Transcripts For CSPAN2 African 20240704

On cspan2 exploring the people and events that tell the american story. At 3 p. M. Eastern watched the second part of the Calvin Coolidge centennial Conference Marking this into knew of the 30th president s essential to the white house. At 9 30 p. M. Eastern on the presidency peterson is a former white house photographer for president S Ronald Reagan and barack obama talks about the daytoday working as of the presence including history making moments he witnessed exploring the american story come watch American History tv saturdays on csn2nd friday full schedule underroam guide or watch online anytime at cspan. Org history. Will hello, everybody and welcome to our Virtual Program tonight. Myna name is morgan byrn, and te Public Programs manager at the Tennessee State museum and we are thrilled to have Antoine Fletcher from theat Great Smoky Mountains National Park with us here tonight. And before we can start a couple of things. Please remember to mute yourself. Our program tonight will be recorded so you will be able to find that online within the next couplele of days also at the end program tonight will have time for questions. So if you have a question, please send that in the chat and joyska will be asking this at the end of the program so again thank you, guys are joining us tonight, and help me in welcoming Ranger Fletcher to our program. Thank you very much and thank you, everyone tonight for joining again, my name is ranger Antoine Fletcher. Kind the science communicator for Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the appalachian highland Science Learning center. Tonight, welcome on behalf of the National Park service i did want to welcome you all to your africanamerican experiences in the smokies. This projectrk is so important that we have been working on it for so long that we are finally getting to the point where we really just getting information out to the masses and educating people on that so tonight were goingg to learn about several different storiesct than several different africanamericans that really impacts not only the smokies but the appalachian region. A little about myself before i get started. I have been a park ranger for about 16 years, and ive worked in a lot of different perks including the smokies, lyndon b. Johnson, Waco Mammoth National monument, fort sumter and russell cave bear and so ive had quite the experience in the National Park service. So as we said earlier, any kind of questions that you have at the end of this ill make sure we get to them, so lets get started. So Great Smoky Mountains National Park its such beautiful park and was that is that was in 1934. We have about 800 square miles of park in east tennessee and Western North carolina. And as you know, were known for our beauty biodiversity but also were known for our human vestiges. We have about 9000 years of human between early white settlers native americans and africanamericans. And again if youve never been the Great Smoky Mountains park, you have to see it. You may have to see me there. But lets move on to main story. I cant let you all to look at this screen and just think about the history, as i just talked about human vestiges and date about when you come to the smokies what history may what what will you think about what comes to mind when youre driving this scenic view theyre looking over the overlook on the left here youll. See the civilian conservation Corps Members, its probably circa 1930s here. The civilian conservation corps really helped, you know, this park established and they maintained trails and cemeteries and built things and everything goes on. Youre right. You see the job cuts of 18 Corps Members in it circa 1960s and they did the same job it just as the csis. When you look at these, the reason ive put this up here is a lot of times when people come to the smokies, they only about, you know, the history such as the civilian conservation corps, but usually theyll think about africanamericans in the smokies or working in the smoky eyes. And that is something that were trying to change. And even with these two pictures you can see from 1930 and 1960s and 30 short years, park did start to change and now were just pushing it forward. But to let everyone know, you know, early white settler history, africanAmerican History, American History makes this park whole. And what were here to do tonight is till the entire picture of the smokies so how do we start this project . Well this project really dates prior to 18. Theres always, you know, friends of the smokies is Great Smoky Mountains association, our agency, our park our park rangers looking. How can we tell more stories about africa and americans in the region. And so in 2018, we really put that that effort forward. We really started looking the lives of African Americans. And just to kind of give a 30,000 foot view, we back up to the 1540 all the way to the present and what were doing is were looking at those artifacts, policies oral histories, photos that really helps us convey the story. You, the public, and were going do a little bit of that of that tonight. But we have to back up. We have to back. We up to, you know, how enslaved africans got to the region. And when people think slavery, they think about, you know, slavery in these such as charleston, south carolina, the lowcountry, they think, you