Lincoln and Douglas Re-enactors to Recreate Historic Debate Here Wednesday
Event Part of Annual Dinner Meeting of 7th Michigan Cavalry Civil War Group
Two of Michigan's most prominent re-enactors are coming to Bay City on Wednesday, April 9, to recreate the historic Lincoln-Douglas debates at the Atrium Restaurant.
If you were living in the 1858s you could have sat on a stump or on the ground and listened to them debate it.
A few years later you could have put on a blue or gray uniform, picked up a musket and fought about it.
"It," of course, was slavery, the system by which some humans "owned" others who were forced to do their will. It had plagued the nation since the 1600s and the numbers of slaves had grown to nearly four million.
Nobody really had a good solution for slavery, including the two Illinois politicians who faced off in seven debates in the summer and fall of 1858. But the pair had lots of opinions, and they shared them with oratorical vehemence.
Their names are perhaps more familiar to us now than they were to folks of that time. They were, of course, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas.
Two of Michigan's most prominent re-enactors are coming to Bay City on Wednesday, April 9, to recreate the historic Lincoln-Douglas debates at the Atrium Restaurant, 1100 N. Water St., for the 7th Michigan Cavalry Civil War Round Table.
The debaters at this live presentation are one of the nation's best known Lincoln re-enactors, Fred Priebe, of Belleville, who has been to Bay City many times, and Len Steinberg, of Canton, playing Douglas, who is making his first appearance at a local historical event.
The event is the annual dinner of the organization, includes a buffet dinner ($20) and is open to the public and begins at 6 p.m. Reservations may be made by calling 892-1136 by Friday.
Mr. Priebe has been presenting Lincoln since 1996 all over the Midwest, Canada, England and France. His wife, Bonnie, portrays Mary Todd Lincoln.
Mr. Steinberg is an insurance loss control representative. He has been a Civil War re-enactor for 15 years, primarily as a soldier in Co. E., 17th Michigan Infantry.###
Dave Rogers
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Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read, respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City. (Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)
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