This Is My Dirt: Stories of St. Simons Island and Coastal Georgia

This Is My Dirt: Stories of St. Simons Island and Coastal Georgia is a public presentation showcasing Mercer University students’ research of the slave cemetery at the former Retreat Plantation on St. Simons Island, Georgia. Students will present digital stories they produced using information collected from interviews with the descendants of those buried at Retreat’s slave cemetery. The students will also present a registry of all individuals now known to be buried on the grounds. Dr. Diana Ramey Berry, Oliver H. Radkey Regents Fellow in History at the University of Texas at Austin, an expert in the history of gender and slavery in the United States, will lecture and meet with students and local residents. This project is part of a larger, multi-year effort to document and preserve the history of African-Americans on St. Simons Island and throughout coastal Georgia. This event is sponsored by a grant from Georgia Humanities.

Image: The Harrington School, Saint Simons African American Heritage Coalition