PRINCETON, N.J. — Longtime trustees, researchers, and now authors and educators of the
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Stoutsburg Cemetery Association, two African-American women are on a mission to preserve their history with a book.
Elaine Buck and Beverly Mills are the authors of their book, If These Stones Could Talk: African American Presence in the Sourland Mountains.
These authors will talk about their book at 6 p.m. in Princeton today.
In their book, the authors tell stories of a minority black community in a predominantly white region of central New Jersey, where they offer a window into a part of New Jersey’s past that is missing from the historical records.
“The authors place these stories in the larger context of American history in the areas of slavery, the Civil War, freedom, and civil rights,” says James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era.
“Part genealogy, part history, and part personal memoir, rooted in an amazing amount of research, the book brings to light a rich past that had almost been lost,” says McPherson.
The women started their research to work on their book in 2006 when they got a call for help about the then unofficial burial ground that someone was going to bulldoze.
Soon after, they began a search through the woods for gravestone markers and they also started rummaging through land deeds, making relentless phone calls to state officials, archeologists and reporters, as they began their research.
The authors embarked on a journey through the past to document the land’s hallowed purpose. Kirkus Review has called their mission a “detective-labor-of-love.”
Both women have been board members of the Stoutsburg Cemetery Association that is nestled in New Jersey’s Sourland Mountain region. They have deep familial ties with the area because some of their ancestors are buried there.
So, their book offers readers a look into their African American past.
It states that cemeteries have stories to tell, voices to unearth—and lessons from the past that we can draw upon to better shape the future.
Their book reveal that the Stoutsburg Cemetery was purchased by three Black men in the early 19thCentury as a location to bury Blacks with honor and dignity.
Buck and Mills’s foray into historic preservation work convinced them to go further into connecting African American history to local and national history books, and to even house a museum.
“Our vision for the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum (SSAAM) is to bring awareness about the African American presence and their contributions to this region,” says Buck.
“Through partnership with D&R and the Sourland Conversvancy we intend to preserve and sponsor programs and events about the native ecology, plants and insects from the Sourland Mountains. We are working hand-in-hand with D&R Greenway and the Sourland supporting their vision and working to preserve our history and culture in the Sourland Mountain region.”
Vice President of D&R Greenway, Jay Watson, confirms that, “D&R Greenway is working to preserve lands near the proposed Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum in the area, near their site to support the museum project.”
New Jersey Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman reinforces the mission of the authors.
She says, “Humanity is prone to the unfortunate habit of forgetting, avoiding and altogether rewriting history, particularly when it falls into uncomfortable territory.”
She praised their book for collecting “an important and often forgotten history of central New Jersey, (and) preserving it permanently so that everyone can understand the diverse tapestry of our past.”
The authors will be having a free “Book Talk” discussion of their book today at 6 p.m. at D&R Greenway Johnson Education Center, One Preservation Place, Princeton. rsvp@drgreenway.org, or phone 609-924-4646.
— Follow Michelle Dryden on Twitter @Michelle_Dryden