| Summary: | This presentation builds on the ongoing work of accessioning and archiving thousands of court documents, business records, and family letters held by the Wilderness Road Regional Museum in Newbern, Pulaski County, Virginia. Built to respond to the trade associated with the movement to the Old Southwest and Northwest territories in the early days of the American republic, Newbern was once the commercial center of this part of Southwest Virginia. With the migrations associated with the industrialization of Appalachia, and the decline of the agrarian economy, Newbern and the rest of Pulaski County have endured a long decline, in both economic vitality and in the vitality of its civic life. Focusing on several heretofore-undocumented stories and records of African Americans in Newbern, this presentation outlines the extent to which this community along the Great Road was forged in the crucible of American slavery. Building on the work of David Blight in Race and Reunion, the presentation suggests ways in which that legacy and those newly found stories can contribute to building a new public memory for this place, for America, and for Appalachia, which, as Blight makes clear, can reinvigorate civic life.
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