Opinion: Researching the Stories of Natchez

Essay by Bobby L. Dennis, executive director of the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture

#VisitNatchez

This essay appeared in the Dec. 2, 2022 issue of The Natchez Democrat (Natchez, Miss.)

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Researching the stories of Natchez

 

By Bobby L. Dennis

 
Since re-opening the Natchez Museum of African American Culture after the easing of Covid 19, the interest in the contributions of the African American society that helped establish and shape this community have grown tremendously.
 
With the help of Visit Natchez, and through a grant provided by Mississippi Humanities Council, the museum has been able to extend its reach through advertising, educational programing, and exhibits that depict the culture of African Americans through their role in the development of Natchez as freemen, slave and freedmen. Through our work with the Natchez Historical Society, the National Park Service, and most importantly, the local citizens, our community has enabled us to give a more complete story of the important role the African American has played in the development of our city.
 
Being able to see the benefits of our work to preserve the sacrifices and contributions of African Americans in the development of Natchez is becoming more prevalent. The exposure of our website (www.visitnapac.net), along with video interviews in relevant venues, has begun to give measurable data that informs us of our contributions to the Natchez community and tourism through the distribution of stories of the life of people of slavery, reconstruction, civil rights, and today.
 
Over the past six months I have fielded calls from researchers, descendants, and inquisitive readers, seeking information on African American families from colonization through civil rights. Over half of these callers have scheduled or are planning to visit our city to experience and learn more of what they have read or heard. One of the callers was Rukhsane Khan, a children’s book writer and storyteller from Toronto Canada. She and her son, Ismall Alli, have just completed a week’s stay here researching and putting the final touches to her new book on Abdul Rahman Ibrahima. Ibrahima was the African prince who was captured and sold to slave traders and later taken to the United States in 1788. He spent nearly 40 years as a slave in the Natchez area.
 
To have an internationally acclaimed author visit Natchez and the museum seeking the people side of the Ibrahima story speaks volumes of what we have to offer visitors from all countries.
 
Natchez, being the oldest settlement on the Mississippi, developed primarily through the French, English, and Spanish cultures. When people talk about this history, they sometimes forget to mention the African culture that was brought along with them. Those that came of free will, as well as those that were taken and enslaved, with each having skills and talents which have contributed to the building of this city. We, here at the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture, are proud to be preservers of their stories, letting our visitors see us through the eyes of those people who lived it. Horrors, sacrifices, accomplishments, are all a part of the stories but through it all we show relationships being built to continue to carry this community forward.
 
Today is tomorrow’s history, and we write it as we want it told.
 
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Bobby L. Dennis is the executive director of the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture.