<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0dqBRp_0vlJchQt00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0dqBRp_0vlJchQt00" width="584" height="438" ></figure>Visitors to the Mid-Shore’s largest living history event will enjoy hands-on interaction with a variety of activities on October 12th at the annual Nanticoke River Jamboree at historic Handsell near Vienna.Handsell honors three cultures that made up its history: Native Americans who lived in a sprawling Chicone Village at the site, European settlers and African Americans, who labored as enslaved and free people at Handsell. The Jamboree’s purpose is to educate visitors about these three cultures through four centuries by way of living history presentations.For the second year, the Jamboree will be proceeded by a Plein-aire “Paint Harriet’s Landscape” event to be held at the Harriet Tubman UGRR State Park on Friday, October 11, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. The next day artists will exhibit and sell their work at Handsell. Registration forms are available at restorehandsell.org.Designed as an outdoor event for families, the Jamboree will feature open-hearth cooking as experienced by African American slaves, displays and hands-on demonstrations by Native Americans who once lived on the site, and crafts of early European settlers who built the house at Handsell hundreds of years ago.An exhibit in the Handsell brick house will feature a display, music and living history interpreter, Laurie Toms portraying Francis Watkins Harper, a well know abolitionist, author and activist to emphasis this year’s Jamboree theme of the Maryland 1864 Emancipation. Janice Green will portray Harriet Tubman and visit with Harper in the parlor of Handsell for discussions in which guest may participate. More music will be provided by “Ambersand.”The Chesapeake Independent Blues will be returning to interpret important, but little understood period in Dorchester County’s military history. In the kitchen at Handsell, Jerome Bias of the Slave Dwelling Project will be demonstrating activities from a 19th century plantation kitchen while discussing life as an enslaved cook, assisted by Janice Canaday, Director of Interpretation from Colonial Williamsburg.Traditional crafts people and living history interpreters will also be exhibiting at the Jamboree as they explore life in the 18th and 19th centuries. This year there will be more craftspeople than ever and will include blacksmithing, basket weaving, wood lathe turning, rug-hooking, wool dyeing and more.Representatives from the Pocomoke Indian Nation, Hermann Jackson of the Nanticoke of Milford, DE and Nause Waiwash Band of Indians as well as Handsell’s own Village Volunteers will explore many life skills of the Native people who once lived at Chicone. These demonstrations include fire-making, weaving, pottery, flint knapping, and techniques used for the building of the longhouse. These demonstrations occur in Handsell’s Chicone Village throughout the day. Drew Shuptar-Rayvis, whose traditional name is Pekatawas MakataweU (Black Corn) is an Algonkian living historian of the 17th and 18th century of Accomac and Pocomoke descent. He has interpreted Algonkian life for a multitude of institutions and will be interpreting late 17th century Pocomoke life on behalf of the tribe.The 3rd annual “Calling of the Names” of over 200 Enslaved People from Handsell will take place at the African American Memorial at high noon. The native flute playing of Shane Rader will be the background for this moving event.Handsell is located on the site of the pre-historic Native Village at Chicone, later set aside as an Indian Reservation (1721-1769). Today it is a State and National Register Listed Historic site, held with a Maryland Historic Trust Preservation Easement on a Maryland Scenic By-Way and just recently approved to become a Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network Place.Partners and sponsors for the 2024 Nanticoke River Jamboree are the Heart of Chesapeake Country Heritage Area, Harriet Tubman UGRR Visitors Center and State Park, Dorchester Center for the Arts, Hebron Savings Bank and Robert Davis, CPA Holloway and Marvel.Admission is $5, children 12 and under are admitted FREE. Gate opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m..Handsell is located at 4837 Indiantown Road, 1 ½ miles north of Rt. 50, near Vienna, Dorchester County Maryland. It is owned and operated by the Nanticoke Historic Preservation Alliance. For more information go to www.restorehandsell.org or www.nanticokeriverjamboree.com. Interested historic craftspeople can call 410-228-7458 or email [email protected].</div></body>

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Historic Handsell to Host Plein-air Painting and Jamboree

Visitors to the Mid-Shore’s largest living history event will enjoy hands-on interaction with a variety of activities on October 12th at the annual Nanticoke River Jamboree at historic Handsell near Vienna. Handsell honors three cultures that made up its history: Native Americans who lived in a sprawling Chicone Village...