The first tobacco planters in the Washington DC area lived in what is
now Prince George's County, Maryland. They later moved west, but since
they needed to be close to a river if they were to send the tobacco to
England and since the last port for that with access to the sea was
Georgetown, they never got much farther west than the Sugarland area of
Montgomery County. It supposedly got its name from the sugar maple
trees, and, lying between the Seneca and Monocacy Rivers, it had a rich
soil. Yet the tobacco wore out the soil, and so slavery, which was
largely the product of a tobacco economy, began to wane. The result was
a series of small black communities that were dropped along the Potomac
River. They trace the westward movement, and failure, of tobacco.
Today was Heritage Day in Montgomery County, and I went to the historic
church at Sugarland that was built by one such black community.
Gwendora Reese took a leading role in preserving the
community's history. In this picture, Gwen is holding my book, and I
didn't even pay her. The church was built by freed slaves and is no
longer used as a church. Instead, it serves as a kind of historical
marker of what Montgomery County once was and a wonderful venue for
events. Gwen and others have done a great job in cataloging the founding black families in Sugarland, including the Johnsons and Hebrons. Those families aren't mentioned in my book but two of the old families are: the Dorseys and the Weedons.
The first tobacco planters in the Washington DC area lived in what is
now Prince George's County, Maryland. They later moved west, but since
they needed to be close to a river if they were to send the tobacco to
England and since the last port for that with access to the sea was
Georgetown, they never got much farther west than the Sugarland area of
Montgomery County. It supposedly got its name from the sugar maple
trees, and, lying between the Seneca and Monocacy Rivers, it had a rich
soil. Yet the tobacco wore out the soil, and so slavery, which was
largely the product of a tobacco economy, began to wane. The result was
a series of small black communities that were dropped along the Potomac
River. They trace the westward movement, and failure, of tobacco.
Today was Heritage Day in Montgomery County, and I went to the historic
church at Sugarland that was built by one such black community.
Gwendora Reese took a leading role in preserving the
community's history. In this picture, Gwen is holding my book, and I
didn't even pay her. The church was built by freed slaves and is no
longer used as a church. Instead, it serves as a kind of historical
marker of what Montgomery County once was and a wonderful venue for
events. Gwen and others have done a great job in cataloging the founding black families in Sugarland, including the Johnsons and Hebrons. Those families aren't mentioned in my book but two of the old families are: the Dorseys and the Weedons.
