Date: Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009 Time: 7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m. (EST)

"Then, thenceforward, and forever free." Few public documents contain words more stirring than those from the Emancipation Proclamation. The process of Emancipation was momentous, tumultuous, exhilarating, and chaotic. Spirits soared and hopes were crushed as nearly four million black Southerners made the transition from slavery to freedom. How did they actually experience emancipation? What did they hope freedom would mean? How did they pursue it, and what obstacles did they face as they attempted to claim and secure freedom for themselves and their families? You will find some interesting answers to those questions in the remarkable photographs, letters, and eye witness accounts that we will discuss in this workshop.

LEADER:

Reginald Hildebrand Associate Professor, Joint Appointment with African and Afro-American Studies, Department of History University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Assigned Readings
  1. The Emancipation Proclamation
  2. The Civil Rights Act of 1875
  3. The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
  4. The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
  5. The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
  6. WPA Slave Narratives
     Edmonia Lewis, Forever Free
     • Note and discussion questions
     • Text: WPA Slave Narratives (PDF)
     • Text: Forever Free (PDF)
  7. A Jubilee of Freedom
  8. Equal Suffrage. Address from the Colored Citizens of Norfolk, Va., to the People of the United States, 1865, excerpts
     Alfred R. Waud, The First Vote, illustration in Harper's Weekly, 16 Nov. 1867
     • Note and discussion questions
     • Text: Equal Suffrage (PDF)
     • Image: The First Vote
  9. Benjamin Singleton, Testimony before the U.S. Senate on the "Negro Exodus from the Southern States," 1880, selection
     • Note and discussion questions
     • Testimony
• Seminar Presentation (PowerPoint, 923 KB)
• Seminar Evaluation (Available on day of seminar.)
• Forum