Poplar Grove Plantation: From American Revolution to American Civil War | Luncheon Lecture | Historical Society of Topsail Island | Missiles and More Museum

Poplar Grove Plantation:
From American Revolution
To American Civil War
Luncheon & Lecture

Historical Society of Topsail Island

Poplar Grove Plantation:
From American Revolution
To American Civil War
Lecture by Caroline C. Lewis

Luncheon Lecture

March 14, 2024 11:00 AM

The Historical Society of Topsail Island is proud to present Caroline C. Lewis who will speak about The Poplar Grove Plantation: From American Revolution to the American Civil War.

About our speaker…

Caroline C. Lewis has roots in Pender County, NC, attending Wallace Elementary School during her 2nd grade year when a new school was built in 1974, the year the elementary school was also integrated. Her mother’s first teaching position that same year was at Penderlea.

She graduated from UNCW with a degree in English and Creative Writing, and in 1999, received her Master of Fine Arts for Poets & Writers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She held faculty positions in the English Departments of several community colleges in upstate New York, and as the English Department Chair at the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College in Little Rock, led the college through its accreditation process for the Higher Learning Commission for the central United States.

Desiring to return to her roots, Lewis transitioned from higher education by accepting the position of Executive Director of Poplar Grove Foundation Inc. in 2014.

Since then, she has done extensive research on Poplar Grove’s history, as a former indigo plantation during Poplar Grove’s colonial history, and subsequently as a peanut and sweet potato plantation from 1820 through World War II. The “Foy Farm” as it was referred to in the 20th century employed and housed direct descendants from the original enslaved population listed on the 1860 US Slave Schedule. Lewis’ research has significantly contributed to understanding the role of Pender County’s designation as the northern most end of the National Park Service’s Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.

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