The AAHGS Hampton Roads
Chapter will meet this Saturday, May 11, 2019 at the Hampton Public Library on
Victoria Blvd. in Hampton VA at 10 AM.
Our speaker will be Robert Kelly, President of the Fort Monroe
Historical Society. Mr. Kelly served as
the Research and Preservation Assistant for the Fort Monroe Authority from
2011-2014 and was named Casement Museum Historian in 2014. He will be
presenting information from the current research being done at Fort Monroe
which appears in an article just published.
“Humanizing the Enslaved of
Fort Monroe’s Arc of Freedom,” that was recently published in the Journal of
Contemporary Archival Studies, hosted by Yale University.
The article features newly
completed archival research that pertains specifically to the enslaved and
contraband laborers who worked at Fort Monroe during the 19th century.
Learn more about the ongoing
research to identify by first and last name, both the enslaved people that
helped build Fort Monroe and those who sought refuge at the fort during the
Civil War. Also, hear about newly
discovered evidence that may substantiate the oral tradition of Shepard Mallory
as one of the first three contrabands.