Dorris Keeven Franke

An award-winning writer, public historian, archivist and professional genealogist, she provides listeners with fascinating well-documented stories that will allow them to personally connect with their own history.

PROGRAMS

ARCHER ALEXANDER: THE LAST FUGITIVE SLAVE

shares the life of an enslaved man who risks his life to report the plans of the area’s Confederate sympathizers. Using the Underground Railroad he has to flee in order to escape lynching. Making his way to St. Louis, where he is given refuge in the home of William Greenleaf Eliot, the founder of Washington University and a Unitarian minister. He was freed by President Lincoln by Military Order on September 24, 1863. Archer became the face of freedom on the Emancipation Monument in Washington, D.C. This true story shares many original documents and can be told for audiences in an age-appropriate manner for classrooms.

For more about Archer Alexander see my blog archeralexander.blog

MISSOURI: WHERE THE SUN OF FREEDOM SHINES

The Program below shares the lives of three participants in the Civil War… Archer Alexander an enslaved man in St. Charles County; Lt. Col. Arnold Krekel, German-born immigrant that was Provost Marshall for the Union Army in St. Charles County, and William G, Eliot, a Unitarian Minister in St, Louis. This is a cross-cultural story and shares many original documents.

This is the story of Missouri during the Civil War. Germans began immigrating to Missouri in 1830 following the publication of Gottfried Duden’s Report on a Journey to the Western States of North America. Large immigration societies would fill the Missouri River valley during the following decades. With the wave of immigrants following the German Revolutions of 1848 came the future Union soldiers that would change our nation’s history. This program will helps participants understand the important role our German ancestor’s played in the Civil War. This well-documented program shares a history that explains the friendships that were created between African Americans and German immigrants. Germans would maintain “stations” of refuge, or provide assistance to those African Americans in pursuit of their freedom. Maintaining the perspective of that difficult time, the laws regarding slavery and the nativism movement are shared and discussed in depth. With several first hand accounts, this cross-cultural program furthers a difficult discussion and may lead to a better understanding of the relationship between German Americans and African Americans.

Interested in bringing a program to your historical society or classroom?

Use the Contact Form below for more information or to book any of the above programs…