African American Studies Commons^™

"Prophecies Of Loss": Debating Slave Flight During Virginia's Secession Crisis, Evan Turiano

Publications and Research

This article examines debates over fugitives from slavery during Virginia’s secession movement. By considering these debates in the context of Virginia’s history of freedom seekers, the constitutional politics of fugitive slave rendition, and white fears of politically informed slave resistance, this article clarifies how proslavery Virginians understood the threat posed by interstate slave flight in 1861. In the wake of Abraham Lincoln's election, proslavery Virginians on both sides of the secession conflict agreed that runaways posed a grave danger to the future of slavery in the state. Early in the convention, southeastern planters and northwestern unionists forged an alliance based …

Law Library Blog (June 2022): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Reenvisioning Richmond's Past: Race, Reconciliation, And Public History In The Modern South, 1990-Present, Marvin T. Chiles

History Faculty Publications

The article explores the history of race relations and slavery in Richmond, Virginia with regard to the 2020 removal of Confederate monuments in the region. Topics discussed include the order issued by Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney to remove Confederate statues in the city, the efforts of neighborhood groups and grassroots organizations to acknowledge the African American history in Richmond's public history narratives, and the racial violence in the Oregon Hill neighborhood of Richmond.

Acknowledging Our Past: Race, Landscape And History, Alea Harris, Kaycia Best, Dieran Mcgowan, Destiny Shippy, Vera Oberg, Bryson Coleman, Luke Meagher, Rhiannon Leebrick Ph.D., Phillip Stone

Student Scholarship

This book is the product of nearly a year's worth of student research on Wofford College's history, undertaken as part of a grant by the Council of Independent Colleges in the Humanities Research for the Public Good initiative. The research was supervised and directed by Dr. Rhiannon Leebrick.

"Guiding Research Questions:

How did Wofford College and its early stakeholders support and participate in slavery?

How is the legacy of slavery present in the landscape of our campus (buildings, statues, names, etc.)?

How can we better understand Wofford as an institution during the time of Reconstruction through the Jim Crow era? …

The Unheard Stories Of Former San Antonio Slaves, David R. Harris

Methods of Historical Research: Spring 2020

While the end of slavery in America was a huge step to provide equality to all, the livelihood of former slaves after the Civil War took many different paths, some of those paths ended up in San Antonio, Texas.

The Life Of A Former Slave In Bexar County, Karina De Hoyos

Methods of Historical Research: Spring 2020

The Slave Narrative Collection from the WPA Federal Writers’ Project, housed at the Library of Congress, has over 2,300 first-person accounts and 500 black and white photographs of people who were born into slavery.Numerous historians have relied on these narratives to help them in their work to have a better understanding of slavery. Many people did not know how, or even where, to start their new lives, but they knew they needed to find a way to make a living, or ultimately seek work from their former masters. Despite numerous obstacles in their lives before and after the Civil War, …

Freedom Triumphant: Embracing Joyful Freedom But Facing An Uncertain, Perilous Future, Thomas L. Tacker

Publications

The newly freed slaves had almost nothing—no money, no education, and no strong social institutions, including marriage which had often been prohibited, rarely supported by slaveholders. Discrimination was rampant and government was often the worst discriminator. Yet, somehow, they triumphed. They built marriages that were actually slightly more stable than those of white families. The newly free went from virtually zero literacy to at least 50% literacy in a generation. They worked incredibly hard and increased their income about one third faster than white workers. The newly free, anchored in their strong faith, were amazingly forgiving and optimistic. Economics Professor …

Foreword: Abolition Constitutionalism, Dorothy E. Roberts

All Faculty Scholarship

In this Foreword, I make the case for an abolition constitutionalism that attends to the theorizing of prison abolitionists. In Part I, I provide a summary of prison abolition theory and highlight its foundational tenets that engage with the institution of slavery and its eradication. I discuss how abolition theorists view the current prison industrial complex as originating in, though distinct from, racialized chattel slavery and the racial capitalist regime that relied on and sustained it, and their movement as completing the “unfinished liberation” sought by slavery abolitionists in the past. Part II considers whether the U.S. Constitution is an …

Douglass’ Reply To A. C. C. Thompson’S ‘Letter From Frederick Douglass,’ As Reprinted In The Anti-Slavery Bugle: A Critical Edition Of Both Letters, With A Summary Of Maryland’S Fugitive Slave Laws, Kayla Hardy-Butler

Nineteenth-Century Ohio Literature

Kayla Hardy-Butler presents a famous letter by Frederick Douglass, as it was published in Ohio, with the letter that prompted it. This edition also includes a summary of Maryland slave statutes from the time to better explain the day-to-day experience of slavery debated in this correspondence.