know, slavery in memphis or just any kind of major ports such as new orleans. However, in slave africans actually made the journey further west or guinea a small on the african coast, all the way here as far as back as 1540. And so we that hernando de soto and his tribe bought enslaved africans over here in 1542. We know that, you know, captured africans were transported from guinea to the carolina colony in the 1600s as well. And so we date when they came and also they came from and you have to about the journey here just put yourself the minds of those enslaved africans to be taken from their home and sent to a place theyve never been to. The smokies, a region thats cooler or colder than what they theyre probably used mountain this you know a more walking and and things as that nature and it was a treacherous time to here however we have to tell the whole story and from that we know dead in appalachia we have to think about what those plantations looked like when they got here. The plant, the mountain is terrain really change what plantations looked like a lot of people think about the big white homes with several hundred you know, enslaved people and things such as that nature that you would see charleston but not so much because the mountainous terrain what you had here were these smaller plantations with about you 5 to 12 enslaved people. This is because, again was hard to transport enslaved people to the mountains. And also there would have been more into the enslaver would have been more into livestock, pigs, cattle, things such as that nature growing apples and we know that in the winter months when they couldnt, you know, necessarily feed all the enslaved, then they would rent those enslaved people out to places like asheville, North Carolina and tennessee, two hotels, as we know that people wouldve been mining crews, anything that you can think of at the time. So how do we investigate this history in the mountains to think about the smokies that a lot of people dont understand is the smoke is is very the smokies its out there if youve never been in a think about the Mountain Culture is that you know in the smokies people didnt really write stuff down there people that was illiterate that you know certain spell can write things like that and so you have a void at times telling the stories especially when it comes to enslave africans, africanamericans as term because. You know a lot of their stories were by the enslaver and so what we started to do is to investigate the history through primary documents and what youre looking here on your left is a slave schedule from 1850s. So back in this time in 1840, you had the census records. And so, you know, you can look do census and you, you know, you know, when people died or, you know, how old were. But in the 1850s enslavers wanted to keep with their property or their chattel and so they made these documents known the slave schedules that you could actually see today or ancestry dot com this is a slave schedule from Haywood County and it what were using is because were able to see how many slaves per county there was at the time and so a lot of towns people may say well you know there was slavery in the mountains things such as that nature which is not true. We know that some of the larger counties such as haywood which is where asheville, North Carolina, is not county were not real. Tennessee is average. They can have easily 1200 enslaved people. Indians so places such as coquille in the severe county jackson may only have 80 enslaved people in that county. Now, the thing to remember, too is they were just enslaved people in the mountains. They were free people color as well in the mountains thats been documented in places like. Cold or severe. Severe. So lets move on to our next slide. We talked about bringing visibility to the invisible. You know, if you think, you know, an enslavers not going to write a lot of information about the enslaved. Did not going to write birthdays and you know moments that they had their children and a lot of enslaved people you know that was born in slavery or brought over you know, they didnt know their birthday, their last names changed to the last name of the enslaved evers. So theres a lot of things, you know, are not, you know correct or on point but still are able to use documents and the reason of showing you all this document is because the civil really brings visibility to enslaved people. The slave schedules may tell the name, the first name of enslaved, you know, maybe not again, last name of the enslaver, the hair color, the occupation of farmer, Something Like that. But because of the civil war, you had on the left these mustard in roles where African Americans are actually enrolling and telling a little bit more about themselves. We know that a lot of africanamericans in the region, in rhode, in places like tennessee. And now if you look on your left here, you were able to see the age youre able to see they mustered in and things like that. And so youre able to see a little bit more. But also the deaths every kids as well. On your right youll see epic case for a headstone so. Now we also see this henry pride when he died, we can see a little bit where hes going to be buried and Everything Else in dance of further add to that information if were able to find it. We can see these pension records where enslaved or sorry