Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 Time: 6:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m. (EST)

What did it mean to be enslaved in the United States? How did the enslaved maintain their identities? How did labor shape their daily lives? In what ways did the enslaved resist bondage?

LEADER:

Daina Berry Associate Professor of History University of Texas at Austin National Humanities Center Fellow

• Assigned Readings

  Most of these texts come from the National Humanities Center's online toolbox
  The Making of African American Identity: Vol. I, 1500–1865. Please read the texts
  and the accompanying notes.

  1. Capture narrative of Venture Smith (5 pages)
  2. "On Being a Slave" (4 pages)
     
     • Note
     • Text (PDF)
  3. "I was born a slave." (3 pages)
     
     • Note
     • Text (PDF)
  4. Enslaved Labor: Plantation Labor and Household Labor (5 pages)
     
     • Note
     • Text (PDF)
  5. "Slave Resistance," essay by James Sweet (5 pages)
     
  6. Slave Resistance Excerpts from WPA Narratives (8 pages)
     
     • Note
     • Text (PDF)
• Seminar Presentation (PowerPoint, 162 KB)
• Seminar Evaluation (Available on day of seminar.)
• Forum