The Southeast Ohio History Center and the Mt. Zion Baptist Church Preservation Society are cosponsoring the program, But Not for MY Children: The Holland Brothers’ Remarkable Journey from Enslavement by Scott Britton at the History Center on Thursday, September 28^th at 5:30pm.

Brothers Milton, William, and James Holland were all born to an enslaved woman named Matilda and a white Texas politician named Bird Holland. Bird Holland arranged to send these three sons to be educated at the Albany Manual Labor Academy in Athens County in the late 1850s. The Academy educated both black and white children.

Bird Holland would serve as Secretary of State for Texas at the outbreak of the American Civil War and was killed in battle serving as a Confederate officer in Louisiana in 1864 when his three sons were serving in the Union Army. Milton Holland played a significant role in recruiting Ohio’s first Black unit, the 5^th United States Colored Infantry (USCI), on the Athens County Fairgrounds. Milton Holland was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroism and leadership during the Petersburg Campaign in late September 1864.

Scott Britton from The Castle Historic House Museum in Marietta is a native of Washington County, Ohio and was a Co-Founder of the Civil War Round Table of the Mid-Ohio Valley.

The Southeast Ohio History Center is located at 24 West State Street and offers limited parking in the rear off of North Congress Street.

For more information about this presentation or about the History Center call 7405922280.