Hillsborough hosts living history day, offers a glimpse into Orange County's role in Revolution

On Saturday, The Alliance for Historic Hillsborough held its annual Revolutionary War Living History Day, an event to commemorate Hillsborough’s role in revolutionary history.

The event had four separate sites throughout Hillsborough including the Hillsborough Visitor Center, the Burwell School, the Orange County Historical Museum and an Occaneechi Replica Village. 

The event included  firing demonstrations, a speaker series on the Black and Occaneechi experience during the Revolutionary War and a walking tour throughout the Town’s historic district. 

Kelly Arnold, the programs and events coordinator for the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough, said the event was originally created more than 20 years ago to commemorate General Charles Cornwallis, a British general who occupied Hillsborough. More recently, the event has been focused on bringing together many different voices from the Revolutionary period to give the community insight into Hillsborough's past.

“We have the military folks, we have the folks who are talking about what would the free, mostly white civilian population be looking like,” Arnold said. “But you also have to acknowledge that there were African-Americans that were here and there were Indigenous folks that were here and talking about what those experiences looked like is just as important.”  

The State Archives of North Carolina displayed the original North Carolina State Constitution at the Hillsborough Visitor Center, as well as the Fifth Provincial Congress’ Declaration of Rights and John Adam’s “Thoughts on Government.” 

The visitor center also had reenactments of the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers, a British militia, as well as musket firing demonstrations, revolutionary period cooking, clothing and sewing demonstrations and a brass rubbings and gaming tavern. 

Outside the visitors center, Freddie Parker, a professor at North Carolina Central University, spoke from the speakers tent about the Black experience in Revolutionary War era North Carolina. Former N.C. House of Representatives Clerk and local author Carmen Cauthen also spoke about Black patriots in the American Revolution. 

Cauthen said the older generation should make clear that when things happen there's more than one side to the story and it’s important to hear all sides and see that all people are represented.

“It's important for young people to recognize that everybody who's here in this country has a piece of the history, and it's not just one group or one side’s version,” Cauthen said. 

The Historical Museum hosted a colonial hair and make-up exhibit, as well as other kids activities. 

The Occaneechi Replica Village events included a living history of Occaneechi town, traditional cooking demonstrations and an artisan marketplace.  Lawrence Dunmore III, a tribal historian, also spoke about the Occaneechi experience in the Revolution. 

The site at the Burwell School, a part of the National Registry for Historic Places, hosted a guided tour of the building, fife and drum demonstrations, ax throwing, quill and ink writing stations and a colonial marketplace. 

Ashley Low, the visitor services coordinator and the historic coordinator at the Burwell School, said the school tells the story of Mary Lincoln’s dressmaker Elizabeth Keckly, who was enslaved at the Burwell site for six years. She then bought her freedom and became an activist and founded the Contraband Relief Association.

“We don't fall within the parameters of the Revolution, but for the American Revolution and the story in Hillsborough, we're trying to tell a little bit of a broader story about freedom seeking and what it means to be an American,” Low said. 

Jack Barry, the chief financial officer at Harmoni Towers, attended the event with his family and said they came to enjoy the nice day and learn some history. 

“The saying is always ‘if you don't know your history, you're doomed to repeat it,” Barry said. “There's some good, some bad in the Revolutionary War. So the more knowledge they have, the more equipped they are going forward”.

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