Dana Vacca's Blog: Freedom Calling A Civil War Slave Escapes By Sea - Posts Tagged "escape"
Freedom Calling - Sailing Barque / Whaling Ship, The Lady Grey
Freedom Calling: A Civil War Slave Escapes by Sea
FREEDOM CALLING: A Civil War Slave Escapes By Sea by Dana Vacca
Book Highlights / Excerpts
The Lady Grey is a 19th century whale ship - a barque, in style. Her home port was New Bedford, Massachusetts but her whaling voyages, lasting one to two years, took her all over the globe.
Book Excerpt ...the captain walked the starboard stretch of the sternmost upper deck - his private retreat. Most of his time, though, was spent on the quarterdeck, just behind the main mast of the ship. That was his domain, his throne, where he reigned supreme. There, he knew the real meaning of freedom that most landsmen can only imagine.
For Link TO FACEBOOK Photo:https://www.facebook.com/CivilWarHist...
FREEDOM CALLING: A Civil War Slave Escapes By Sea by Dana Vacca
Book Highlights / Excerpts
The Lady Grey is a 19th century whale ship - a barque, in style. Her home port was New Bedford, Massachusetts but her whaling voyages, lasting one to two years, took her all over the globe.
Book Excerpt ...the captain walked the starboard stretch of the sternmost upper deck - his private retreat. Most of his time, though, was spent on the quarterdeck, just behind the main mast of the ship. That was his domain, his throne, where he reigned supreme. There, he knew the real meaning of freedom that most landsmen can only imagine.
For Link TO FACEBOOK Photo:https://www.facebook.com/CivilWarHist...
FREEDOM CALLING Book: The Great Dismal Swamp People
FREEDOM CALLING - Book Highlights
THE GREAT DISMAL SWAMP
During the American Civil War, many runaways took refuge in the Great Dismal Swamp that spans the border of Virginia and North Carolina. But the Dismal had been a used as a safe haven even long before 1861. Many Native Americans, African-Americans, and even Portuguese and English seamen, for various reasons, inhabited the swamp from as early as the 1600s. Some were outlaws, some fled bondage, some were born there.
The Dismal was millions of acres of thick vegetation and deep, soggy bogs. Much of it was wetland and mire, but the interior had large hummocks with higher ground that was solid and dry.
The swamp was also home to many species of poisonous rattlesnakes and cottonmouths, cougar, alligators and other dangerous animals. Most folks kept to the edges of the swamp, if they entered it at all, and even the brave ones who dared push further in ended up losing their way, sometimes for days, - and afterward would never consider venturing into it a second time!
SEE PHOTOS ON FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/CivilWarHist...
Freedom Calling: A Civil War Slave Escapes By Sea
THE GREAT DISMAL SWAMP
During the American Civil War, many runaways took refuge in the Great Dismal Swamp that spans the border of Virginia and North Carolina. But the Dismal had been a used as a safe haven even long before 1861. Many Native Americans, African-Americans, and even Portuguese and English seamen, for various reasons, inhabited the swamp from as early as the 1600s. Some were outlaws, some fled bondage, some were born there.
The Dismal was millions of acres of thick vegetation and deep, soggy bogs. Much of it was wetland and mire, but the interior had large hummocks with higher ground that was solid and dry.
The swamp was also home to many species of poisonous rattlesnakes and cottonmouths, cougar, alligators and other dangerous animals. Most folks kept to the edges of the swamp, if they entered it at all, and even the brave ones who dared push further in ended up losing their way, sometimes for days, - and afterward would never consider venturing into it a second time!
SEE PHOTOS ON FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/CivilWarHist...
Freedom Calling: A Civil War Slave Escapes By Sea
FREEDOM CALLING Book: The Great Dismal Swamp
FREEDOM CALLING - Book Highlights
By the 1800's the inhabitants of the Great Dismal Swamp were known by many names,... Melungeons, Outliers, Maroons, Swampers... Some lived their whole lives without ever leaving the swamp.
The term Melungeon means a person of mixed race,... a combination of African-American, Native American and European descent, but freed and fugitive African-Americans, Native Americans from various tribes and white Caucasians also lived in the Dismal.
Their shelters were simple and small and rather crude but serviceable, (like the one in the photo below), and often cobbled together from logs, scavenaged board planks and bark. Usually living in small groups, their little communities, tucked in the secluded thickets of dry hummocks, were scattered within the interior of the swamp. The Outliers were almost completely self-sufficient, and lived off the land by hunting, gathering and planting. To make tools they reworked whatever iron and metal they found, traded for, or brought with them.
The swamp was a rich hunting ground with a large fresh-water lake (Lake Drummond; see photo) at the center. The water in Lake Drummond, though amber colored, is especially pure because of the tannic acids of the juniper, cypree and gum trees forests in the swamp. Kegs of the Dismal's swampwater was sold as drinking water for sailing ships since the water stayed fresh for a very long time! It was also thought to have magical qualities - that if regularly drunk would prevent illness and ensure long life!
