North Carolina Conversations Summer-Fall 2008.pdf

TeachersInstitute“Somerset Place: Slavery and Its Legacy”A Teachers Institute Summer Seminar — July 13–18, 2008Lynn Wright-KernodleThis has been one of the most enriching and informative seminars I’veever attended.~ Seminar ParticipantFor six very hot, very full daysin July, 39 educators from eighteenNorth Carolina counties exploredwith scholars and North CarolinaHumanities Council staff the historyof slavery and its legacy in easternNorth Carolina and the South. UsingSomerset Place plantation, a statehistoric site in Creswell, NC, as thefocus for this study, participantsdiscussed such issues as the healthcare and education of the enslaved,the separation of families duringthe Antebellum period, and thecontinuing impact of this era on race,economics, and education.Participants read five books in preparationfor this summer seminar:• The Waterman’s Song: Slaveryand Freedom in Maritime NorthCarolina, David Cecelski• Incidents in the Life of a SlaveGirl, Harriet Jacobs• Somerset Homecoming:Recovering a Lost Heritage,Dorothy Spruill Redford• Blood Done Sign My Name,Timothy Tyson• Self-Taught: African AmericanEducation in Slavery andFreedom, Heather A. WilliamsLead scholars were Dorothy SpruillRedford, Executive Director ofSomerset Place and a descendantof Somerset’s enslaved people, andHeather A. Williams, an associateprofessor in the history departmentat UNC Chapel Hill. Visiting scholarswere Todd Savitt, a professor ofmedical humanities at East CarolinaUniversity’s School of Medicine, andTim Tyson, a senior scholar at theCenter for Documentary Studies atDuke University.In addition to classroom activities,participants learned throughnumerous hands-on experiences. Onefull day at Somerset Place, participantsmade baskets and candles,hand-ginned cotton, churned butter,ground corn, and cooked a mealover an open hearth. On anotherday, participants canoed or kayakedon the Scuppernong River with parkrangers from Pettigrew State Parkand saw first-hand the dark waterthat provided sustenance, escape,and danger for Somerset’s enslavedpeople. The Touring Theatre of NorthCarolina presented The Life andTimes of Fannie Lou Hamer, a playdepicting a brave woman’s struggleduring the Civil Rights Movement —a catalyst for discussing the legacyof slavery.Somerset Follow-up ~ Mary A. Bonnett, a participant in the Teachers Institutesummer seminar and teacher at the Swannanoa Vocational Youth Detention Facility, invitedNorth Carolina Humanities Council staff member Darrell Stover to visit her school and sharewith students part of the presentation he made at Somerset Place. His program included awriting workshop about poems inspired and informed by history. Bonnett reported thatStover motivated students to continue writing poetry and sparked in them a desire to explorehistory in a new way.