A state historical highway marker will be dedicated at 11 a.m. July 17 in Deltaville.
The marker will recognize the acts of the Stingray Point Contraband, six enslaved black men who self-emancipated on July 15, 1861, by taking shelter in the Stingray Point Lighthouse and hailing a Union ship, reported Middle Peninsula African-American Genealogical and Historical Society president Bessida White. By September 1861, they had enlisted in the Navy, nearly a year before black men could enlist in the U.S. Army and nearly two years before the creation of the Army’s U.S. Colored Troops.
The public dedication and unveiling ceremony…