not enslaved but civil war soldiers had to go in front of a judge and until you know where they lived if they had children the name of the children, their wives name all these things in order to get their pensions is so this is how we build the story how another thing that were doing is we use a technology to find in smokies something thats really important or really important artifact is the 150 some cemeteries that we have registered in some of those cemeteries. They are africanamerican kids freed and both enslaved. Bury we have several cemeteries in North Carolina as castellucci or the oak or a oh acre cemetery. And we also have cemeteries and higdon makes a mountain. Cemeteries can tell us lot if you look to your right here whats what we can do is be able to kind of build a little bit more of a picture with some of the primary documents we have. So on your right, going to see a little snippet of one of the historians from the 1940s that he wrote about a graveyard and hes about the catalyst year, the mohican cemetery is so you know how many people we think is there and so on. But if you look under that, youll be able to see that what we ran into, we ran into things such as, okay, were looking at these slaves schedules and the enslaver. The name may be a au coeur, however, its really o e ker and you see those changes in those records because. The numerator would write down what they heard when theyre taking the census of enslaved. So if they take name as o e or if they take the enslavers name as a o or whatever that may be, what happens is thats what gets written and thats what gets written down in history. So we have to make sure that were correct on their but if we if we go a little we could talk about were using this technology. So what were doing is were working western Carolina University and what bringing in men to do Ground Penetrating and the great thing about this not only are we partnering well one of our fellow universities, we also bring in asheville city, greenwood, which is the program that brings teenagers out to get. Its in a National Park service. So as to internship in these students and this university actually go out and they do a Ground Penetrating radar survey and what Ground Penetrating radar does is it bounces waves off of whatever is underground and, you know, two, four, six feet according on where it is it bounces back. Is this image which you will see on the right, which are explained in just a second, and then were able to do a less intrusive or invasive way of figuring. Now, if the are right in the primary documents in the land deeds, what youre looking at here on the left is the inflow slaves. Abraham, jim enloe, the minguss, which well about in the second in the hides all old slaves in the account left the area which is on the North Carolina side of the park, the gateway of cherokee and what youre looking there is gravesite. Now lets talk a little bit about the territory digs for what youre seeing at a grave site in the smokies period. A lot of times people may think the enslaved people in early white were very differently and in some cases in some some things they were as far as the area where they were buried in some of in some of the techniques they were definitely the same. And so if come in the smokies you see open areas as you see on the left what is clear and how you know greenery where you know other enslaved people or early white settlers buried and the reason they did that in the mountains is made clear out their area in the mountains is because theres a lot of critters, the smokies, a lot of snakes, things like that. So they want to make sure that no one would be bitten by a snake or anything like that. And then Something Else youre probably going to notice or head and foot stones. So if you look closely at the photo, youll see hidden foot stones left and right of the Ground Penetrating radar or even the hills. Those stones were made out as soapstone and anything that was in area at the time, sandstone you didnt see granite as, but thats what they had someone have worked those stones with some kind of hammer and they would have made the deepest that we see today Something Else you would know this in the graveyard words are people are oriented from east to west as you know enslaved people were really in into you know it comes to baptists or the religion that was in the area. So a lot of these grave sites are east, east to west for the sake and coming of christ so thats how they buried people. Now if you look even closer you may see a couple of hills and troughs there in 18, 1800s. Some of this was normal in the smokies is pretty wet. We get a lot of rain and so what you have these graves would move families would come back and they will put back over these graves as they moved. So you see that quite a bit. What did you see. What enslaved cemeteries or the inscriptions in things that you would see in the early white settlers cemeteries. So you look closely at the headstone, what you what you wont see is, you know, this person was loved there something that something telling us a little bit about the person their favorite and this really shows you the people that were able to those stones were a little bit Higher Society in the smokies and out of all the enslaved cemeteries are that have enslaved burials in them. We have not found any inscriptions of any kind. And so it really shows