An outdoor schoolroom at Penn School on St. Helena Island, SC. Penn School was founded in 1862, is one of the nation’s first schools dedicated to the education of formerly enslaved people, and is one of the most significant American education institutions in existence today. (Photo Provided)

PARKERSBURG — At the next regular meeting of the Civil War Round Table of the Mid-Ohio Valley on Sept. 14 at the The Blennerhassett Museum of Regional History, located at 137 Juliana Street, there will be a presentation by Victoria Smalls, executive director, Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor N.H.A. on Unthinkable Outcomes from the Battle of Port Royal: The Civil War in South Carolina’s Low Country, It’s Impact on Former West Africans Enslaved There, and Their Long Fight for Freedom.

Smalls is a Gullah Geechee native of St. Helena Island, South Carolina. She is Executive Director of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Corridor Commission, N.H.A., where she collaborates with local, national and international community governments and partners to protect, preserve, interpret the history, traditional cultural practices, heritage sites and natural resources associated with the ever-evolving Gullah Geechee people who reside across the 12,000 square-mile National Heritage Area in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas.

Smalls has presented on both U.S. and international platforms on the art, history and cultural practices of the Gullah Geechee people and in 2022 she was awarded The President’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest civilian honor awarded for volunteer service in the United States, by President Joe Biden.

The meeting will also feature a brief presentation on the 2023 South Carolina Heart of the Rebellion Field Trip scheduled for November 8 – 12 and hosted by the Civil War Round Table.

The public is welcomed and there is no cost to attend.

Watch Meeting, December 31, 1862: Waiting for the Hour, a cartes de vista produced by Heard and Mosely to illustrate anticipation for the long-awaited declaration of The Emancipation Proclamation. (Photo Provided)

Light refreshments, including small samples of Gullah Geechee cuisine, will be served before and following the meeting.

Small donations will be accepted to defray a portion of the cost of the event. The meeting venue is accessible for those with mobility limitations and accommodations for other disabilities will be considered upon request.

This presentation is made possible by the generosity of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Corridor Commission, N.H.A., and a grant from the West Virginia Humanities Council.

Please see www.cwrtmov.org and www.gullahgeecheecorridor.org for more information about this event and direct questions to cwrtmov@gmail.com.

Victoria Smalls, Executive Director of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, N.H.A., will present Unthinkable Outcomes from the Battle of Port Royal: The Civil War in the South Carolina Low Country, It’s Impact on Former West Africans Enslaved There, and Their Long Fight For Freedom, at the next regular meeting of the Civil War Round Table at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 14 at The Blennerhassett Museum located at 137 Juliana Street in Parkersburg. (Photo Provided)