[092]WARTIME FREEDOM SYMPOSIUM FOCUSES ON SLAVERY’S END

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 15, 2008
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Lisa L. Rollins, lrollins@mtsu.edu or 615-898-2919

, BRINGS NATIONALLY KNOWN SPEAKERS TO MURFREESBORO

(MURFREESBORO)—History buffs and students alike are encouraged to attend “The Legacy of Stones River: Pathways to Freedom” in Murfreesboro, an Oct. 18 symposium focusing on the demise of slavery during the Civil War and feature distinguished speakers.
The Saturday event will get under way beginning at 8 a.m. at the Rutherford County Courthouse, while living-history program will take place in the afternoon at Fortress Rosecrans and Stones River National Battlefield. Symposium activities are slated to conclude at about 4 p.m., organizers reported.
Event speakers will be Dr. Barbara J. Fields, history professor at Columbia University; Dr. William W. Freehling, senior fellow at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities; and Dr. Robert E. Hunt, MTSU history professor.
“We are thrilled to have such great speakers on our program,” said Antoinette van Zelm, historian for the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area, one of the event’s coordinating organizations.
“The Heritage Area has made the story of emancipation one of its priorities over the years,” she added, “and the symposium is a terrific place to tell this important story.”
About 150 people are expected to attend the upcoming “Legacy of Stones River” symposium that is now in its fifth incarnation, noted van Zelm.
In addition to the TCWNHA, the National Park Service will serve as co-coordinator for the symposium. Other sponsors include the MTSU history department, Eastern National, Friends of Stones River National Battlefield Inc. and MTSU’s Center for Historic Preservation.
The symposium will get started with a continental breakfast and registration at 8 a.m. at the Rutherford County Courthouse, with music from the Nashville Old-Time String Band during breakfast serving as a program highlight.
The speakers will begin at 9 a.m. with Columbia’s Fields, an authority on the transition from slavery to freedom in the United States, who has written and co-authored several books on the topic, includng “Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground: Maryland During the 19th Century”(1985), “Slaves No More: Three Essays on Emancipation and the Civil War” (1992) and “Free at Last: A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom and the Civil War” (1992).
“Dr. Fields is also well known for her contribution to the PBS series ‘The Civil War’ (that was) produced by Ken Burns,” van Zelm said.
Next, scholar Freehling—who has taught at the University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins University, the State University of New York at Buffalo, and the University of Kentucky—is set to speak.

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“He has written and edited several groundbreaking books on the Civil War and on the secession crisis leading to the war,” van Zelm said.
Among his titles are the two-volume “The Road to Disunion” (1990-2007), “The Reintegration of American History: Slavery and the Civil War” (1994) and “The South vs. the South: How Anti-Confederate Southerners Shaped the Course of the Civil War” (2001).
MTSU’s Hunt—who has worked on numerous Civil War programs and projects with local and regional groups, including Fort Negley, Stones River National Battlefield and the Tennessee Backroads Heritage Association—will round out the morning program.
A member of MTSU’s history faculty since 1989, Hunt is completing a manuscript titled “The Good Men Who Won the War” that focuses on attitudes toward emancipation among members of the Army of the Cumberland, which occupied Murfreesboro and its environs under Gen. William S. Rosecrans after the Battle of Stones River.
Afternoon activities will include “Fighting for Their Freedom” at Fortress Rosecrans. The 13th United States Colored Infantry re-enactment group will drill and talk about the transformation that took place when formerly enslaved men became soldiers fighting for the Union cause.
In addition, van Zelm offered, “Rising from the Ashes: The Cemetery Community” will be offered at the battlefield. A National Park Service ranger will walk groups through the battlefield’s nearby cemetery neighborhood, one of Rutherford County’s historic African-American communities.
“The story of wartime emancipation is a story inextricably linked to the Battle of Stones River,” said Park Ranger Jim Lewis. “The battle was fought in part to support the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Federal occupation after the battle all but destroyed slavery in the area as slaves took the initiative to leave their masters and seize their freedom.”
Lewis also noted that the afternoon programs will “help visitors understand two of the most important results of emancipation: the creation of the United States Colored Troops and the eventual formation of thriving black communities in the South.”
• REGISTRATION: Registration is $10 per person. Registration brochures are available on the Web at http://histpres.mtsu.edu/tncivwar or http://www.nps.gov/stri.
For additional registration information, please call the battlefield at (615) 893-9501.


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