The last ship to bring slaves to America arrived in Alabama’s Mobile Bay in 1860, carrying in its hull more than 100 Africans who had been kidnapped from their villages and sold into slavery. The slavers hid the evidence of their illegal operation by burning and sinking the Clotilda in the Mobile River Delta. For…
September 25, 1998. A hot and humid Friday in Mebane, North Carolina. With the sun bearing down, a landscaping crew worked to cut grass next to a billboard near the intersection of interstates 85 and 40. One of the workers noticed something that looked out of place under the billboard. As he approached, he discovered…
One of the most detailed records of daily life along Louisiana’s Cane River was told through the paintings of a self taught folk artist who lived on Melrose Plantation near Natchitoches. Her art is treasured history and remains a favorite among folk art collectors. For decades, a trio of suspects took advantage of her works,…
A panther trapping, gator wrestling Florida man once called an area along the Loxahatchee River home. He lived as a recluse in the 1930s. But by the 1940s he was hosting wealthy tourists from Jupiter Island. They visited his river jungle zoo that became one of the top attractions in the area. On July 30,1968,…
In 1833 Frankie Silver was hanged in Morganton, North Carolina for the gruesome ax murder of her husband Charlie Silver in their mountain home in Kona, North Carolina. The story of the murder has lived on for generations through the southern murder ballad of Frankie Silver. Ballads keep tragic stories of the past alive. But…
