Towards the end of the Civil War the mountains of Western Virginia, now West Virginia, were a refuge for escaped slaves. One young man was welcomed by the community and is buried in an unmarked grave of our family cemetery.
Locals could always tell by the baying of bloodhounds when a slave was on the run and the term “They ran the dogs last night” was gleefully expressed by the few members of the community who supported slavery.
Fast forward 160 years. Alligator Alcatraz is the nickname of a Florida immigrant prison, located in the Everglades. More than a few MAGA Republicans are gleefully repeating Donald Trump and Fox News by making jokes about alligators and escaped immigrant prisoners. Sadly, some of these people live in Douglas County.
The source for this letter is a 92-year-old man with the Civil War record of his paternal great-grandfather who died in 1924, and the memories of his late parents born in 1902 and 1905. Both would be aghast to hear the words and context, The Alligators Swam Last Night.
Roy Legg
Highlands Ranch