you just the culture in just where they were in the chain you know both socially economics and just socially in the smokies. So not able to read anything about these people. What we are able to do if look to the right, youre going to see a photo in blue and also youre going see a little bit of green yellow is kind of in the area. When i took over the project in 2018, we knew that there were African American burials here. We knew thought that there were maybe five enslaved people buried here. However, we discovered because Ground Penetrating radar that theres actually eight or more enslaved people buried right in this area. If you look at the numbers, those numbers show you the actual of the enslaved are not the or the hills that see on the left because these burials have moved over time in the other thing that weve discovered do Ground Penetrating radar or parcel both coffins in so in the smokies coffins were made out of poplar trees something such as that nature people did make before they even died. People learned how to make coffins. And the thing about it is, if for sure, there a couple of coffins here, that means so one in this family, one of these enslaved people learned the woodwork and trade and they may have made that coffin for family or even for themselves. These graves from, you know, couple of years old all the way to about 50 ish we know in the and especially in the 1800s most middle lived longer than women and men lived to be 50. So if theyre lucky low sixties women and fifties. We also can tell at times not in this century too, but cemeteries overall. If a woman died during what can tell is well see two graves beside each other and but its hard to tell that what enslaved 17 is because theres no inscription as an early white settler cemeteries you see the inscriptions have names and dates and so on and so this a great way weve used Ground Penetrating radar in this cemetery weve it in the old ekeus cemetery area and were going to continue to use that to ensure that we do not disturb these people. If we had a close up shot of one of these graves stones, which you would see as the culture of west africa to west africans believe, that you have to pay a toll after you to move on. And even today, people leave coins behind to show that respect. So if you ever come to the you will see that now you probably ask why we see any you know art, effects left behind like spoons, glasses, things as that nature in certain cases, you may have that, but, you know, wooden spoons was used by the enslaved. So if that was left behind, that would be long gone. Now. So another way that we are really looking into these artifacts or these cemeteries are cadaver dogs. And you probably ask yourself, what were they doing with cadaver dogs . Well, cadaver dogs are important. Weve teamed up with palm marten consult consulting. And what he does is brings out these dogs that can smell humor and decomposition and they can smell human decomposition. Thats several hundred years. And we are able to actually go deeper into the mountains or steeper hills and such as that nature or just if we missed something to, actually know if theres burials there. So were any technique that we to learn more about africanamericans. So lets talk a little bit about the people just what brings to life here in the smokies, what big story that we have in the smokies, just the enloe migas back in the high families. These families are some of the first families that in a kind of left the area is Western North carolina to the cherokee. They actually put down roots in the late 1700s. And you know that in low in the minguss especially minguss were there for quite some time. The meal that cecil in the right was rebuilt it we think this is one of three meals and it was rebuilt in 1886 by dr. John mingus. This family owned enslaved as well. Indeed, the National Park service in the 1960s and restored at the mill. So this mill would have been really important at the time people would have now came and brought their grain in and they would also you know trade items and such and so we hear a lot about the early white settlers story especially when it comes to the minguss. However, there are also theres also a black side of the family as well to really get you to understand. Were going to refer to these family members as daniel a mingus. And Daniel Mingus was previously enslaved by the mingus by dr. John mingus. Were going to talk a little bit about mingus senior and were to talk about Charles Mingus junior. And the thing about it is were going to talk about a story from, you know, a family of people that was enslaved all the way to the famous musicians of today. And so if we start with Daniel Mingus. Daniel mingus, as we talked about, was enslaved. If we look at the the. Actual 1880s census records later on, will will see that Daniel Mingus still worked for the mingus family. Daniel, dr. Mingus had a son named abraham mingus and he had daughter named Clarinda Mingus. Around 8 to 18 seventies period a year. Daniel mingus was actually helping that to john mingus build a home and during that time a child was conceived at this time this was conceived between Daniel Mingus and Clarinda Mingus. The thing about is Daniel Mingus actually was already mad and in fact may to a white woman by the name of sarah and he had several kids. These kids would have been known as these kids wouldve