Which counties are part of the Alabama Black Belt Heritage Area?
Event: Old Cahawba’s African American Community after Emancipation
Time: Saturday, March 1, 2014, from 10:00 am – 11:00 pm
Location: Old Cahawba Archaeological Park
Cost: $6 per person
Event website: www.cahawba.com
Contact: Contact Old Cahawba at 334-872-8058 for more information
Info: Following emancipation at the close of the Civil War, African Americans began reshaping Old Cahawba. It was now legal to learn to read and write, and worship as they chose. They used the former Methodist church, now converted to AME as school room during the week until they were able to build their own one room school house. The former county courthouse became a meeting place for political rallies.
This tour will trace how the once enslaved residents of Old Cahaba and surrounding plantations breathed new life into the post civil war town during the reconstruction era, making it a place to pursue the dreams and exercise the civil rights they had been denied under slavery.