Asanbe-Eichhorn Symposium to be held at APSU on March 19

By: Joanna "Joey" Grisham February 26, 2026

Author and genealogy expert John F. Baker Jr., the keynote speaker for this year’s Asanbe-Eichhorn Symposium at Austin Peay State University. | Contributed photo

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Austin Peay State University’s annual Asanbe-Eichhorn Symposium will take place at 1 p.m. on March 19 in Morgan University Center Rooms 303-305. The free public event will feature a keynote address from author and genealogy expert John F. Baker Jr., followed by a panel discussion.

Baker’s book, The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation: Stories of My Family’s Journey to Freedom, recounts his African American ancestors’ story and unearths the history of the Robertson County plantation where they were once enslaved. His keynote address will explore the book’s narratives and the journey that led to its creation.

This extensive project was years in the making. When Baker was in seventh grade, he found a photograph of four formerly enslaved people in a social studies textbook, leading him to discover they were his great-great-grandparents.

Baker has spent more than 30 years unraveling his family history, researching over 11,000 historical records and interviewing dozens of people aged 80-107 to collect oral histories. His book is accessible and comprehensive, spotlighting a community close to Clarksville. Baker is one of tens of thousands of descendants of the African Americans who were enslaved at Wessyngton, once America’s largest tobacco plantation.

For more information about Baker and his work, visit his official website at https://wessyngton.com/.

The Asanbe-Eichhorn Symposium is sponsored by the APSU Department of Languages and Literature and the APSU Office of Institutional Culture.

For more information, contact Dr. Karen Sorenson, professor of French, at 931-221-6246 or sorensonk@apsu.edu.