been known as insteadu of biracial, mulota which is a term we dont use now but for time of historical significance or, it was mulotta. He had these kids and then he had a kid out of wedlock. And what happened was Clarinda Mingus actually moved and was remarried and never took care of this child that they had. Actually the child was taken care of by dr. John mingus and abraham mingus. You probably wonder what was his life like at the time when we talk about this child. This child charles would have an interesting life. What were lookinge at here whh is really difficult to read, we are looking at in 1886 since dexter 1880 census record what i have here is a couple stars highlighted. Theres a gold star at a red star, a purple start and you also have an outline blue star. And we get to the story about Charles Mingus sr. , and daniel moves on. His mother Clarinda Mingus on. Hes raised by his grandparents and greatgrandparents. Now, if you look at the census record you will see a yellow star by john mingus. You will see a red star by clarinda. You see out my lightning pure star by charles, which is Charles Mingus sr. Which we will talk about anything youe also e the outline blue star by Daniel Mingus again, he took the last name, Daniel Mingus took the last date of his in slavery. And what you noticed in this census record is that little Charles Mingus sr. Would be indicated as white and three years old at the time of the 1880 census record. Now, we have to ask, why was this important . And how is he labeled as white . Why did this happen . We have to think about the culture back then. If the child was white passing, and a lot of times or even an adult was white passing, the enumerator would put them down as white. The funny case on this one is abraham mingus, which was his grandfather, was the enumerator of the county. And so abraham actually put Charles Mingus sr. Down as a white child. And you have to think about, drs being so wellknown in the community, and then abraham mingus being his, or his daughter has the son with this previously enslaved black man. And what that looked like to them. But also you have tobo think abt what did they think about when it came to Charles Mingus life . Would it be like . What would it be like if they put mulatto down or blot down on the census record and what would it look like if they put white on the census record . So there so many things in that nature that we have to look at at that time so it really shows us a lot. So lets talk a little bit more about Charles Mingus sr. Life. You know, what we do know is he left the area pretty young. He left around 14, 15 years old peer he only came back once but he was in the military, and beautiful thing about that is he served in the spanishamerican war. He also served as a buffalo you probably know little about the Buffalo Soldiers with really help with the expansion of the american west. They fought indigenous groups out there, but it also were some of the most National Park Service First park rangers. What we do know is he did return home at one time, and when he returned home he didnt stay long. And we have to think why is that . Was to because when he returned home because of his race of mulatto that he had those problems with Race Relations with his family . We do know that he never went back home and if you think about yourself, weve all seen this before where, you know, people develop into dont come back or they dont connect with their family. And this is what happened here. Do know is charles was married, Charles Mingus sr. Was married three times, and with his second marriage he had a son named Charles Mingus jr. Which we will get into in just a second. But as you can see on the photo to the left, Charles Mingus sr. Was, as you can see, biracial. And even though the, you would think that made his life easier. Throughout my people did say he talked about that quite a bit and it also made a lot of fables about his life, but one thing it didnt change was his father being a black man from africa. And so where does that go . Well, it goes on to the next Charles Mingus sr. A Charles Mingus jr. Sorry for the missed type up top but Charles Mingus jr. Was born on a military base in 1922, and he grew that love for jazz music in california. Some people dont know Charles Mingus sr. S but he was a double basis pianist in the band later, a decomposed beautiful work. Over 300 songs with some of the most important musicians you can think of. Louis armstrong, kid only, just to name a few people. But Charles Mingus jr. Actually went through the same thing. He never published his biography, but he did talk about being biracial. He and his father had challenges with that. And he was married three times as well, and he had a son named eric mingus later on in life. Sadly, he died at the age of 54. What were going to do is, hopefully this will work out for us, in the next slide we are going to kindnd of listen to a little bit of Charles Mingus sr. Up. He played quite a bit. This was before his death, even in the 1960s his band was traveling over to europe. You think about the time during civil rights movements, things such as that nature, he was still traveling. So im going to try to play this. Lets make sure that it works if not, i can be present at this and hopefully the audio zone, okay . Riding on a cloud of rain spirit i just think that, that for me is just