SEE COOL PHOTOS of Dismal Swamp ON MY FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/CivilWarHist...
Freedom Calling: A Civil War Slave Escapes By Sea
By the 1800's the inhabitants of the Great Dismal Swamp were known by many names,... Melungeons, Outliers, Maroons, Swampers... Some lived their whole lives without ever leaving the swamp.
The term Melungeon means a person of mixed race,... a combination of African-American, Native American and European descent, but freed and fugitive African-Americans, Native Americans from various tribes and white Caucasians also lived in the Dismal.
Their shelters were simple and small and rather crude but serviceable, (like the one in the photo below), and often cobbled together from logs, scavenaged board planks and bark. Usually living in small groups, their little communities, tucked in the secluded thickets of dry hummocks, were scattered within the interior of the swamp. The Outliers were almost completely self-sufficient, and lived off the land by hunting, gathering and planting. To make tools they reworked whatever iron and metal they found, traded for, or brought with them.
The swamp was a rich hunting ground with a large fresh-water lake (Lake Drummond; see photo) at the center. The water in Lake Drummond, though amber colored, is especially pure because of the tannic acids of the juniper, cypree and gum trees forests in the swamp. Kegs of the Dismal's swampwater was sold as drinking water for sailing ships since the water stayed fresh for a very long time! It was also thought to have magical qualities - that if regularly drunk would prevent illness and ensure long life!
SEE COOL PHOTOS of Dismal Swamp ON MY FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/CivilWarHist...
Freedom Calling: A Civil War Slave Escapes By Sea
Civil War Era NEW BEDFORD WHALING SHIP - The Lady Grey
FREEDOM CALLING: A Civil War Slave Escapes By Sea
Book by Dana Vacca
BOOK HIGHLIGHTS - Lady Grey (Ship)
The beautiful sailing barque, Lady Grey, underway with nearly full sail, her hull cuts gracefully through the water toward New Bedford.
Like many whaling and merchant ships of her day, she had "painted on" gun ports (only two were real), so that, from a distance, she had the look of a "ship of the line" and would be thought to be carrying a row of cannon along her larboard and starboard sides. However, this did not insure safety as a privateer captain worth his salt had every ship he had ever seen etched into his memory,... by the line of her hull, the configuration of her masts and sails, - and most often knew which battlements were feigned and which were real!
See pics on my FACEBOOK BLOG: https://www.facebook.com/CivilWarHist...
Freedom Calling: A Civil War Slave Escapes By Sea
Book by Dana Vacca
BOOK HIGHLIGHTS - Lady Grey (Ship)
The beautiful sailing barque, Lady Grey, underway with nearly full sail, her hull cuts gracefully through the water toward New Bedford.
Like many whaling and merchant ships of her day, she had "painted on" gun ports (only two were real), so that, from a distance, she had the look of a "ship of the line" and would be thought to be carrying a row of cannon along her larboard and starboard sides. However, this did not insure safety as a privateer captain worth his salt had every ship he had ever seen etched into his memory,... by the line of her hull, the configuration of her masts and sails, - and most often knew which battlements were feigned and which were real!
See pics on my FACEBOOK BLOG: https://www.facebook.com/CivilWarHist...
Freedom Calling: A Civil War Slave Escapes By Sea
Civil War Era Washington, DC, the most vulnerable city in the Union
With Washington, DC, the White House and President Lincoln just across the Potomac from the Confederate Army, the Federals had to be ever vigilant and the approach to the capitol was well-defended.
Here, in this original photograph, a gun crew of Union soldiers from the 4th New York Heavy Artillery load a 24-pounder M.1845 Seacoast Gun at Fort Corcoran in Alexandria, Va. The cannoneer on the left holds a hollow explosive-shell. On the ground to the right are a grapeshot and canister-shell. (Library of Congress)
See Photo: https://www.facebook.com/CivilWarHist...
Read more: https://www.essentialcivilwarcurricul...
Freedom Calling: A Civil War Slave Escapes by Sea
Here, in this original photograph, a gun crew of Union soldiers from the 4th New York Heavy Artillery load a 24-pounder M.1845 Seacoast Gun at Fort Corcoran in Alexandria, Va. The cannoneer on the left holds a hollow explosive-shell. On the ground to the right are a grapeshot and canister-shell. (Library of Congress)
See Photo: https://www.facebook.com/CivilWarHist...
Read more: https://www.essentialcivilwarcurricul...
Freedom Calling: A Civil War Slave Escapes by Sea
Freedom Calling A Civil War Slave Escapes By Sea
FREEDOM CALLING is a page-turner packed with action, emotion, romance and adventure - vibrantly painted with powerful characters, vivid imagery and factual details of the Civil War era.
Runaway slaves ...more
Runaway slaves ...more
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