Greetings All,
Thanks to Brian for inviting me to join the forum and talk up our site and October 4th event.
Brian wanted me to give a bit of information about it.
This is a joint event with Old Salem, exploring the sensative topic of slave revolts both in an urban setting (old salem) and a plantation/rural setting (historic brattonsville).
Historic Brattonsville's event will interpretet Dec 1960 and be comprised of ongoing activities/interpretations and scheduled performances of scripted scenarios.
Event background:
The late 1850's marked a rise in abolitionism in the south, and caused many communites and plantations to tighten their grip, and get back on their heels regarding the topic of slavery. Vigilance associations popped up in nearly every community, and the area around Brattonsville was no different. Early December 1860, Bethesda Presbyterian Church (the bratton family's church) formed the Bethesda Vigilance Association, of which John Simpson Bratton Jr. was appointed the first secretery. They formed patrol companies, created their own rules and laws, and broke up any suspicious meeting and inspected any suspicous person white or black, that entered their community.
Later that month, John Daniel McConnell, of McConnellsville SC (their family home was actually moved to brattonsville in the 1980's) approached one of his slaves who he suspected of stealing money. Upon interrogating his slave he learned of a planned slave revolt that was being fueled by an abolitionist family, the Pughs, who had moved into the area.
To make a long story short, the local militia, the Turkey Creek Minutemen formed up and stormed the Pugh cabin, resulting in a shoot out and the arrest of the entire family.
They were taken before the Bethesda Vigilance Association and punished by the Bratton overseers and then shipped out of of the state via railroad.

I would like to recreate some of the events, including the shootout, and thats where I need you guys

I apologize for the long post, and hope to talk to you all about this further. Please let me know if you have any questions, concerns etc.
Cheers,
Jon

I appreciate your compliments and I am honored that we would receive such an invite. Hopefully a good many of us can take advantage of this.

In 2007 I had planned on recruiting 5-6 mess members to attend campaigner/ living history events in SC and elsewhere. Since that time I hope to organize a larger "historical interpreters" that would serve a larger purpose and fill a void that is missing in South Carolina.

I hope that we can expand our membership outside of SC, our 150th commemorations will travel to Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Florida and Maryland. We could use help and members in each of these states. One does not have to be a resident of SC to join the Tramp Brigade.

I am hoping to have a program in 2012 for Kinston and a provost patrol in Wilmington.

Sincerely

Greg Deese

I think what you guys are doing is awesome. As a reenactor myself (Rev War and 1830-40), I have become tired of the "powder burn" type events and been more focused on events and programs that focus more on living history/immersion.
I'm pretty excited that you guys are interested and think that there is real potential for future living history events such as this.
If any of you who live closer to the museum(york county) are interested in coming and checking out the site and talking about possibilities just let me know.
I emailed Brian a registration for for the OCT 4th weekend.

Thanks all,
Jon Failor
Historic Brattonsville