In Helena, Freedom Park follows paths of freed slaves

Thousands of slaves during the Civil War followed Union troops across Arkansas into what is now Helena-West Helena, where a new tribute to those freedom-seekers is to recall their plight.

Through interpretive exhibits, Freedom Park is meant to follow the path of those who went from being fugitive slaves to Union contraband to free men and even part of the Union Army fighting Confederates in the Battle of Helena, which marks its 150th anniversary July 4.

Freedom Park, to be dedicated at noon Saturday, is a key part of Civil War Helena’s initiative to highlight the city’s history as part of the Civil War Sesquicentennial observance. Construction began in July.

“This is another piece of the Civil War Helena projectcoming together,” said Cathy Cunningham, community development consultant with Southern Bancorp Community Partners, a primary group involved with the project.

“It helps to tell a rich partof the whole Civil War story that Helena has,” Cunningham said.

Helena and West Helena consolidated in 2006.

Fort Curtis, a block-long replica of a Union fort used during the Battle of Helena, opened last spring. It draws about 500 visitors monthly, Cunningham said. Freedom Park at 750 Biscoe St. (U.S. 49 Business), is about a mile south of the rebuilt Fort Curtis, between downtown and the U.S. 49 Mississippi River Bridge.

Freedom Park consists of five exhibits, Cunningham said. The centerpoint features interpretive panels telling about Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation - which declared slaves in rebelling states free - and extending to the modern civil-rights movement.

Freedom Park is already a nationally designated site forthe Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

After a victory at Pea Ridge in December 1862 in Northwest Arkansas, Union troops marched across the state to the Mississippi River. The Union Army of the Southwest began occupying Helena on July 12, 1862, “making Helena a key Union post for the remainder of the war,” said Mark Christ, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Heritage and Historic Preservation.

As elsewhere throughout the South, wherever Union troops headed, fugitive slaves followed, Christ said.

“The remarkable thing is when they marched into Helena, there were thousands and thousands of African-American slaves who had fled the plantations and followed the army to Helena for a better life, for freedom,” Christ said. “Men, women and children left those plantations. This initial influx consisted of all Arkansas people.

“Helena is where the troops were,” he said.

Declaring the refugee slaves as contraband allowed the army to keep them behind Union lines, protecting them from being returned to plantation masters from whom they had escaped, Christ said. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation didn’t take effect until Jan. 1, 1863.

Eventually, the freed slaves were allowed to join the Union forces, Christ said. The first Arkansas regiment of African descent was recruited, he added, totaling 5,526 blacks who would serve in Arkansas units for the Union.

“The Second Arkansans of African Descent helped defend the Union line on the south side of town,” duringthe Battle of Helena, Christ said.

The Battle of Helena opened the Union’s path to overtake Little Rock later in the year. Freedom Park is vital to revealing more about the people, Cunningham said, than just the fighting that happened during the Civil War.

When the project is complete, there will be 25 different sites in town with exhibits. The community-basedproject is intended to spur tourism and economic development in the area, she said.

“We are talking about certain points about the battle, but also about the four years that the Union army occupied Helena and what happened to those left behind,” Cunningham said. “What happened to the women and the children and to the freedom seekers who came in and the people that were here.

“We think it’s unique to be telling the whole story,” she said. “There’s so much more to it than just the battle.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/18/2013

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