On a boat to Ganvie, a village in a lake in Benin

• A native of Davie County, North Carolina
• Previous residences in New York and Florida
• Extensive experience in business management in New York, Florida, and North Carolina and museuem management in the Carolinas
• Class of 1999: Chesapeake Regional Scholars Institute, UVA, Virginia (AA history)
• Numerous historic conferences and seminars, some as presenter
• Lecturer, panelist, and consultant on African American history topics and projects throughout the Southeast, including on Public Television
• Invited lecturer, Department of Sociology, Wake Forest U.,  2006
• Member, past and present, of museum, history, and genealogical society boards
• Membership in the Association of African American  Museums (OH);  Forsyth County Genealogical Society (NC); Liberian Organization of the Piedmont (NC)

The author of this site suffered a stroke August 2006 but is now answering e-mail and phone inquiries.  Thanks for your patience.

TIDBITS

• Many Africans in malaria-infested areas of African over  time developed  sickled cells as a malaria defense.  This trait is largely responsible for strong surviving elements of African culture along the Gullah-Geechee coast stretching from North Carolina to Florida in the U. S.
• Juneteenth refers to June 19, 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, USA were the last to be told by Union troops that they were now free. That was two and a half years after President Lincoln's emancipation proclamation. Union troops reached the upper Yadkin region of North Carolina in the Spring of 1865. Today Juneteenth is celebrated throughout the global African Diaspora. Slavery throughout the United States was finally abolished upon ratification of the thirteenth amendment to the constitution in December, 1865.
• Shango, the god of thunder in the West African Yoruba religion, is one of the better known dieties of all African religions.  In 1796 in Stokes County, NC, European James Hampton deeded an enslaved adult male named Shango to his daughter Martha Hampton Evans. Two of the other enslaved adults in the Hampton household at the time were named Sutton and Comfort.

The West African Symbol for Shango

Freedom's Eve December 31, 1862

Photo Courtesy Library of Congress LC-USZC4-6160

• Watch Night / Freedom's Eve had its beginning       December 31, 1862 when enslaved families gathered in churches and homes to see if President Lincoln would follow through on his threat to rebelling states to emancipate enslaved persons in their territories on          January 1, 1863.  For many years prior to that, anxiety permeated enslaved communities anyway on New Year's Eve as enslavers prepared to settle their accounts.  If they owed more than they had due them, there was always the possibility that property may have to be sold to balance the books.  Enslaved persons were property.
• James Francis Shober  was born in Waughtown in Forsyth County in 1853, the second of four known children.  None of his siblings survived past their teenage years and his mother, Betsy Ann, died at the age of twenty-four.  Her gravestone can be seen today in the Waughtown cemetery.  James Francis later attended Howard University Medical School in D.C. and became North Carolina's first degreed medical doctor of African descent.  He practiced in Wilmington, North Carolina where a state highway historical marker has been erected to his memory.

Gravemarker of Betsy Ann, mother of Dr. Shober

Photo courtesy of Gene Stafford