We visited Ft. Sumter on Friday night April 1, 2011. Although the Fort seems small, it is in a prime location for defense.
Please check out the following sites for more information:
http://www.nps.gov/fosu/index.htm
http://www.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/sc001.htm
http://www.civilwarhome.com/ftsumter.htm
Patrick 🙂
Last night we visited Ft. Sumter in the middle of Charleston Harbor. In ten days they will celebrate the sesquicentennial(150 years) of that famous battle that started the Civil War. (Of course in South Carolina they called it the War of Norther Aggression). It was hard to believe that we were actually standing on the same ground, looking over the cannon barrels that Anderson did when the Confederate forces began firing on Fort Sumter.
Here is the National Park Service link if you are interested in more information on the Fort. http://www.nps.gov/fosu/index.htm We travelled there by ferry, and it was really cold and windy. Jennifer, the Park Service Ranger gave us a brief history of the fort. She told us the story of the 33 star American Flag that was flying over Fort Sumter that day. It was a replica of the flag that was there when the war began. You can actually see the original one in the there.
In ten days it will be April 12, 2011. Standing there, with the chilly wind and salty mist blowing across me, I could almost feel the sense of impending doom that those Union soldiers experienced in that short, but significant conflict on April 12, 1861
Have you ever heard of the Penn Center? Do you know where it is? What it is? Me neither!!! That is why I chose to take this trip back into history and boy did I learn a lot!
Step back in to time. The year is 1862, you are standing on 50 acres of land covered with large sprawling oaks draped in the flowing spanish moss that flutters in the island’s breezes that blow over the marshes and out into the ocean that surround a nest of islands, one being that of St. Helena Island. On this vast 50 acres is a white washed building and a milling of students, but wait. What is this? These students getting educated in South Carolina? What is so wrong with this? Because these students are black and they are speaking but you are not sure you understand what they are saying. Why? Is it a foreign language? Well it is called Sea Island Creole, or a combination of English and West African expressions brought to the colonies by African slaves. Gullah has also come to be used to describe the cultural life of these Island African Americans, their crafts, religious beliefs, and lifestyle. These people not only lived along the coasts of South Carolina, but even down into Georgia and Florida.
So what was this Penn Center about?: Well, it was an experiment called the Port Royal Experiment which was headed by two missionaries. Northern missionaries Laura Towne and Ellen Murray came to educate the newly freed slaves after the Civil War. They spent 40 years in educating these students.
In 1900 it became Penn Normal, Industrial and Agricultural School where the student got trained in teacher training, training in wheel-wrighting, carpentry, cobbling, blacksmithing, and the agricultural sciences.
In 1948 it closed and was turned into a Community Services Center focusing on maintaining and developing the surviving Gullah community.
In the 1960s, The Penn Center, Southern Christian Leadership Conference used it as a training and a retreat for the famous Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. The Penn Center was one of the few placed that bi-racial groups could meet and the great Civil Rights “March on Washington” took place here as well.
Also during the 60s and 70s, The Peace Corps and the Conscientious Objector Programs used the sight for training, lodging, planning and community service.
Now, you have returned to today and you visit the Penn Center, a place which is preserved to share with you unique history, culture and environment of the Sea Islands through serving as a local, national and international resource center of the Gullah life of the past and the future.
I hope you have enjoyed this little journey back into the past.
I know your mouth is watering..by the mere title of this post…and it should be! The South is known for many things..food being one! I was treated to a culinary tour full of history and good southern food. The tour began at this small hole-in-the-wall bakery. I eyed the shabby establishment rather suspiciously and the tour guide caught my glance quickly reassured me that, “the Dixie Bakery and Supply is awesome.” We entered in and were greeted with the scent of sweet potato cornbread, grits and glasses of sweet tea! I did not want to leave! We also learned about how the people of Charleston managed to use their crops to develop nutritious foods and stretch the food supply. The tour continued with a stop at a culinary cookware store and spice/tea shop. We munched on sesame chips and were entertained with stories of the first “trail mix” that was developed as a staple food for hunters. We also sampled interesting combinations of spice and fruit. Haberno chocolate salt was sprinkled on fresh strawberries and apples…white truffle salt dominated the raw carrots! We learned about the spice and tea trade in the 17th century with inhaling the spice filled air! The foodie group pushed on! We arrived at AW Shucks, a seafood restaurant in the center of restaurant row. Fresh crab dip started us off with fried green tomatoes, hush puppies with red pepper jelly sauce, coleslaw, and red beans rice and sausage finishing us up! We washed it down with..sweet tea of course! Our tour guide was not finished with our palates quite yet! We meandered into a sweet shoppe and were greeted with fudge, peanut brittle, pralines, and bear claws. SIGH! We were southern satisfied! The tour ended with a stop at our hotel..after all it was lunch time!
The cohort at Kinsgley Plantation outside of Jacksonville, FL - Fall 2010
In May of 2010, the teachers of the FLVS TAH Grant Year One Cohort traveled to Williamsburg, Virginia for five days of exploration, discovery and learning. In addition to touring Colonial Williamsburg, the teachers also visited Jamestown, Historic Jamestowne and Yorktown.
This April, the Year Two Cohort will head north to three sites of historical importance: Harper’s Ferry, Antietam and Gettysburg. Through the posts on this blog, you can join us as we learn more about the events of the Civil War by exploring these locations.
flvstahgrant 