What is the future for books? Many hazard predictions and have ideas, but no one really knows. Movies and television and electronic games all presented new threats, while more recently it is the online world of virtual text, amusement, instant answers and distance socializing that some think has booksellers doomed.

The question is, which is it to be? Bookshop proprietors have been worrying about their own demise since the first appearance of the newspaper. To extinction, however, one does not adapt: one succumbs. They were invited to participate in the event by the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality.'As a bookseller for over 20 years, I am forced to think about and adapt as best I can to constant change. That history, they said, must be preserved and honored. “There’s no mention of it in his book,” Gilliam said.īut both he and his cousin said Northup’s story represents the devastation and death felt by so many slaves and their families in this nation, including in the slave port of Richmond. Some believe Solomon Northup, an educated and skilled writer and musician who was forced into slavery, spent a short time in the Bottom site, but his family believes he only passed through. “How are we going to know what’s under here if we start building a stadium on top of it.” “But let’s make sure we dig first (for history) before we start digging for baseball,” Gilliam said. Her cousin said he’s fine with a ballpark being built that doesn’t overshadow or destroy slave history such as the jail, gallows and burial ground. “It’s surprising to me there’s a proposal for a stadium here when it has such a historic value, I think, for Richmond and the country,” Williams said. Linsey Williams of Fredericksburg and her cousin, Justin Dixon Northup Giliam, said Richmond should fully know what important history is buried in the ground before any digging for a ballpark is done. history, Solomon Northup, the subject of the Academy Award-winning movie, “12 Years A Slave.” Roughly 200 people gathered beside the old slave trail and Lumpkins Jail site for “Liberation Day 2014” to celebrate and commemorate the 149 th anniversary of the capture of Richmond by Union troops, which effectively ended slavery in the former capital of the Confederacy.Īmong those present, two descendants of a man who has recently become one of the most famous slaves in U.S. (WTVR) - Hollywood, in a sense, has taken sides in the often-bitter battle over historic slave-related property in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom, where the mayor wants to build a new baseball stadium and other development, including a slavery museum. CLICK PHOTO: See what police saw during 1963 Farmville Civil Rights protests

Solomon northup descendants