The Local Take discovered The Weeping Time story in 2016 and has actively participated in the annual commemorations starting in 2017. The story of one of the largest sales of enslaved humans took place on March 2nd and 3rd 1859. The majority of those put on the auction block were from the Butler Island Rice Plantation in Darien, Georgia others were from the Hampton Cotton Plantation on Saint Simons Island. Two books The Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation 1838-1839 by Frances "Fannie" Kemble and Major Butler's Legacy - Five Generations of a Slave Holding Family by Malcolm Bell recall the lives of those oppressed by the institution of slavery in the United States.
The January/February 2025 Smithsonian magazine recounts the story of Butler Island Plantation with photographs from Sheila Pree Bright. Bright an internationally fine art photographer whose work is currently on exhibition at several museums joins us today to speak about her photographs.
I asked Bright how she came to provide photographs to the Smithsonian Museum Magazine and she shared that she pitched the story to the Smithsonian after learning about the story in 2022 after seeing murals in Brunswick, GA during the Armaud Arbery murder charge. The Arbery Family are descendants of enslaved from The Weeping Time.
Bright spoke about speaking with Elder Griffin Lotson and learning more about the story. She also got an opportunity to speak with Mother Eunice Moore. She explains that her portrait resulted from asking questions and listening. After some minutes she felt Mother Eunice’s spirit and then she took the picture.
I asked Bright about her current exhibitions and she shared that an exhibition in Southern California may be extended due to the fires and there is also an exhibition in Northern California and more to come in 2025.
The Weeping Time Commemoration is taking place February 27th - March 1st in Savannah and Darien, GA. For more information visit The Weeping Time Commemoration Page on Facebook.
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