Historical Lecture on the Role of Slavery in the Development of the Salt Industry

The Kanawha Valley Village People will present an historical lecture at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 18, 2018 at the African Zion Baptist Church in Malden, WV. (J.Q. Dickinson Salt Works is a co-sponsor.) The lecture, entitled “Salt and Slavery: The Early Kanawha Valley in Black and White,” will be presented by Cyrus Forman. Forman will explore the reliance on slave labor in the development of the salt industry in the Kanawha Valley in the early nineteenth century.

Cyrus Forman is a native of Charleston, West Virginia and a doctoral candidate in American History at the University of Washington. He began working on overlooked aspects of American slavery as a museum educator at the New York Historical Society's 2006 "Slavery in New York” exhibit. Subsequently, he served for five years as the lead park ranger at the African Burial Ground National Monument in New York City. He has a bachelor’s degree in English from New York University, a master’s degree in Library and Information Sciences from Pace University, and a master’s degree in American History from the City College of New York. Cyrus is currently working on a dissertation that examines the racial and environmental realities of the nineteenth-century Kanawha Valley.

“I grew up in Kanawha City just a few miles from the salt works and while I learned about salt and its importance in the development of the region, I never really knew that the people who labored there were slaves. I think this is an important part of the story and one that needs to be told,” Forman said.

Forman’s presentation will be followed by a Q&A session and light refreshments will be served in the Booker T. Washington Cabin next door to the church. Parking is available adjacent to the church on Malden Drive.