Seeking Abraham: A Report Of Furman University's Task Force On Slavery And Justice, Deborah Allen, Laura Baker, T. Lloyd Benson, Teresa Nesbitt Cosby, Brandon Inabinet, Michael Jennings, Jonathan Kubakundimana, Shekinah Lightner, Jeffrey Makala, Chelsea Mckelvey, Quincy Mix, Stephen O'Neill, Forrest M. Stuart, Andrew Teye, Courtney Thomas, Courtney Tollison, Claire Whitlinger

The Task Force on Slavery and Justice

After more than a year of study, the Furman University Task Force on Slavery and Justice presents its findings in this report. The report includes the Task Force’s values and process, a presentation of the history of Furman’s early ties to slavery, a number of short vignettes by individual Task Force members, and a number of recommendations for the university to address.

Members of the Task Force represent diverse students and alumni, as well as faculty and staff. The report is the result of commissioning a history, activating student research projects, hosting scholars who consulted with the Task Force, creating …

Robert E. Lee And Slavery, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

Robert E. Lee was the most successful Confederate military leader during the American Civil War (1861–1865). This also made him, by virtue of the Confederacy's defense of chattel slavery, the most successful defender of the enslavement of African Americans. Yet his own personal record on both slavery and race is mottled with contradictions and ambivalence, all which were in plain view during his long career. Born into two of Virginia's most prominent families, Lee spent his early years surrounded by enslaved African Americans, although that changed once he joined the Army. His wife, Mary Randolph Custis Lee, freed her own …

Forggett, Essie (Fa 1104), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1104. Student paper titled “Slavery in Green County” in which Essie Forggett details the history of the settlement of Green County and its eventual dependence upon slave labor. Forggett also includes stories of slave auctions, punishments, attempted escapes, and religious practices of slaves throughout the region. Paper is based on information collected by Forggett from county clerk records and in-person interviews with slave descendants.

Newroom: Do Lord Remember Me: Black Church In Ri 02-21-2017, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Assessing Reconstruction: Did The South Undergo Revolutionary Change?, Lauren H. Sobotka

Student Publications

With the end of the Civil War, came a number of unanswered questions Reconstruction would attempt to answer for the South. While the South underwent economic, political and social changes for a short period, old traditions continued to persist resulting in racist sentiment.

The Ideal And The Real: Southern Plantation Women Of The Civil War, Kelly H. Crosby

Student Publications

Southern plantation women experienced a shift in identity over the course of the Civil War. Through the diaries of Catherine Edmondston and Eliza Fain, historians note the discrepancy between the ideal and real roles women had while the men were off fighting. Unique perspectives and hidden voices in their writings offer valuable insight into the life of plantation women and the hybrid identity they gained despite the Confederate loss.

One Year On: New Gettysburgians, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

It's been one year since freedom was preserved on a black man's farm. It's been one year since the rebel charge of men from North Carolina and Virginia crashed against Abraham Brien's stone wall and were repelled, since men from South Carolina and Maryland found their best laid plans for independence dashed upon the rocks of Emancipation and American Liberty. [excerpt]

Black Radicals And Marxist Internationalism: From The Iwma To The Fourth International, 1864-1948, Charles R. Holm

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This project investigates historical relationships between Black Radicalism and Marxist internationalism from the mid-nineteenth through the first half of the twentieth century. It argues that contrary to scholarly accounts that emphasize Marxist Euro-centrism, or that theorize the incompatibility of “Black” and “Western” radical projects, Black Radicals helped shape and produce Marxist theory and political movements, developing theoretical and organizational innovations that drew on both Black Radical and Marxist traditions of internationalism. These innovations were produced through experiences of struggle within international political movements ranging from the abolition of slavery in the nineteenth century to the early Pan-African movements and struggles …

'Dred Scott V. Sandford' Analysis, Sarah E. Roessler

Student Publications

The Scott v. Sandford decision will forever be known as a dark moment in America's history. The Supreme Court chose to rule on a controversial issue, and they made the wrong decision. Scott v. Sandford is an example of what can happen when the Court chooses to side with personal opinion instead of what is right.

Slaves To Contradictions: 13 Myths That Sustained Slavery, Wilson Huhn

Akron Law Faculty Publications

People have a fundamental need to think of themselves as “good people.” To achieve this we tell each other stories – we create myths – about ourselves and our society. These myths may be true or they may be false. The more discordant a myth is with reality, the more difficult it is to convince people to embrace it. In such cases to sustain the illusion of truth it may be necessary to develop an entire mythology – an integrated web of mutually supporting stories. This paper explores the system of myths that sustained the institution of slavery in the …

Warren County, Kentucky - Court Records (Sc 2529), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2529. Two slave bills of sale (1849, 1856) to Tobias S. Grider, and agreement (1861) of a family of emancipated African Americans to be enslaved by William Davenport.

Warren County, Kentucky - Court Records (Sc 2528), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2528. Summons to jury and witnesses and charge in the case of Lucy, an enslaved woman, accused of attempting to murder her owner’s wife with an axe in 1814.

