There are shouts from a crowd and hoofbeats; a narrator breaks in.
"What is all the commotion about?" she asks. "It is happening in a section of Camden called Fettersville . . . [where] a mob of colored people rescued a black man."
The podcasts were funded with a $30,000 grant from the N.J. Historic Trust to the Camden County Board of Freeholders. They were produced by the South Jersey Tourism Corp., which has posted a directory at visitsouthjersey.com/audio/ccpodcast/.
I've already listened to all five of these often-moving pieces when I visit the historically African American borough, a solid working-class and middle-class community traversed by both I-295 and the Turnpike.
The roar of traffic may be forever close by in Lawnside but the past feels even closer. History is particularly palpable in the lovingly restored Peter Mott House, the subject of one of the podcasts.
I meet county and borough officials, as well as scriptwriter Higgs, inside the simple two-story frame house, which is partly surrounded by townhouses.
"The podcasts are like going back in time," says Freeholder Scot McCray, 32, who lives in Camden.
"We have historical gems in the county, and this house is one of them," he says. "There's an educational as well as a tourism aspect to them. They're affordable places families can come out and enjoy, and not just during Black History Month."
Linda Shockley is president of the Lawnside Historical Society, which owns the Mott House. It was saved from demolition more than 30 years ago after an outcry from local residents.
"The podcasts are a great innovation," says Shockley, noting that visitors to the house can listen to them on their smartphones as they tour the house.
