THE PROBLEM OF EQUALITY IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

October 26, 2006 at Petrides Education Complex

Reading: “Reaching the Climax, 1774-1776″ from Gary B. Nash, The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America (2005)
Scholar Talk: “The Problem of Equality in the American Revolution,” Jan Lewis (Rutgers University)
Primary Documents and Activities:
Runaway Slave Advertisement from Revolutionary Virginia
Slaves Petition for Freedom to the Massachusetts Legislature
Thomas Jefferson Decries Slavery in Draft for the Declaration of Independence
“Keep Within the Compass” Engraving
Charity Clarke Writes to her Cousin in England, 1769
“To the Ladies” Song, 1769
Colonial Crowds Protest the Stamp Act of 1765
The Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, 1776
“The Bostonians Paying the Excise-Man,” 1774

WHOSE FREEDOM? THE U.S. CIVIL WAR

December 18, 2006 at the Brooklyn Museum

Reading: Joshua Brown’s Visual Essays on “True Likenesses” and “Re-visions of War” from Eric Foner, Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction (2005)
Scholar Talk: “The Problem of Freedom in the U.S. Civil War,” Jeanie Attie (Long Island University–C.W. Post)
Primary Documents & Activities:
1860 Pro-Slavery Pamphlet
The Gettysburg Address
Emancipation and “Contraband”: Who Freed the Slaves During the Civil War? (Activity + Documents)
Picturing a Nation: Teaching with American Art and Material Culture (Activity + Document)

RECONSTRUCTION AND THE RISE OF JIM CROW

February 15, 2007 at The Graduate Center, CUNY

Reading: Joshua Brown’s Visual Essay “Altered Relations” and “The Meanings of Freedom” from Eric Foner, Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction (2005)
Scholar Talk: “Land and Labor: Conflict, Compromise, Violence,” Martha Hodes (New York University)
Primary Documents & Activities:
Freedom’s Unfinished Revolution
The Ku Klux Conspiracy Testimony, 1871

MANY PATHS TO REFORM: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON THE PROGRESSIVE ERA

March 22, 2007 at The Graduate Center, CUNY

Reading: “Responding to the Challenges of the Progressive Era,” from Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore, Who Were the Progressives? (2002)
Scholar Talk: “Many Paths to Reform: New Perspectives on the Progressive Era,” Nancy Hewitt (Rutgers University).
Primary Documents and Activities:
The Story of Sadie Frowne, A Brooklyn Sweatshop Girl
The Brooklyn Consumers’ League Takes on Sweatshops

CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

April 27, 2007 at the Paley Center for Media

Reading: “Forward” from Jeanne F. Theoharis and Komozi Woodard, eds., Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles Outside the South, 1940-1980 (2003) and “Learning from Ella; Lessons from Mississippi, ca. 1961″ from Robert P. Moses, Radical Equations: Math, Literacy, and Civil Rights (2001)
Scholar Talk: “The Long Black Revolt: New Interpretations of Freedom Movement History,” Komozi Woodard (Sarah Lawrence College)