The 2025 Weeping Time Commemoration takes place February 27th - March 1st in Savannah and Darien Georgia. The keynote speaker for this year’s commemoration is Dr. Bertice Berry a former talk show host, comedian, and professor of sociology who earned her Phd at age 26. I had an opportunity to speak with Dr. Berry and I asked her how she learned the story of The Weeping Time. Berry mentioned that she first learned of Frances “Fannie” Kimble author The Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation 1838-1839. From the book, she learned about The Weeping Time.
Berry shares that one of the things that stood out to her was the fact that Butler had homes all over the country, he owned property, in cities, but the creditor would accept those things because the enslaved were the most valuable of all his possessions.
After a life-threatening accident, Berry gained the ability to sew and she speaks about creating a dress that included the names of the over 400 people sold on the auction block at The Weeping TIme in 1859. The dress was greatly admired with a museum administrator asking if it could be donated.
Berry will address The Weeping Time annual commemoration on Saturday, March 1st at Otis J. Brock, III Elementary School in Savannah. Commemoration events begin on Thursday, February 27th at Georgia Southern University Armstrong Campus and culminate on Sunday, March 2nd with a ceremonial wreath laying at Saint Simon’s Island. For more information visit The Weeping Time Commemoration Page on Facebook.