John Lawson Legacy Days

• All Day Events include:

  • Civil War and Colonial Encampments​

  • Black Beard History Presentations, 

  • Tours of the Grifton Museum and Indian Village

  • Fossil pit activities with the Aurora

  • Beaufort Pirate Invasion

  • Tuscarora Indians

  • Children's Activities

  • Food Trucks

  • Ropemaking, Soap making, old tractors and engines, blacksmithing, primitive technologies, and much more.

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• 9:30 - Guest Speaker - Charles Ewen, Ph.D - Opening the Deadman’s Chest: Exploring the Archaeology of Piracy

• Interpreting piracy is challenging given the secretive nature of criminal behavior. Add over a century of
  fictional portrayals and a skewed vision is all but assured. Historical archaeology, by combining the
  documentary record with recovered artifacts allows for a reconstruction of the every-day life of the
  pirate. On-going research on the Queen Anne’s Revenge and other pirate sites have allowed us to get
  past the imagery of Treasure Island to a more realistic portrayal of pirates​

• Professor of Anthropology at East Carolina University.  Co-edited:  X Marks the Spot:  The Archaeology of Piracy, Pieces of Eight:  More Archaeology of Piracy, and Dead Man's Chest:  Exploring the Archaeology of Piracy.

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• 10:30 - Guest Speaker - Scott Huler - “Live-Tweeting the 18th Century” - retracing the steps of John Lawson
  Scott Huler is the author of seven books of nonfiction, including A Delicious Country, the book resulting from this project. He has written on everything from the death penalty to bikini waxing, from NASCAR racing to the stealth bomber, for such newspapers as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Los Angeles Times and such magazines as Backpacker, Fortune, and ESPN. His award-winning radio work has been heard on "All Things Considered" and "Day to Day" on National Public Radio and on "Marketplace" and "Splendid Table" on American Public Media. He has been a staff writer for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Raleigh News & Observer and a staff reporter and producer for Nashville Public Radio. He was the founding and managing editor of the Nashville City Paper. He has taught at such colleges as Berry College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His books have been translated into five languages.
  
  He was 2011 Piedmont Laureate in Creative nonfiction and a 2002-2003 Knight-Wallace Fellow at Michigan. For the Lawson project he was a 2014-2015 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.
  
  Currently senior writer at Duke Magazine, he lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife, the writer June Spence, and their two sons

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• 1:30 - Guest  Speaker - Scott Dawson - Speaking on Croatan Archaeological Society

• Beginning in 2009 the Croatoan Archaeological Society partnered with Mark Horton of the University of Bristol and a host of scientists from around the world to excavate the Native American villages on Hatteras Island. What they found were over 100,000 artifacts from the Croatoan tribe and an English colony they adopted in 1587. Yes, the lost colony, as they became named thanks to a myth created in 1937 to market Roanoke Island tourism. The Hatteras digs have been featured on too many television shows to list including HBO, Discovery, Travel, Science, National Geographic and PBS. The lost colony story we were told in school was a lie. The real tragedy is that as a result of the myth, the Croatoan people were erased from history to prop up the fake mystery. Come meet Scott Dawson, president of the Croatoan Archaeological Society, author, historian and 9th generation native of Hatteras Island. See real artifacts and learn the truth.

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