Consider two under-explored aspects of the past at lectures scheduled for the last week in September at Historic St. Mary’s City. Both will take place at 7 p.m. in the Visitor Center auditorium located at 18751 Hogaboom Lane in St. Mary’s City.
On Monday, September 23, Joseph McGill, Jr., Program Officer at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, will share his experience of staying at slave sites for the Slave Dwelling Project. McGill sleeps in historic slave dwellings to call attention to the need to preserve these structures and make them part of our American story. “If structure is there, said McGill, “It makes it a whole lot easier to tell the story.” McGill will spend a night at the St. Mary’s Manor’s duplex quarter prior to his talk. Michigan State University Ph.D. candidate and HSMC Special Projects Researcher Terry Peterkin Brock will provide background on the quarter and address the preservation project underway at the site.
On Thursday, September 26, HSMC director of archaeology Tim Riordan, Ph.D., will discuss Life and Death in 17th-Century Maryland. Coming to Maryland in the 17th century represented great opportunity. All of the promotional literature touted the wonders of the New World and the easy living. None mentioned the risks involved. Riordan will examine the downside of coming to Maryland— the constant acquaintance with death and how the fledgling society strove to cope with it.
These events are free and open to the public.