Chowan Discovery Group

A Freeborn Community’s Response to the Civil War and Beyond

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This presentation is about a century-old community of freeborn landowners and their contributions in and after the Civil War. A year after the Confederates seized a mixed race, married mother of three and used her as a lure, her Winton Triangle community responded by enlisting in the Union military. Over seventy of North Carolina’s Winton Triangle men fought in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida.  They took part in the destruction of Charleston, captured what was to become Gen. Grant’s ultimate headquarters, took part in the eleven-month siege on Richmond and its capture; and finally enforced the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas after the war’s end (Juneteenth).

Families of soldiers helped make up of the regiments of infantry, cavalry and heavy artillery.  Families such as the Weavers, Robbins and Reynolds could each boast seven and more soldiers.

Most returned to the area to own farms, start or renew family life, establish schools, educate the formerly enslaved, form churches and other organizations, take part in politics, open businesses and expand the size of the Winton Triangle. This presentation, highlighting the research of the soldiers’ pension records, their family records and photographs, is used to teach today’s Winton Triangle people of their own Civil War past.

Rock Park Civil War Roundtable talks are  usually followed by lunch at Ledo Pizza, 7435 Georgia Avenue NW.

Winton Triangle Soldiers on the Wall of the African American Civil War Memorial

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As an offering for the Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference, Chowan Discovery  is hosting a tour of the African American Civil War Museum and the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C.  On the Memorial’s wall of 200, 000 names, each attendee will search for a Winton Triangle soldier after given a card with the name and a profile of the soldier.  We will lunch afterwards at Washington’s most famous eatery, Ben’s Chili Bowl.  Here is more information.

 

Winton Triangle Presentation in Tappahannock, VA

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Marvin T. Jones presents photographs, maps and narrative of his community’s 275 year-old history of landowning mixed-race people in North Carolina’s Hertford County area.  The written history of the Winton Triangle begin in 1584 when the English first learn about the area.  The three main towns of the Triangle are Winton, Cofield and Ahoskie. The Winton Triangle’s story is that of a new people who cobbled success and identity despite colonization, wars, slavery and discrimination.

Hosted by the Middle Peninsula African-American Genealogical and Historical Society of Virginia.

Winton Triangle’s Civil War presentation

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Learn about role a rural community of color played during the Civil War. As part of Dr. C.R. Gibbs’ annual African American history lectures series at the Greenbelt MD Public Library, Marvin T. Jones presents with words and images the Winton Triangle’s successful efforts to keep American whole and to defeat slavery.  Serving from Virginia to Texas, many were from families of soldiers.  You will hear about their cause, challenges, escapes, victories and their lives – and what they created with their new freedoms after the war.

A Chowanoke History – the Winton Triangle’s First People

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The Chowanoke Nation was the largest of the Algonkian nations in North Carolina.  The English encountered them in 1586 – one year before the arrival of the Lost Colony and 21 years before the settlement of Jamestown.  CDG’s Marvin T. Jones will give this presentation near the site of Chowanoke capital of Choanoac at Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church of Harrellsville.  It was Mt. Pleasant’s congregation who hosted the unveiling of the NC Highway Historical Marker in 2011.

Chowan Discovery thanks Reverend Roosevelt Askew for this event.  Please see these links about for information about the Chowanoke Nation, the Chowanoke Reseveration Fund and the Chowanoke Descendants Community.

 

A Chowanoke History – told along Ancestral Waters

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North Carolina’s Gates County was part of the Chowanoke Native American nation when first reported in 1584.  In Gates, beside the ancestral waters of Merchant’s Mill Pond, Chowan Discovery will present a history of the Chowanoke people, the largest of the Carolina Algonkian peoples.  The presentation includes images of maps, documents and photographs.  Hosted by the Roanoke-Chowan Native American Association.