06/10/2023
In the wake of the Civil War, African Americans were faced with many challenges concerning their future. Having gained their freedom, issues of land ownership, labor relations, and civil and political rights all remained unsettled. The battle over these rights was born out during the Reconstruction Era, a time which saw several major gains coupled with heartbreaking setbacks and reversals. These struggles and debates, these victories and defeats, took place all over the United States. From the halls of Congress, to local churches and schoolhouses, rural communities and major cities, the contest to define the parameters of that freedom took on many forms.
Fort Frederica National Monument is pleased to announce our inclusion into the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network. At Fort Frederica, the Robert Abbott monument stands as a memorial to his ancestors who were enslaved on St. Simons Island but lived to see the dawn of freedom. The location of a small cemetery from the Reconstruction Era, in which Robert Abbott’s ancestors rest, was recently discovered. Robert Abbott himself is a testament to the struggle to gain an education and create a business in the face of racial discrimination and Jim Crow. We are proud to be a part of this network and to be connected to sites across the nation which strive to tell the complex stories of this era.
Friends of Fort Frederica
