Interested in learning more about the world and history? Suffolk Discovers covers new themes that explore the cultures and backgrounds of people in our communities. For adults.

No registration required to attend in person. Registration required to attend virtually via Zoom. Registered participants will receive a link to the Zoom meeting at least 15 minutes before the event begins.

An ASL interpreter will be available at Suffolk Discovers: African Americans and the Great Dismal Swamp Before the Civil War.

About the Talk
The Great Dismal Swamp has always been a feature of Suffolk’s geography, but it was also a major site where the freedom of African Americans and indigenous people was at stake. From before European colonization, the Great Dismal served as a home and safe haven and this trend continued into the period of English control. With the introduction of chattel slavery, maroons (Africans who escaped from slavery) decided that conditions in the swamp were better than living under the oppressive weight of early capitalist exploitation of their lives. Others who remained in slavery met some of these communities at the edges of the swamp as slave labor was used to dig canals, drain the water, and make way for lumber companies to turn the swamp into farmland. Our speakers will discuss both sides of the African American experience with the Great Dismal before the Civil War.

About the Presenters
As a historical archaeologist with a background in anthropology, philosophy, and history, Daniel Sayers’s (Associate Professor of Anthropology at American University) interests are relatively wide-ranging; political economy of colonialism, capitalism, and slavery; exile; African and Native American Diasporas; resistance and defiance; marronage and the "Underground Railroad.” He believes historical archaeology is a mode of deliberate and purposeful action in the world that can tell us not only about the conditions people and non-humans faced in the historical modern world but also force us to look at possibilities for positive social and political-economic change in our present and future. He began the Great Dismal Swamp Landscape Study, an ongoing multiyear archaeological study that also has oral traditional and historiographic aspects. During the first phase of the project (2003-2008), they discovered and excavated several sites in the vast and remote Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia and North Carolina.

Eric ‘Mubita’ Sheppard earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Technical Management from the University of Maryland, University College and holds Associate in Arts Degree from Catonsville Community College and Associate in Applied Science Degree from the Community College of the Air Force.  He was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland.  He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserves.  His combined civilian Department of Defense (DoD) experience as a government employee and support contractor spans over 25 years. The highlights of his DoD career were as an Industrial Specialist in the Manufacturing and Quality Assurance Division on the Advanced Technology Bomber (B-2 Stealth) System Program Office during its developmental, test, evaluation and initial production phases and as Industrial Base Program Manager at the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground. In addition, Eric is a self-published author and family genealogy researcher.  Eric started family genealogy research in 1996.  He is a past member of the Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society.  During his genealogy research, He found the slave narrative of Moses Grandy from Camden, NC, who is part of his Grandy family history and one of his ancestors.  In 1843, the British & Foreign Anti-Slavery Society of London, England published Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy; Late a Slave in the United States of America.  The genealogy research has led to his passion for reconnecting with his ancestral homeland in Africa to enhance United States and Africa economic and cultural exchanges.  He is the visionary leader for the Africa Homecoming Network Initiative for restoring relationships of families and communities separated by the institutions of enslavement in the United States and Africa.  He has been married to his wife Lisa for 30 years and has four adult children and three grandsons.

Schedule of Events:

Naval Football and the 90-Day Wonders

January 18 at North Suffolk and via Zoom

African Americans and the Great Dismal Swamp before the Civil War

February 8 at Morgan Memorial and via Zoom

50 Years and More of Women's History in Suffolk

March 21 at Morgan Memorial and via Zoom

Afrofuturism Panel

April 18 at North Suffolk and via Zoom