Warren County, Kentucky - Court Records (Sc 2527), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2527. Warrant (1822) to sheriff to take custody of a free mulatto man found in Warren County; certificates (2) and appointment (1) relating to slave patrols in Warren County (1824-1825); and undated power of attorney authorizing apprehension of a fugitive slave from New Orleans, Louisiana.

Reading Between The Lines Of Slavery: Examining New England Runaway Ads For Evidence Of An Afro-Yankee Culture, Lauren Landi

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

This paper focuses on New England slavery and the way Africans and African-Americans were able to infuse aspects of the dominant English culture and their combined African heritage into their own Afro-Yankee culture. They created their own American identity, in which they adopted and at times mocked the very culture that placed them in this system of bondage. By looking at runaway advertisements from the colonial era we can see evidence of an Afro-Yankee culture that is clearly visible in the clothes slaves wore, the hairstyles they kept, their mannerisms, talents, and overall presence.

"Spectacular Opacities": The Hyers Sisters' Performances Of Respectability And Resistance, Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

This essay analyzes the Hyers Sisters, a Reconstruction-era African American sister act, and their radical efforts to transcend social limits of gender, class, and race in their early concert careers and three major productions, Out of Bondage and Peculiar Sam, or The Underground Railroad, two slavery-to-freedom epics, and Urlina, the African Princess, the first known African American play set in Africa. At a time when serious, realistic roles and romantic plotlines featuring black actors were nearly nonexistent due to the country’s appetite for stereotypical caricatures, the Hyers Sisters used gender passing to perform opposite one another as heterosexual lovers in …

First Step Toward Freedom: Women In Contraband Camps In And Around The District Of Columbia During The Civil War, Lauren H. Roedner

Student Publications

A white Quaker abolitionist woman from Rochester, New York was not a likely sight in occupied Alexandria, Virginia during the Civil War where violence, suffering, death and racial inequality were rampant just south of the nation’s capital. Julia Wilbur was used to a comfortable home, her loving family, an enjoyable profession as a teacher, and the familiar comfort of many, often like-minded, friends. However instead of continuing that “easy” life, Julia embarked on a great adventure as a missionary to work with “contrabands-of-war”. More commonly known as fugitive slaves, these refugees needed shelter, medicine, food, clothes, and many other necessities …

Colonel Utley's Emancipation - Or, How Lincoln Offered To Buy A Slave, Jerrica A. Giles, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

The reputation of Abraham Lincoln has see-sawed over the last half-century on the fulcrum of race, and the results have not been happy for that reputation. As Gerald Prokopowicz has written, "the big question" about Lincoln and slavery runs today like this: "Was Lincoln really the Great Emancipator that we have traditionally been brought up to admire, or was he just a clever, lying, racist, white male politician who had no interest in the well-being of black America other than when it served his political interests?" No longer is it necessary, as one historian has wryly remarked, for politicians to …

Shipboard Insurrections, The British Government And Anglo-American Society In The Early 18th Century, James Buckwalter

2010 Awards for Excellence in Student Research & Creative Activity - Documents

Captain Francis Messervy, first time captain on the slave ship Ferrers and perhaps overly ecstatic after his most recent successes at sea, maneuvered unprotected below deck to inspect his newly purchased Africans. As he lurched further down into the Ferrers, Messervy would have seen sailors whose duty it was to guard against insurrection and the three hundred or more Africans he had recently purchased following a war between two neighboring polities near Cetre-Crue. What Messervy perceived as good fortune, fellow captain William Snelgrave saw as cause for concern, noting that controlling "many Negroes of one Town and Language" had its …

'Stubborn And Disposed To Stand Their Ground': Sugar Workers And The Dynamics Of Collective Action In The Louisiana Sugar Bowl, 1863-87, Rebecca J. Scott

Book Chapters

There are several ways to fit these events into narratives of southern history in this period. The presence of black and white Knights of Labor organizers encourages one to view the strike as an unusually bold instance of the cautious policy of cross-racial alliance followed by the Knights in this period. The failure of the strike, and the inability of the Knights to protect their members from repression, might be seen to illuminate the limits of that policy. Alternatively, one can situate this conflict in the story of modernization and consolidation of industry, a Sugar Bowl variant on the Gilded …

Saving Savannah: The City And The Civil War (Book Review), Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

Review of the book, Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War by Jacqueline Jones. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

From "No Country" To "Our Country!" Living Out Manumission And The Boundaries Of Rights And Citizenship, 1773-1855, Scott Hancock

Africana Studies Faculty Publications

During the Revolutionary War and the first decades of the early U.S. Republic, as free people of color sought to define their place in the new nation, they expressed little connection to an American nationality. But antebellum black leaders later articulated a powerful vision of Africans and Americans. As slaves and free blacks had done during the Revolutionary era, they based this African American identity in part upon a biblical view of human rights and a natural rights philosophy, but they also buttressed black identity formation by making a rights discourse the fulcrum of their argument for full inclusion in …