february, 2020
Event Details
Join us for Book Club at the Morris Center. This Spring, we are discussing Rebecca Bruff’s Trouble the Water.
About the Book
Inspired by the life of an unsung American hero, Trouble the Water navigates the rich tributaries of courage, betrayal, and redemption. In his inspiring journey, Robert Smalls witnesses great privilege and suffering alongside his owner’s daughter and the dangerous son of a firebrand secessionist. At the age of twelve, he’s sent to work in Charleston, where he loads ships and learns to pilot a cotton steamer. When the Civil War erupts and his cotton steamer becomes a confederate warship, Robert seizes the opportunity to pursue freedom for himself and the people he loves.
Event Details
Through first-person storytelling and reenactment, this special program engages the audience with poignant and informative accounts honoring the legacies of Harriet Tubman and Robert Smalls. This free presentation is part of the center’s celebration of Black History Month and is tied into the current exhibit, Beyond the Oaks. At the conclusion of the program, the audience is invited to participate in a question and answer time.
Hilton Head resident Cora Miller is well known for her inspiring portrayal of Harriet Tubman. Miller improvises based on her in-depth knowledge of the abolitionist, whose courageous work helped free over 700 enslaved people in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. Those who have seen Miller perform are impressed with her believable transformation and touched by the stories from Tubman’s past which are often left untold.
Noted for his dynamic presentations of famous African Americans, historian and former educator Donald Sweeper will bring to life the experiences of Civil War hero Robert Smalls. Smalls was an enslaved man who escaped to freedom, became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and eventually owned the South Carolina plantation on which he had been enslaved.
