In this talk, I’ll present part of the coda of Paper Heroines, where I study Susie King Taylor’s Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd United States Colored Troops, Late 1st S.C. Volunteers (1902) and Elizabeth Hyde Botume’s First Days Amongst the Contrabands (1893) together, side-by-side. Through this diptych, I’ll demonstrate how and why we ought to read women relief workers—and their life writing—in conversation and in community with one another. When we do, we’re able to recover stories of Black women’s lives that have been overlooked or dismissed for too long. 

Mollie Barnes is Associate Professor of English at the University of South Carolina Beaufort, Vice President of the Margaret Fuller Society, and Vice President of Organizational Matters for the Society for the Study of American Women Writers. She has published more than a dozen articles and book chapters on nineteenth-century women writers. Her book—Paper Heroines: Women Writers in Conversation and Community Across the Sea Islands, 1838–1902 (University of South Carolina Press, 2026)—studies the ways women documented their own and one another’s lives in diaries and biographies, focusing especially on the intersection of gender and race. The National Endowment for the Humanities supported this research with a 2023 Summer Stipend. She is completing two new books: Laura Matilda Towne, Abolitionist: Penn School Diaries, 1862–1864 and Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney and Nineteenth-Century Women’s Lives: A Cultural Biography.

This presentation is part of our ongoing collaboration, Historically Speaking, between the Beaufort County Historical Society and the BCPL’s Beaufort District Collection

In some ways, the American Revolution was Beaufort District's first civil war. Join Palmetto Bluff Archaeologist Katie Epps as she discusses the often-overlooked Loyalists of Beaufort District and their actions in the Revolutionary War.

The "Historically Speaking" local history series is brought to you by the Beaufort District Collection and the Beaufort County Historical Society.

Doors open at 10:30 AM.

Speaker Bio: Katie Epps fell in love with history while growing up in Charleston. She earned her undergraduate degree in Anthropology at the College or Charleston and her master's degree from the University of South Carolina. She worked at Palmetto Bluff as a contract archaeologist from 2004-2008 and returned in 2021 as the Assistant Archaeologist. She is now the Director of Cultural Resources and is responsible for the archaeological resources of Palmetto Bluff, conserving the metal artifacts, preparing artifacts for perpetual curation, and working with the Conservancy to ensure the cemeteries are maintained and restored.

During the beginning of the Reconstruction period in Beaufort, South Carolina, a division in the Republican party grew. This political division pitted William C. Morrison and Robert Smalls, heroes of the Planter, against each other. This division in the Republican party was heated and even violent at times and involved some big names in Beaufort history. Reconstruction Era Park Ranger Eric Ellis discusses how this division began and how it played out and impacted the Republican Party of Beaufort’s Reconstruction period. 

Originally from Jacksonville, Eric Ellis joined the US Navy after high school serving in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. After the Navy, Eric attended school at New Mexico State University, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in History and his Master of Arts in Public History and 19th c. US History. After graduation Eric took a position with New Mexico Historic Sites as an Interpretive Ranger. In 2023, Eric accepted a position as a historian for the National Park Service at the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park. In his time with the Park Service, Eric focused his research on Black Landownership during the Reconstruction period and completed research on a variety of topics on the Reconstruction period for the park and park partners.  

This presentation is part of the ongoing collaboration, Historically Speaking, between the Beaufort County Historical Society, and the BCPL’s Beaufort District Collection.

How many of us know that Europeans were in Beaufort almost a century before the Pilgrims first ate turkey at Plymouth Rock?  “Santa Elena” (Saint Helena) was on European charts as a strategically important geographic point from 1526 and became Spain’s premier North American colony 1566-1587. Spanish “La Florida” encompassed all lands from modern Maine thru New Mexico.  From Santa Elena, Florida’s capital until 1576, expeditions and religious missions ranged as far north as the Chesapeake Bay, as far south as Key West…and as far west as Tennessee (our topic).  Captain Juan Pardo was tasked with establishing a highway connecting Parris Island to the silver mines in northern Mexico.  Fort San Juan, just outside today’s Morganton NC was one of the multiple outposts Captain Pardo established during two penetrations of the interior 1566-1568.  Archaeology revealed, and artifacts recovered from the “Berry Site” (contemporary landowners), are direct reflections of Beaufort’s 16th Century history.

Dr. David Moore has worked at the Berry site near Morganton, North Carolina for 25 years and currently directs the summer field school. He has directed major excavations at numerous sites in North Carolina including Hardaway, Warren Wilson, and Berry. His work in the upper Catawba Valley began in 1986 with excavations at the Berry site as part of his dissertation research. He is a faculty member in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Warren Wilson College.

Co-sponsored by the Beaufort County Historical Society and the Beaufort County Library’s Beaufort District Collection, as part of their ongoing “Historically Speaking “ series.