Community Corner
Timbuctoo's Story: Decades Before Juneteenth, Free Black Americans Thrived In This Village In South Jersey
"Until about 15 years ago, this was just the Black section of town. People didn't realize it was historic," Guy Weston said.
June 13, 2024
WESTAMPTON, N.J. (CBS) -- Next week the nation will celebrate Juneteenth, the national holiday marking June 19, 1865 when Union troops arrived in Texas to carry out the Emancipation Proclamation, finally freeing hundreds of thousands of enslaved people more than two years after the proclamation was made.
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But for decades before that historic day, a population of Black Americans lived freely in a small village nestled along the Rancocas Creek in the heart of South Jersey.
This is Timbuctoo. Fewer than 60 people live here and its size is only 52 acres.
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Guy Weston (right) shows Wakisha Bailey his family's historical records of Timbuctoo, a village home that was home several free Black Americans in New Jersey well before Juneteenth and the end of the Civil War/CBS News Philadelphia
Guy Weston (left) and his mother Mary Giles Weston walk on the land that was once the village of Timbuctoo in South Jersey/CBS News Philadelphia
Gravestones of Black soldiers who fought for the Union in the Civil War can be seen at Timbuctoo in New Jersey/CBS News Philadelphia
Left: historical artifacts on display at Timbuctoo in New Jersey. Right: an archaeological dig at the Timbuctoo site/CBS News Philadelphia/Chris Barton
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