SER BOXLEY ASKS MISSISSIPPI SENATOR TRENT LOTT WHERE IS NATCHEZ TRACE’S BLACK HISTORY
Senator Lott:
Your letter
in the Natchez Democrat citing Alcorn State University as representing African
American History on the Natchez Trace is a long stretch of your imagination.
Alcorn State University came into existence after the Civil War. The history on
the Natchez Trace you cited existed long before the decline of the use of the
Trace. It would have been more accurate for you to have cited the use of the
Natchez Trace by America's Long Distance enslavement dealers to transport
enslaved people from the upper and Midwestern southern states to Natchez via the
Trace and sold them at Natchez and Natchez Forks of the Roads, the 2nd largest
enslavement selling market in the deep south other than New Orleans. Therefore,
African Americans’ presence and culture exists in Natchez and Mississippi,
Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and Texas. You could have included in your May 21st
speech and your Natchez Democrat letter the Forks of the Roads enslavement
market, which was the terminus of the Natchez Trace in Natchez. You could have
cited the history of upper states’ boatmen who brought flatboats loaded with
enslaved people to Natchez and New Orleans sold them and then walked back up the
Trace to their homes. Enslaved Africans Americans did more than likely widen the
Trace into a national road. You could have cited the many plantations on the
Trace that enslaved African descendants or the cemeteries they are buried in
along the trace as to their presence and development of the lower Mississippi
Valley. The reason why you were not able to make such citations is because the
operators of the Natchez Trace Parkway have not done the right kind of research
to include African Americans’ history preservation, presentation and
interpretation relative to the Natchez Trace.
The Forks of the Roads enslavement markets sites in Natchez is the natural
terminus of the Natchez Trace as it came into Natchez along Old Washington Road.
You can help present this African American Natchez Trace history and story which
covers the mass of African American in Ms. Central La. Arkansas and East Texas
by making sure the Forks of the Roads enslavement markets sites are preserved
and presented as part of the Natchez Trace. This is after the fact and through
the back door, but it is better than African American history, culture, life and
development contributions being omitted or alluded to as Alcorn State
University, which was way down the line and made possible by enslaved people who
self-emancipated by becoming greatly involved as freedom fighters in the Civil
War.
By the way, Hiram Revels was an abolitionist as well.
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Copyright © 2006. Ser Seshs Ab Heter-Clifford M. Boxley, Natchez, Mississippi. All Rights Reserved.
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