The funny part of our presentation was that the National Parks people seemed to be shocked to have a presentation made first of all by a southern heritage organization who were identifing the site of contriband camps of several thousand slaves who had left the plantations, not because they were seeking freedom necessarily, but that the occuping Federal Army had run off the plantation owners and the slaves had been left to fend for themselves and were starving.
We in the south know of these things and the true nature of these camps and the abuses that occuried therein. But from our experence in this presentation it would seem that this is a part of history these people are unaware of. Or it doesn't fit their preconcieved ideas. As of the time of our presentation they had already investigated 417 sites across the United States and ours was the first such presentation of this kind that they admitted they had heard.
We feel confident that our site will be listed, but I wondered how many other sites across the south that would have a simular story to tell. It would seem that this would open a whole new interpretation of the Black experience if their education is so lacking in factual evidence
Oh and by the way it trying to work with local officials and other groups on this we have found out that having anything to do with anything CONFEDERATE, that this is the new "C-word". Talk about being bigots. Even President Brack Obama had southern confederate ancestors.