A book about the Benedictine mission on Skidaway Island by Laura Seifert is now available. Entitled Faith in Education at the Skidaway Island Benedictine Mission, it examines the complexities of Catholic education for freed African Americans in the Deep South and how the Benedictines, in 1877, built a mission and boarding school for them. The book brings together the recovered archaeological data and extensive Benedictine archives to reconstruct the intersecting lives of monks, students, lay brothers, and African American neighbors on Skidaway Island. It amplifies the documentary evidence with archaeological findings. The narrative balances the chronological story of the Skidaway Island mission with the larger history of African American education in Savannah and Chatham County from 1865 to the mission’s closure circa 1900. Her analysis shows how the roots of our educational system resulted in inequities today, particularly because racism is a prominent thread that connects past and present problems.
Seifert earned a master’s degree at East Carolina University in 2006. She works in at Fort Pulaski National Monument and lives in Savannah. To get the book visit: https://tinyurl.com/334yujj9.