Saturday, November 8th from 11am to 4pm is the 5th annual ADOR which will feature guest speakers, special exhibits, and a family meal.
A Day of Remembrance (ADOR) is a free educational program commemorating those who were enslaved or sharecropped during the plantation era and post-emancipation era. The mission is to provide a safe educational space, that uplifts and preserves the plantation sites' history for present and future generations.
Program Schedule:
- 11:00am - Freedmen's Bureau Genealogy Presentation with Sharon Batiste Gillins
- 12:00pm - Black Heritage Trees Project Presentation with Dr Alicia Odewale
- 1:00pm - Ceremony and Family Meal with Chef Natalie Wright-Moore Clark
- All Day - Self guided tour of site, archeology lab, and exhibitions
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Presentation Descriptions
An Introduction to the Freedmen's Bureau with Sharon Batiste Gillins at 11am
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, known as the Freedmen's Bureau, is an important tool for those researching enslaved ancestry because the records contain information that can help researchers reconstruct families and connect them to their enslaved past.
This workshop introduces the Freedmen's Bureau and how researchers can navigate the vast record collection to locate family history information as well as regional context, with specific emphasis on the southwest Texas coastal areas.
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““They Carry Our History”: Black Heritage Trees as Ancestral Sites of Remembrance” with Dr. Alicia Odewale at 12pm
Across the landscapes of the African Diaspora, certain trees have silently witnessed centuries of labor, resistance, freedom, and survival. This talk introduces the Black Heritage Tree Project, an effort to locate, map, and honor trees tied to Black history and memory. Centering on the Levi Jordan Plantation site, this presentation explores how Black Heritage Trees function as living monuments, rooted archives that preserve stories of enslavement and violence, but also Black kinship, love, and community resilience.
Through archaeological evidence, oral histories, archival research, and digital mapping, we consider how engaging with these trees transform the plantation grounds from spaces of historical trauma into sites of remembrance, dialogue, and healing.
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