really just a beautiful thing to see, to see the change in history and to see that family just progress and why its so important to tell the full history of a part which is every part of what we have at the smokies. And so a lot of times we get the question of why do africanamericans graduate . Why are we not out in the park . Why are we not doing these things . And the biggest thing is, in at least an hour parts history come in many parts history, African Americans have always been there. Theyey have always recreated. We show this in the next couple of flights but if we go back to the 1930s whenft the part started on the left you will see superintendent e computer under right you will see a memo from the superintendent. And to summarize the memo i was going back and forth in the National Park service, especially the one you see now, is that just saying africanamericans, they dont really make up a High Percentage of visitors that go to the smokies. You just dont see them at the time of the 1930s and 1940s, shenandoah National Park was the first National Park to start thinking about really integrating National Parks that a lot of times you may see comfort spaces like the one that was built in the park a while back. But you know, a lot of times especially like superintendent eakin just didnt see the need to because the numbers were not there. What im going to show you all tonight is that the numbers have always been there. Africanamerican still recreate today and they were doing this psalm, you know, kindly to winter park was found as well. And one way to do that is earlier i showed you all a picture of the job corps. In the 1960s job corps was much different than the civilian conservation corps. This was an integrated core with africanamericans actually poor whites as well as native americans at the time. And the think about this is that a lot of these africanamericans, a lot of these africanamericans learned so many things when theyre in the job conservation corps. And we did a lot of oral histories on somebodys africanamericans that served in the job conservation corps or in the gcc, and they had a great experience building trails, trailblazing, built the picnic tables just the overall camaraderie and the skills that they learned from that time. And thats why just the experience of them being able to be a part of the part really shows you that if these men went on to recreate and even go on long trips, you know, and exploring National Parks even until today. And so it really starts again with the visibility, are africanamericans getting a chance to be a part of that is really important. And so not corps shows us about. Now, a little bit, little bit more about the history of the park and africanamericans recreating is this thinking about the overall town of elkmount. Elkmount is a very, was settled in the early 1800s with homesteaders, hunters, squatters and so on. It really transformed because the logging company of the 1900s. Came wealthy you know people from knoxville area and they would go to the you know clubhouses there such as wonderland the appalachian clubhouse and spend the summers there. And they also had homes there and now the National Park now the National Park Service Fully took over in the 1990s. The would also educate people. The history of africanamericans. Africanamericans have been on those trains asom well coming in and serving as beutlers and caretakers. The history is quite lost but some is not lost when it comes to this family. Weve been lucky enough to do oral history and we can back up and talk about the history of this family. What you see here is william and steve davis, but william to wick within four this family from knoxville and these cabins on the road as we call it. They used to be caretakers and they would get the cabin ready and they would shut it down for couple of days and they were memories as well. Let me go back here and if you look at the last picture, it gives you a good photo of what it used to look like, its no longer there today. You will see the front porch of the cabin but we did oral history last year but ron davis is important because the stories going to this cabin, before it was even a thing in the 1960s. It impacted him so much he would do college at haywood at the time and he went for forest three degree and 20 plus years working forse the tennessee valy authority at the time did she tells stories about celebrating this and so going to play a portion of this oral history and we are going to let them talk about flyfishing in the smokies and why it is so important. And it is almost one story, ten, 11, 12yearold kid and early teenage years 13, 14 and they were in close proximity and when i cooked a big rainbow trout, there were people standing around watching on the land. It was probably 18, it was huge. They were near the campsite and there were other people there and crowds were standing around watching and my buddy with me got it almost all the way in and they decided to knock my fish off the hook. But i have those kinds of memories and when included the Community College working across the mountain along. Going to school in Western North carolina in this area we would take field trips to the marginal so my exposure going in really increased a lot so you can see oral history is so important and we were able to capture his voice. Now ron davis, i talked to him a couple