Chowan Discovery Group

Ancient Town receives new Historical Marker

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An ancient Native American town and its people were honored Saturday with a historical marker on Saturday.  Large plaque for Dasamunkepeuc, the capital of the Roanoke Indians, was unveiled by today’s Roanoke-Hatteras Indians at their 10th annual powwow held on their ancestral land in Manteo.

Roanoke-Hatteras Indians and friends with the new North Carolina Highway Historical Marker for the town of Dasemunkepeuc. Kaeli Schurr of the Outer Banks History Center is left of the marker. Roanoke-Hatteras Indians Chief Marilyn Berry Morrison is standing, right of the marker. Dare County Commissioner Virginia Tillett is on the far right.

The first Native American town encountered by the English expeditions of 1584 and 1585, Dasemunkepeuc (DA-say-mun-ke-puc) was located on Croatan Sound on the mainland across from Roanoke Island.  After the Roanoke Indians welcomed the two expeditions, miscalculations on part of the English led to attacks on Dasemunkepeuc and other towns. Following that, the third expedition’s settlers, known as the Lost Colony, arrived among an angered and hostile population.

The marker was nominated by the Chowan Discovery Group,   Many of the Winton Triangle people share ancestry and heritage with the Roanoke-Hatteras Indians.  This the fourth marker sponsored by the Chowan Discovery Group and the second Chowan Discovery marker for a Native American town (see Choanoac).   The North Carolina Office of Archives and History (Department of Cultural Resources) approved Chowan Discovery’s nomination and provided the marker.  New CDG-nominated makers are coming for the Roanoke Island Freedmens Colony (Manteo, NC) and another ancient Algonquian town, Aquascogoc (Bel Haven, NC).

Roanoke-Hatteras Indians and Chief Marilyn Berry Morrison (left).
Left to right: Chowan Discovery Executive Director Marvin T. Jones; KaeLi Schurr of the NC Outer Banks History Center, representing the NC Department of Cultural Resources who provided the marker through its Office of Archives and History; Dare County Commissioner Virginia Tillett.

 

Opportunities for Academic Research

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These documents were recovered from one of over 40 commercial buildings in the Winton Triangle.
The Chowan Discovery Group is inviting academics to partner with us to study the Winton Triangle.

The Triangle is a 260 year-old mixed race community of landowners in central Hertford County. Around 1960, its population was in the hundreds, and the land dimensions are 8 by 10 miles from east to west, and 8 miles from north to south with over 20 roads and streets. The Chowan Discovery Group has collected photographs, documents, interviews, books and maps. However, demographic and economic studies are needed. The incomes and occupations of Winton Triangle people were diverse, and the land ownership is estimated at over 20 square miles.

Please contact Marvin T. Jones at info@discovery.org or 202.726.4066.

Winton Triangle History in Chicago!

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L-R: Lars Adams, Gerry Lang, Wayne Winkler, Laura Kina, S.J. Arthur and Marvin T. Jones. Photograph by Sam Clark.

In Chicago, the CDG got the opportunity to introduce our history to a national audience of academics and students at the Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference at DePaul University in Chicago.

Writer Lars Adams, of the Chowanoke Descendants website, presented the history of the Choanoac (Chowanoke) people from the earliest evidence in the 8th century, to their encounter with the English in 1586 in Hertford County and to their decline and supposed demise in Gates County 1821. Adams finished his account by  relating the re-assertion of Choanoac heritage:  the growth of the Robbins family near Cofield, the rise of the Meherrin-Chowanoke people, based in the Hertford County, and the Choanoac marker in Harrellsville that was erected last year.

My latest presentation of the Winton Triangle has since added the recent findings and events of the past year and a new map of Winton Triangle schools. Several audience members told me that is was best presentation they had seen so far, and on that strength, several of them  returned to attend the next day’s panel about Melungeons and other mixed-race people in Appalachia.  S. J Arthur, President of the Melungeon Heritage Association, and Wayne Winkler, from East Tennessee State University and author of Walking Toward Sunset, documented the historical diversity of mixed-race people in Appalachia.  This panel was moderated by the Chowan Discovery Group.

I am excited that this is the CDG’s second participation in a conference in a month’s time, that we bought the CDG presence to a national audience and made new academic friends.

At two of the sessions I attended, during open discussions, I got to alert academics about the wealth of research possibilities offered by the Winton Triangle project, and learned of a new source of documents that we will begin to study this month. Thankfully, these are held by my friends at Howard University’s Moorland Spingarn Research Center.

Steven Riley presented a paper about President Barack Obama and multi-racial issues.

