Historic Sotterley will host a daylong program on November 1, 2025, blending Maryland Emancipation Day observances with the One Maryland One Book initiative, featuring discussions on ancestry and storytelling drawn from the 2025 statewide book selection. The free event, running from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 44300 Sotterley Lane, requires registration due to limited seating and aims to connect participants with their family histories through panels, workshops and performances.
Organized in partnership with Maryland Humanities, the program centers on Kin: Rooted in Hope, a 2024 poetry collection by Carole Boston Weatherford with illustrations by her son Jeffery Boston Weatherford. The book traces the authors’ family lineage from colonial Maryland through enslavement to emancipation, weaving personal genealogy with broader narratives of Black resilience and identity. Weatherford, a prolific poet and Newbery Honor recipient, collaborated with her son to document ties to early settlers and enslaved ancestors, offering readers tools for their own root-seeking endeavors.
November 1 holds particular weight in Maryland as Emancipation Day, commemorating the 1864 state constitution that abolished slavery and freed more than 87,000 people statewide, including 33,295 in Southern Maryland counties like St. Mary’s. Voters ratified the document on October 13, 1864, with the change taking effect the following day, though celebrations often align with November 1 to honor the document’s adoption. In St. Mary’s County, where agriculture dominated, emancipation disrupted tobacco plantations, prompting shifts to sharecropping arrangements that bound many freed families to former enslavers’ lands under exploitative terms. Local histories document how these transitions fueled migrations to urban centers and ongoing economic disparities, even as communities built institutions like churches and mutual aid societies.
Historic Sotterley, a 300-year-old tobacco plantation along the Patuxent River, embodies this legacy. Established in 1703 by European settlers, the site relied on enslaved labor for its operations until the mid-19th century. Enslaved people numbered in the dozens at various points, contributing to structures like the restored 1830s slave cabin, one of the few surviving examples in Maryland. The plantation’s Descendants Project, launched to document connections to its history, now includes a registry of over 300 individuals tracing ancestry to those who lived and labored there. In May 2025, Gwendoline Bankins became the site’s first descendant president, succeeding Nancy Easterling after two decades of leadership focused on inclusive storytelling.
The Sotterley event underscores these threads, with programming designed to illuminate descendant perspectives. Doors open at 9 a.m., followed by a welcome from Easterling at 9:30 a.m. and a land acknowledgement at 9:40 a.m. Olivia Smith, from St. Mary’s County Library, delivers the keynote at 9:50 a.m., addressing public access to genealogical records through resources like the Maryland State Archives and online databases such as Ancestry.com, which hold digitized census data, wills and plantation ledgers crucial for Southern Maryland research.
At 10:05 a.m., performer Ms. Story launches a series of living history vignettes, reenacting chapters of enslaved life at Sotterley across three sessions through 3:15 p.m. These draw from oral histories and archaeological findings, including artifacts unearthed in descendant-led digs that reveal daily realities from cooking tools to personal adornments. The 10:40 a.m. descendant panel, moderated by Merideth Taylor, features Bankins, Dante Eubanks, Kelsey Bush, Tre Lancaster-Smith and Nocola Williams, who will share experiences of tracing roots amid fragmented records—a common challenge in St. Mary’s, where courthouse fires in 1831 destroyed early documents.
Creative writing workshops led by Caitlyn Hunter, a local author specializing in narrative nonfiction, occur at 11:25 a.m. and 1:40 p.m., guiding attendees in crafting personal stories inspired by Kin. An open mic at 2:15 p.m. invites poetry and reflections, fostering community exchange. Dave Brown presents at 2:40 p.m. on The Barber Family and his forthcoming work on Agnes Kane Callum, a pivotal Sotterley descendant who co-founded the Descendants Project in the 1990s. Callum’s efforts preserved oral traditions from figures like Hilry Kane, an enslaved man who navigated emancipation and Reconstruction at the site.
Lunch from noon to 1:15 p.m. allows time for manor house tours and exhibits on Sotterley’s evolution, including its post-emancipation role in tenant farming. Aunt Titty’s Food Truck provides onsite purchases, with boxed lunch pre-orders forthcoming. The day closes at 3:45 p.m. with remarks, book sales and signings.
Maryland Humanities’ One Maryland One Book, active since 2007, selects titles annually to spark statewide dialogues, often tying into cultural milestones. Past choices like The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates explored similar themes of freedom and heritage. In Southern Maryland, libraries in Leonardtown and Lexington Park host related discussions, complementing Sotterley’s focus on site-specific history. Registration via Eventbrite ensures accessibility, with accommodations for those exploring St. Mary’s waterways or nearby Hollywood landmarks beforehand.
This gathering aligns with broader 2025 Emancipation Day activities across Maryland, from walking tours in Rockville to apologies for slavery’s legacy in Anne Arundel County. At Sotterley, it advances a commitment to “uncomfortable conversations,” a phrase coined by descendants to frame dialogues on the plantation’s past without evasion. Participants can expect a space for reflection on how 1864’s freedoms ripple into modern identity, supported by practical genealogy tips from experts like Smith, who notes that DNA testing through platforms like 23andMe has connected dozens of Sotterley kin in recent years.
For Southern Maryland residents, the event offers a gateway to local archives, such as the St. Mary’s County Historical Society, which holds ledgers detailing post-emancipation labor contracts. These records, digitized in phases since 2010, reveal how freed families negotiated wages and land access amid tobacco’s decline. The program’s emphasis on storytelling echoes efforts like the site’s annual Slave Dwelling Revival, where overnight stays in the restored cabin immerse visitors in preserved narratives.