of weeks ago and is still working with the service. A huge advocate for the National Park service and one of his brothers is a wildlife photographer as well so as you can see introduced the outdoors really changed ron davis and his family so we will go into one more story about daniel white and he was one of the few africa americans to hike the trail. He told us oral history lecture and this is my calling. I could feel an energy for africanamericans here before me and i want to go back. This hiking stuff is natural to me. Daniel white is from North Carolina before he went on the trail and felt in love with him and during that time when hiking the trail but daniel white noticed the appalachian and it coincides with black egappalachians. What he got was so far in. It was the worst snowstorm ever and it impacted me so much. They coulde have this experien. As we talked about, africanamerican stories were told and we had to bring visibility and is important. Hes tennessee, mary known area. Hes got to find a way to make people know are there but we are doing is let people know they are there and as i said before this is special and what we have here is specialal and unique and important. The early white settlers and the africanamerican story so thank you very much. Im getting the camera. Sounds good. Thank you so much. The stories are moving and i appreciated the oral history and the things you added and all that you all are doing. Thank you. [laughter] absolutely. Something talked about often was people did have enslaved people and its been done by the cherokees and the region but their schedules looked different. Im glad you brought that up. In my career, i worked as a native american and worked with tribes quite a bit. Earlier in my careers a little bit and yes a lot of times people didnt have those people but i believe it is deerskin and doubles, it talks about one of the few things and they were enslaved the that has happened. As far as research in the region as far as research, both cherokee and enslaved people and we havet not delve into that to much. Prwhen we look at this project,e are looking at time. And the nextt thing we want to look att research in the reconstruction area as we know is a lot of information we havent tapped into yet. The other reason is because we know there is a lot of information, africanamericans as we talked about earlier. S we have video that nobody has seen so that is an important story. We do know i will say the job conservation corps during the 1960s, North Carolina that wasnt a place they enjoyed going to so we havent got there but we know there are stories there. For us, we just want to tell the full story so if we have enough information we will. The last part is if the slave schedules looked for and for cherokee so they have slave schedules made by United States government. We are unaware of any particular cherokee schedules and ive never seen records to it. Is there documents outut there s far as documents of cherokees and slavers kept . Maybe sodu but we havent looked into it yet. That makes sense you focus more on the information and this should be going on for a long time. You can go for a long time because again, a lot of times its hard, its almost like the generation at one time theres a a generation of parens who didnt see children. Talked but, children they didnt hearea them out and now parents do it different from a they talk about they do. Especially in the mountains, if you are enslaved, you dont want to tell people you can read and write anyway so one of those stories were handed down and a lot of people ask, is there anything on the underground railroad . It is a secretive operation and if you put this on top, i dont know if they will ever find anything. We know about east tennessee and they are being sympathizers or not believing in slavery but some stories we may never find out especially with the scope of work we had. What can we do to make sure this continues to happen . Theres a couple of things. Education like this is important, to be able to tell the story to different people is great. Making that connection. I o think one thing is really important, and i talked about this when we did a podcast last year but this is important in and what we are trying different because theres a lot of dark history when it comes to africanamericans especially in the slavery. We also want to make sure as much of the story as possible and bring as much people in because we dont want people tuned out. Sometimes ive heard that story. It is i really important to gets many stories out there while also telling some of that dark history as well so things like partner the park and one of the main ways of doing the story out. We havee some more comments. Expect excellent topic especially the compelling story that will impact generations to from and we really appreciate you. Thank you. Always come visit, wed love to have you been mcsherry says ive visited the area quite a few times last few years and never heard of african American History, i barely i look forward to learningia more. I was is there a couple weeks ago. We are in the beginning stages and working on africanamerican trail almost like a tory, we are not theyf are not ready to work with us yet. Were going to be doing things with our communities such as cherokee, waynesville and so on but also, we just finished this panel so when you