A historic interpreter in period clothing can come to groups in the region during Black History Month to discuss the utensils used in the daily life of plantation residents in 1843.
Somerset Place State Historic Site will share the “Made from Off the Land” exhibit this month with a local church congregation and to third through fifth grade students at a Washington County school. Other groups can request to have the outreach program come to them.
The exhibit includes reproduction gourd bowls, drinking dippers, ladles and spoons that are very similar to those commonly used. The interpreter will explain how these objects were utilized during meal preparations for the enslaved or employed white families at Somerset Plantation.
Other tools to be explained in the hands-on exhibit include sedge baskets and brooms, black gum chewing sticks, and corn husk dolls, gourd drums, reed flutes and whistles. All the objects are reproduction items to help illustrate what life was like on the Somerset Plantation.
Any school, church or organization can request to have the outreach exhibit presented to them by calling Somerset Place at (252) 797-4560 or emailing the interpretive staff at somerset@ncdcr.gov.
Somerset Place is a representative state historic site offering a comprehensive view of 19th century life on a large North Carolina plantation. The plantation once encompassed more than 100,000 acres. Over its 80-year history, more than 861 enslaved African Americans lived and worked at Somerset.
For additional information, please call (252) 797-4560. Somerset Place is located at 2572 Lake Shore Rd., Creswell. It is administered by the Division of State Historic Sites in the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.