Events Calendar
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Join us for the discussion "Lost Voices: Slave Stories & Abolitionist Writings, 10 a.m. at the Arrow Rock State Historic Site Visitor Center.
When "it is not our story to tell", we can rely on history, memoir and autobiography to bring history alive for future generations. Frequent visitor to Arrow Rock, Tom Wertz, will set the historical stage with a review of the anthology "American Antislavery Writings" citing documents as early as 1600.
Arrow Rock resident Keith Anderson will then share the back story of "Twelve Years a Slave" -- the pieces overlooked by Hollywood. Who was Solomon Northrup before his kidnapping? What happened after he regained his freedom? Why was the plantation home of his owner reconstructed on a Louisiana campus? Why did his first owner, a pastor, sell him further south? Did Solomon offer an opinion about Mrs. Stowe's best seller? What famous books did Twelve Years out-sell?
You do not need to read the book before attending, but it would be helpful as we prepare handouts to know how many plan to attend this free event. Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to sign up. Coffee, tea and hot chocolate will be provided by Friends of Arrow Rock.
Then at 1:30 ... (rescheduled from February 1)
Joe Louis Mattox (pictured on right) will share the stories of selected African Americans who fought in Missouri at the Battles of Island Mound and Westport during his rescheduled presentation, "Blacks In Blue," at 1:30 p.m. at the Arrow Rock State Historic Site Visitor Center Museum. This presentation is free and open to the public.
One of the often forgotten heroes of the American Civil War is the African-American soldier. Many of those who fought in Missouri for the Union were former slaves. It had long been believed that the first African-American unit was the 54th Massachusetts. Scholarship has proven that honor rightly belongs to the First Kansas Colored who “fought like tigers” at the Battle of Island Mound, near Butler, Mo.
Mattox is an independent scholar at the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center and State Museum in Kansas City, Mo. He serves as the volunteer-resident historian.
This program is funded by the Missouri Humanities Council and the State Historical Society of Missouri’s Speaker’s Bureau with support from the Friends of Arrow Rock and the Arrow Rock State Historic Site.