go in the park, use the information about where you are looking at, we just finished the phase one of africanamerican tails. Something else we going to do, they are really helping, we will only have africanamerican folk or bluegrass concert Something Like that 2018 we allow the research when are you will see it in views not only in corporate education programs. In social media as well. In the area that is regularly because i know for some people they are experiencing this, does it matter who you are. Someme of the africanamericans the internet they are sacred only the person to die is sacred but also if they go hiking, some people there who they go back to the ku klux klan things of that nature, there are groups such as outdoor and before they have chapters and i know they have one in charleston they have chapters throughout the southeast and they meet up in the hike so it is a really big one. I think that is very helpful. If someone would like to do research, where can they search . [laughter] it goes back to when i started two years ago. The thing about the research, just to look at those schedules and not just those who can help you put a story together. We do take volunteers to help out. For us, if you ever go is a central park number 1800 settlement where colonel robert had hundred, not 1000 enslaved people in the area. However, i they have bits and pieces about what enslaved peoples lives were and it piques my interest member working at the lodge so really what happens is i say theres breadcrumbs here, there is a story here. Whoever is doing the research we have research in this. We are taking this story with you all today and recreate. But it t is the same to be ableo go out to those cemeteries and look at thoseve gravesites. It really is. I think you made a commentio before, whatever you are doing research on history tends to be overlooked or theres not a lot of information, there is so much to find out more. Find, what was yourr life . Thats how i look at things. There is a drive. Weve had more stories we are working on but you look at that and say here is the thing. This is why i love this so much because theres so much history e there and history overlaps. We also do a podcast as well as smoky signal and bring that up because we interview people from the cherokee tribe and tell us about using this grain and they are slow and then history from a gentleman from North Carolina outside telling the story about taking the grains and it shows how similar we are and thats what i love. Theres not this oral history is not been done or conversations ive had with early white settlers or africanamerican native americans and days where people died young carving out that living and moon shining. All of these people talking about the same thing and that is what is needful about the project because it is bringing more equality to this side of thee story. Absolutely. This is the final question, is there in email list i can sign up for to stay updated for organizations on the subject . What you are all working on to get updates. You can go to Smoky Mountains page and look up Great Smoky Mountains and if you go into strand culture and africanamerican project, you can email through the on the main page. We have wonderful information on the team but we can do an update. We should do an update the next couple weeks and putting up new stories. I think my favorite thing is going to happen soon, it will take a couple of months. Ive beenn working with the center that does a lot when it comes to videos and things and take oral histories where people stcan listen and those will be n the website podcast format and then the National Park Service Story mapping and you have a map you can look up and look at points t and you can go to peope can say want to check out the radar or learning about the lodge stories and they can follow those and if they are not there, they can learn and the other great thing we just found out, we got a National Park Foundation Close to 100,000 and we will use that to make a video so that will have tons of new stuff in the next year, year end a half so go to the and keep checking back. You want to go ahead . I will, thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you so much, this is wonderful. We are thrilled to be able to do this because it is a cool product and we want to highlight the area. We hope you come to the museum. And this is a pleasure and i hope everyone wishes you a good night and thank you again. Weekends on cspan2 are an intellectual piece every saturday American History tv documents american stories. Sundays, but tv brings the latest nonfiction books and authors. Funny cspan2 comes from these Television Companies and more including cox. When youre connected, youre not alone. Cspan2 of public service. If you enjoy American History tv, sign up for our newsletter using the qr code on the screen to receive weekly schedule of upcoming programs like lectures in history, the presidency and more. Sign up for the American History tv newsletter today and watch American History tv every saturday or anytime online at cspan. Org history. It looks like this. Americans can see democracy at work for citizens are truly informed. Get informed straight from the source. Unfiltered, unbiased, or forward the Nations Capital to wherever you are. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan powered by cable