Event Details

• 05/05/2012

  Location: Downtown Fredericksburg, VA | Map Time: 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM Fee Information: Free Event Contact Name: Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center Contact Phone Number: [phone]

Join us as we commemorate the crossing of 10,000 slaves to freedom in Union lines.

Events for Saturday, May 5 include:

"A Slave's World and Beyond, Fredericksburg" a continuous walking tour offered by NPS historians from 11am-3pm. These tours are free and will depart from historic Market Square, 907 Princess Anne St.

"The Carrying of Stones/Shedding of Slavery's Burden"

At 6:30pm, you are invited to gather in Riverfront park, in front of Shiloh Baptist Church (Old Site)--the former African Baptist Church--to join in a brief ceremony before the procession begins. Participants will carry 300 stones symbolic of the burden of slavery, each with the name of a slave who crossed to freedom attached. From the church, the procession will move down Sophia Street to City Dock. Once in the field below City Dock, participants will separate the names from the stones, and then cast the stones into a pile-symbolically shedding the burden of slavery. The stones will later be used to create a piece of memorial art. Free, registration is not required. The procession will end at about 7:30 at the waterfront below city docks.

"Ten Thousand Lights to Freedom"

Ten Thousand Lights to Freedom will begin at the city docks at 7:30pm. This will be a program with meaning, using music, words of those who were there, theater, readers of power, and storytelling to convey the Journey to Freedom of the Crossing. It will entail music, a narrator, interludes of theater, and readers of power, featuring performers Anthony Campbell, Jim Thomas, and Dana Foddrell-Bland. It will also include the reading names of those who crossed, and 10,000 lights symbolizing freedom for the 10,000 slaves that passed to freedom that spring and summer of 1862. This program is free, and registration is not required. Please bring a lawn chair.