Superintendent Scott J. Bentley announced River Raisin National Battlefield Park will be hosting an event called “Remembering the Raisin: Slavery, Freedom, and the War of 1812 on July 12, 2014 from 1:00 – 5:30pm, in conjunction with the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Conference Detroit. The program will explore the largely “untold story” of the search for freedom during the War of 1812 through engaging presentations and discussions with by Dr. Gene Allen Smith and Nicholas Brown. The programs will take place at the Battlefield and thanks to the generous support of the sponsors are free to the public.
1:00 p.m. The Slaves Gamble: Choosing Sides in the War of 1812-Dr. Gene Allen Smith
Charles Ball, Ned Simmons, and Jordan Noble are not house-hold names or well-known heroes of the War of 1812. Yet all three faced important choices about which side to support during the conflict. By following the lives of these three enslaved men, we learn about the daily struggle all enslaved faced, the choices they made, and the way the young United States responded to the possibility of social and racial unrest. The notion that participation of the enslaved could sway military operations and potentially alter the outcome of the War of 1812 troubled white Americans, and the way the young republic responded ultimately sealed the fate of the enslaved for the next half century, until the American Civil War.
2:30 p.m. African-American Involvement in the War of 1812: Free and Slave in the NW Territories- Nicholas Brown
Explore the multifaceted roles African-American’s played during the War of 1812 in the Northwest Territories including both free and slave. The program will present intriguing stores of African-Americans supporting war efforts in Kentucky, choosing sides, and their direct involvement in the War of 1812 in the Northwest Territories, Michigan Territory, Detroit and the Battles of the River Raisin.
4:00 p.m. The First Underground Railroad: Finding Freedom in the old American Northwest-Dr. Gene Allen Smith
Images of the Underground Railroad generally portray the northern flight of the enslaved to freedom in Canada. Yet the first Underground Railroad was not a northern trek, but rather a southern trek to the freedom of the old American Northwest Territory. Once the British turned over Detroit to the United States, during the summer of 1796, the enslaved began to flee across the Detroit River from Canada to the freedom of the United States. In fact, from 1796 to 1815 the route to freedom led south. Yet by the end of the War of 1812, Detroit slave Peter Denison was on the vanguard of a new movement leading enslaved people from America north to Canada—the traditional Underground Railroad that we celebrate as an avenue of freedom. The War of 1812 gave birth to the Underground Railroad.
5:30 p.m. Book Signing Dr. Gene Allen Smith
The Slaves’ Gamble: Choosing Sides in the War of 1812. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Dr. Gene Allen Smith is Professor of History at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. He is author or editor of eight books, and numerous articles and reviews on the War of 1812, naval and maritime history, and territorial expansion along the Gulf of Mexico. His most recent book, The Slaves’ Gamble: Choosing Sides in the War of 1812 (2013), is considered a seminal work on the role of people of African descent in the War of 1812.
Nicholas Brown is a graduate student studying African American History at the University of Toledo. Nicholas’ thesis research project is on the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), an African American labor union that was established in the 1920s. As 2014 Graduate Intern with the National Park, Nicholas is researching African-American involvement in the War of 1812 in the Northwest Territories in partnership with the National Park Service at River Raisin National Battlefield Park. His internship has been made possible through a generous grant from the National Park Foundation’s Park Stewards Program.
This event is being sponsored by River Raisin National Battlefield, River Raisin National Battlefield Foundation, and the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
The National Network to Freedom conference will take place at the DoubleTree-Fort Shelby in Detroit, Michigan from July 16-20, 2014. Anyone interested in attending the conference is encouraged to visit http://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/annual-conference.htm for more information.
