Welcome to
Freedom Stories!
Freedom Stories is a two-year initiative between a coalition of organizations and agencies in Prince George’s County, Maryland to provide antiracist and social justice programs. It discovers the histories, stories, names, and places where freedom from enslavement and oppression began in Prince George’s County. Through dialogue facilitated by programs, Freedom Stories strives to connect legacy to present day Prince George’s families and provide insight into the determination and resilience of black people living in Prince George’s County in the 1700’s. We explore history to create a more just and equitable present experience.
PROGRAMS PRODUCED IN PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN:
We invite you to join us in a series of programs and events via our specially curated calendar. Click the images below to learn more.
ABOUT DAUGHTER OF THE MERCIFUL DEEP: "Our home began, as all things do, with a wish." Jane Edwards hasn't spoken since she was eleven years old, when armed riders expelled her family from their hometown along with every other Black resident. Now, twelve years later, she's found a haven in the all-Black town of Awenasa. But the construction of a dam promises to wash her home under the waters of the new lake. Jane will do anything to save the community that sheltered her. So, when a man with uncanny abilities arrives in town asking strange questions, she wonders if he might be the key. But as the stranger hints at gods and ancestral magic, Jane is captivated by a bigger mystery. She knows this man. Only the last time she saw him, he was dead. His body laid to rest in a rushing river. Who is the stranger and what is he really doing in Awenasa? To find those answers, Jane will journey into a sunken world, a land of capricious gods and unsung myths, of salvation and dreams made real. But the flood waters are rising. To gain the miracle she desires, Jane will have to find her voice again and finally face the trauma of the past.
By using sourced material from Maryland State Archives, artists Dwayne Martin, Selena Noir, Khadija Jahmila, and Underdog the DJ have researched, re-imagined, and based these original works on the historical lawsuits known as Freedom Stories.
Out of the Vineyard is a masterful adaptation of the groundbreaking historical work, A Question of Freedom: The Families Who Challenged Slavery from the Nation’s Founding to Civil War by historian William G. Thomas III, for the stage. The audience witnesses visual portrayals of interviews from descendants, historians, and a judge that are intertwined with accounts of their families' pursuit of liberty. Their stories underscore the impact of battles with race and law, resonating with the essence of the pathways to freedom.
“Many Americans see enslaved people in history as a faceless and nameless, victims of a long-ago system that has now disappeared. The nation needs to experience…: a confrontation, a reckoning, with real people, with real histories, with real families whose descendants live among us. Until such encounters happen more widely, Americans will continue to live in separate historical spheres of understanding.”
