Richmond, Va

Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming

SEPTEMBER 24 - NOVEMBER 7, 2010

Written by Connie Ray; Conceived by Alan Bailey; Musical Arrangements by Mike Craver

It’s October, 1945 and the gospel-singing Sanders Family is back together again! The war is over and America’s years of prosperity are just beginning. But there’s another kind of rite of passage at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, where Reverend Mervin Oglethorpe is giving his last service. He’s been called to preach in Texas, and he’s already bought a ten-gallon hat and is preparing to ride into the sunset with his wife, June, who is eight months pregnant. Tomorrow morning, young Dennis Sanders takes over as Mount Pleasant’s pastor. Join the Sanders Family as they send Mervin and June off in style, with hilarious and touching stories and twenty-five toe-tapping Bluegrass Gospel favorites.

Click here to buy tickets. Tickets.com charges a small fee or call (804) 282-2620.

Performance Schedule

Tickets: Adults $38 / Seniors (65+) and students: $35

Dinner: The Hanover Tavern Foundation's Pub offers brunch and dinner before performances in their gracious old dining rooms. Reservations for dinner must be made separately by calling (804) 537-5050.

2010 Bottimore Lecture to explore two critical Virginia showdowns along the road to disunion

Thursday, September 30th, 7:30 - 9:00 PM

Keller Hall Reception Room
University of Richmond

In the Museum's 2010 Elizabeth Roller Bottimore Lecture, "Showdowns in Virginia: The Debates over Slavery and Secession, 1832 and 1861," Dr. William W. Freehling will explore two epochal showdowns in the Old Dominion: the 1832 General Assembly debate over abolishing slavery that occurred in the wake of Nat Turner's 1831 slave insurrection and the 1861 Secession Convention's debate over whether to remain in the Union or join the Confederacy.

William Freehling is the authority on America's "Road to Disunion," which is the title of his magisterial two-volume study, published in 1990 and 2007. He is a Senior Fellow at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy and Singletary Professor of the Humanities Emeritus at the University of Kentucky. He is also the author of Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina, The South versus The South: How Anti-Confederate Southerners Shaped the Course of the Civil War, Secession Debated: Georgia's Showdown in 1860, and most recently Showdown in Virginia: The 1861 Convention and the Fate of the Union, co-edited with Craig Simpson. He is married to Dr. Alison Goodyear Freehling, author of Drift Toward Dissolution: The Virginia Slavery Debate of 1831-1832 (1982).

The lecture is free, but seating is limited and reservations are required. You may register on line by clicking here, by calling (804)649-1861 x 31 or via email ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

The Museum of the Confederacy
1201 E. Clay Street
Richmond, VA 23219

The Museum of the Confederacy’s mission is to serve as the preeminent world center for the display, study, interpretation, commemoration, and preservation of the history and artifacts of the Confederate States of America.