News Smithsonian Exhibit on the Lives of the 1st African Colonists CARBONDALE, IL (wsiu) - February is Black History Month and a new exhibit at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History uncovers the real story of the daily lives of the first colonists - including the first Africans -- to settle in English colonial America in the early 1600's.

Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th Century Chesapeake opened earlier this month at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. Kari Bruwelheide is the exhibit's co-curator. The exhibit brings together a premier collection of artifacts and human bones from archaeological sites in Jamestown, Virginia and St. Mary's, Maryland that tell the story of how the early colonists lived and died 400 years ago.
Bruwelheide says the African experience of the 17th century is a different story than the 18th Century history most people are familiar with.

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