"One of the things that defines America is slavery. Without slavery we wouldn't be Americans and without understanding it we can't also fully be Americans."

William Earle Williams

"A Stirring Song Sung Heroic: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom 1619 to 1865," a photographic chronicle by William Earle Williams, supported by period newspapers, prints and other materials, opened at the Zoellner Arts Center Main Gallery in January. The gallery talk was held March 21.

William Earle Williams, professor of humanities, professor of fine arts and curator of photography at Haverford College, took attendees on a walking tour of his black-and-white gelatin silver and carbon prints.

The first stop was at the image that started Williams on his photographic journey. Pointing to the print "Abraham Brian Barn" Williams explained, "This picture here was made in 1986. It was my first time at Gettysburg. This is the high-water point and this is where the Confederate armies marched and where they were defeated. Abraham Brian was a man who ran to freedom from slavery and he continued to help others who were on the same path as he by being a conductor on the Underground Railroad."

The subject matter all related to the history of slavery in America and the struggle against it. Most of the images are from obscure places like "Forks in the Road, Slave Market Site" in Natchez, Mississippi, to the more well-known, such as the "The North Carolina Monument" at Gettysburg National Military Park. Williams photographed battlefields where African-American troops fought and died, like "Earthworks, Battle Site, Fort Pillow, Tennessee." The images are stark, lonely, haunting and some are heartbreaking, like the paved-over "Slave Burial Site" in Bridgetown, Barbados.

His images of churches and schools point out that the struggle against slavery, included abolitionist churches that welcomed integration, and schools that were built to educate freed blacks. "In slave states," Williams mentioned, "slaves were not permitted to read or write."

With "Courthouse, Vicksburg, Mississippi" Williams called attention to the irony of a nation of laws passed to protect liberty to have a courthouse built with slave labor. According to many sources in his research, he found that, "The people who built this also designed it. The top part, this part here, this cupola, has a definite West African design to it." He added, "These courthouses in the south, generally the slaves were sold right on the courthouse square," because the courthouse provided the legal documents and a lawyer for the transactions.

Williams earnestly said to those in attendance, "I hope what everyone will get from going to and seeing the exhibition in its totality, is that freedom is something that is not an abstract. But is something that is earned, and that is a continuous flow, a continuous activity."

"A Stirring Song Sung Heroic" is on display until May 25 at the Zoellner Arts Center Main Gallery. For more information about this and other Lehigh University gallery exhibits, visit www.luag.org.