhibits such as "The Power of Place: The Rice Fields of the Lowcountry" at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the International African American Museum in Charleston, and the "From Slavery to Freedom" for the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh. 

In other words, Dr. Edda Fields-Black is one impressive scholar and has a lot of knowledge and talent to share with those who attend her lecture this Saturday. The lecture is free; Everyone is welcome to attend.