Saturday morning the Clinton City Hall Auditorium housed the kickoff for the America 250 event series, featuring a number of presentations and guest speakers.
As the event started early Saturday, a herd of people gathered in the auditorium in anticipation of what was to come. As the first in a line of yearlong celebratory events, the Saturday event was labeled as the kickoff for the series held in honor of the 250th anniversary of America’s founding. However, each presentation during the event was localized to North Carolina and the southeast area of the state. This was done to highlight the historical ties the Tar Heel state has to the foundation and shaping of the nation.
In addition to the presentations, the event featured special guest Pamela Brewington Cashwell, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
“Our mission at the department is to enrich people’s lives in North Carolina through education about our natural and cultural resources,” said Cashwell. “We have over 100 sites across the state. That’s all of our state parks, history museums art museums, science museums. We’re in a lot of different places. Our goal is to tell the whole history of North Carolina. That’s why this event is so important.”
According to Cashwell, the department is responsible for distributing over $2.1 million in grant funding across 74 counties in the state, totaling to 126 grant awards.
“Through those grant dollars, we’re doing all sorts of things,” said Cashwell. “Physical and digital exhibits, art displays, historical markers, it’s a whole range of things.”
In addition to being secretary of the department, Cashwell is also a member of the Lumbee and Coharie tribes. Though originally from Fayetteville, Cashwell spent meany summers in Sampson County helping family members grow cucumbers, tobacco and more on their farm. During her speech, Cashwell discussed how Sampson County is making history by being the first in line to hold an event in the America 250 series.
“There is over 700 events around America’s 250th scheduled for this year,” said Cashwell. “That’s events like this. This is the first official America 250 event that I’ve participated in. Sampson County is the first in this, sort of freedom festival that is going on this year. The 250th anniversary is really going to give us an opportunity to celebrate our past, present and think about the future. I can remember 1976; I was in third or fourth grade. It was a big deal, with all sorts of celebrations and parades. So we really hope that this is an opportunity for us to educate our students about the rich history of North Carolina.”
Later, Jack Fryar, local historian, author and publisher of Dram Tree Books, gave a presentation on Southeastern North Carolina’s role in the American Revolution. During his presentation Fryar spoke about how events that happened in the Southeast part of the state later shaped the greater part of the war.
“Civil War history in North Carolina tends to take pride of place when it comes to tourism and general public knowledge about American history,” said Fryar. “But, there is just as much Revolutionary War history here, maybe more, than the Civil War. I think the only reason we don’t know more, for example, Wilmington only has about four buildings left that date back to the colonial period. We have just as strong a claim on American independence as Boston, New York and anybody else.”
Fryar’s presentation discussed pivotal moments, battles and more which occurred throughout the state. In particular, areas such as Wilmington and New Bern, the state’s original capital, were discussed heavily in his presentation. Fryar expressed great pride in the historical relevance North Carolina still holds today. Fryar stated that some of the Revolutionary War’s most pivotal battles were fought in the southern United States.
“When we’re talking about the revolution, everybody’s heard of Bunker Hill and Lexington and Concord and all those places,” said Fryar. “Among us historians, we have a saying that the famous battles were fought in the North, but the decisive ones were fought in the South. That is absolutely true. Stuff happens throughout the history of mankind, but very few times can things be claimed as world changing. This was world changing.”
Material from Fryar’s slideshow presentation can be found in a number of his books from his publishing company Dram Tree Books. According to Fryar, he got the name from a tree which used to reside near the Cape Fear River. As the story goes, after traveling through the river’s shallow, dangerous and unpredictable waters, sailors would see a massive ancient Cyprus tree. When they saw the tree they knew their journey was coming to an end and that they were close to harbors. To celebrate, the crew would take a drink of rum or other alcohol, which is known as a dram.
“That tree became known as the ‘Dram Tree,’” said Fryar. “It existed on the Cape Fear River until the end of World War II when they started to construct the North Carolina State Port. The tree was in the way so they had to take her down. Being the guy that does books about the history of the state, I figured that was a pretty good name for a book company.”
In addition to Fryar, Nancy Chavis, director and curator of the Museum of the Southeast American Indian, did a presentation on the roles Southeast American Indian tribes played in the American Revolution. Last year, Chavis and others hosted a genealogy symposium to piece together ancestry of members of Native tribes in North Carolina. This was done through story telling that was pieced together into a cohesive timeline.
“We were curious about where the memories still live among American Indian people,” said Chavis. “Who still remembers their revolutionary ancestors who fought in the war? Who remembers those great stories? This symposium was designed to allow people to share those stories. Even if they were a little fragmented, we could then take those bits and pieces and marry them with similar events. We wanted to figure out what was our stake in this.”
According to Chavis, there are eight tribes from North Carolina, many of which merged together from a larger number of tribes after colonization to survive. During the symposium, Chavis worked with these tribes to attempt to pull a story together. Later, once the story is completed, it will be presented at the North Carolina Unity Conference March 4-7.
“When we were looking at who our ancestors were, this symposium is usually called the Lumbee Genealogy Symposium,” said Chavis. “As we reach back, we realized that at the time of the American Revolution, some ancestors were Waccamaw or Coharie. So we decided to focus on the three all together.”
To see the dates and times for all America 250 events this year, visit https://sampson.ces.ncsu.edu.