I’d like to thank Laura Kina of DePaul University for paving the way for our two panels, Meherrin-Chowanoke artist Gerry Lang for moderating the Choanoac-Winton Triangle panel, and Mayola Cotterman, a longtime family friend, for taking me into her comfy, lovely and conveniently-located home and attending both panels.  Our friends Steven Riley and Julia Cates of Mixed Race Studies attended, and as always, were supportive.

Next month in December: two firsts for Chowan Discovery! – Marvin T. Jones

Three Winton Triangle Presentations at Greensboro conference.

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In addition to his keynote speech, Earl Ijames lectured about slavery and the naval stores industry in eastern North Carolina.

The Chowan Discovery presentations about the Winton Triangle, its Civil War history and Chowan Discovery historical markers attracted many enthusiastic attendees at the annual conference of the African America Genealogical and Historical Society (AAGHS) in Greensboro. Included in the audiences were history professionals and authors.

One of the joys of having three presentations at the conference was that the reputation of each lecture fed the attendance of the next.  This also gave more people the opportunity to hear about our work.  And then there are those increased sales of Carolina Genesis and the CDG mugs.  Hawking those mugs are fun, whether they sell or not – and they sold.  I enjoyed all of questions and comments.

Among the participants, I saw growing awareness about tri-racial people and free people of color in North Carolina at the conference.  This is an important trend for our mission.

I was among many friends.  CDG advisor Earl Ijames of the North Carolina History Museum was the keynote speaker.  Alice F. Harris, another CDG advisor, served in her role as a chapter president and the recording secretary of the AAGHS board.   Lisa Crawley, a curator at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture in Baltimore,  attended my one of my presentations.  Lisa has Gates County roots.

New friends include authors Margo Lee Williams and Willie Cooper (Bertie County native), Michelle Lanier of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Lamar and Cheryl Deloatch of the host chapter of AAGHS.  Despite their endless responsibilities, the Deloatches could not have been kinder.

Willie Cooper ( left, with wife Linda) is from Bertie County. He books details the story of U.S. Colored Troops in Bertie County.

On the way to the conference, I met with Darryl Stover at the North Carolina Council of the Humanities who showed me a copy of CDG advisor David Cecelski’s new and long- awaited book about Abraham Galloway. A mighty fine visit.

In addition to all of the conference hosts and guest that made this conference trip so fruitful, there were all of my relatives who visited and took me to their homes.  Cousin Edith Reid Patterson was a conference volunteer.

The Chowan Discovery and Winton Triangle presence have been greatly expanded from this trip.  Coming up next for Chowan Discovery is a historical panel at the Critical Mixed Race Studies conference in Chicago.

– Marvin T. Jones

Book party for Carolina Genesis in Manhattan!

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Chowan Discovery Board Member, E. Laverne Jones, hosted a book party for Carolina Genesis – Beyond the Color Line on September 15 in mid-town Manhattan.  The well-attended party included Kendall Messick, the producer and director of the film Corapeake (as in Corapeake in Gates County).  Chowan Discovery mugs were also sold.

Carolina Genesis’ first home book party was hosted by Ronnie Brewington of Ahoskie.  Once again, thank you, Ronnie and Laverne!

One way you can support the CDG’s mission is to host a book party or lecture event.  Contact Marvin T. Jones.

Chowan Discovery Mug, Marvin T. Jones and Kendall Messick at rooftop party for CAROLINA GENESIS - BEYOND THE COLOR LINE.
Chowan Discovery Mug, Marvin T. Jones and Kendall Messick at rooftop party for CAROLINA GENESIS – BEYOND THE COLOR LINE.

 

 

 

Winton Triangle Presentation at LW Boone Family Reunion

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As part of our mission to speak to organizations, institutions and family groups,  we were invited by the family of the great Lemuel Washington Boon to present on July 27 in Reston, Virginia. Lemuel Washington Boon (1827 – 1878) was the Roanoke-Chowan area’s leader in worship, education and human rights.

Lemuel Washington Boon (1827 – 1878) was the Roanoke-Chowan area’s leader in worship, education and human rights

After the Civil War, Boone founded numerous churches for people of color.  These churches, in turn, founded community schools.  Along with this first-ever network of worship, leadership and education, Boon co-founded and was first president of the Roanoke Missionary Association.  He was, also, a founding trustee of Shaw University and the first president of the state baptist association for African Americans.

Many members of the Boon family now have signed copies of Carolina Genesis – Beyond the Color Line and Chowan Discovery Group mugs!

When planning your next reunion, consider inviting us to present the history of your family’s Winton Triangle community.

Contact Marvin T. Jones.