Archaeologist to examine Historic Bethabara’s cultural diversity in Asheboro library talk

ASHEBORO -- Artifacts recovered from the Bethabara historic site in Forsyth County offer a glimpse into the relationships between the village’s Moravian founders, their Cherokee neighbors and enslaved Africans who toiled in the fields and workshops.

Dr. Andrew Gurstelle, director of the Museum of Anthropology at Wake Forest University, will explore this dynamic in “A House Divided: Tri-Racial Tensions at Historic Bethabara,” at 6:30 p.m. Monday, September 30, at the Asheboro Public Library. The talk is free and the public is invited.

Gurstelle, whose research focuses on the rise of kingdoms and empires in West Africa, the early slave trade, and Indian Removal policies in the 19th century U.S., will explore how the Moravian colonization of the area in the mid-1700s sheds light on the impact of the Cherokee removal and African-American emancipation in the 19th century.

The library is located at 201 Worth Street. For further information, call 336-318-6803.