The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Read and ponder the Fugitive Slave Law! 1850. (GLC 1862)

Slave Narratives
Co-Sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges and the United Negro College Fund

  • Location: Yale University
  • June 12-15, 2011
  • Director: David Blight, Class of 1954 Professor of American History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance & Abolition
  • Yale University
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The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) hold annual seminars for professors of American history at smaller colleges. Past seminars have been given by such noted scholars as David Brion Davis, Joyce Appleby, James O. Horton, and Ernest R. May, among others.

This year's multidisciplinary seminar, Slave Narratives, is open to full-time faculty members in history, English, and related fields. The seminar is co-sponsored by the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), and will be held at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. For those accepted to participate in the seminar, all expenses except travel to and from New Haven will be covered by the Gilder Lehrman Institute.

The genre of slave narratives is usually divided into three categories: biographies, fiction, and autobiographies, with the third category by far the largest. Autobiographies by former slaves were first published in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century and grew in scale as new texts were promoted and printed by the early abolition movement in Britain and the United States. This seminar for faculty members will examine in depth both antebellum and postbellum narratives. Before the Civil War approximately sixty-five narratives were published in English, many of them now classics by such authors as Harriet Jacobs, Solomon Northup, and William Wells Brown. The pre-emancipation narratives were often serious works of literature as well as works that fit into certain conventions and formulas. They tended to focus squarely on the oppression of slavery: on a former slave’s indictment of the institution of bondage as a means of advancing the antislavery argument. The post-emancipation narratives, of which there are approximately fifty-five in existence, tended to be more success stories—triumphs over the past and visions of a more prosperous future. The most famous pre-war narrative is that of Frederick Douglass, and the most famous post-war narrative is that of Booker T. Washington. The seminar will cover both of these and several more, including a new book, A Slave No More, that reveals two unique postbellum narratives as a means of understanding the experience of emancipation itself. Moreover, the seminar will use the slave narratives, as well as secondary reading, to comprehend the lived experience of slaves themselves in the transition from bondage to freedom.

Nomination Process:
Faculty members who wish to participate must be nominated by the chief academic officer of the nominee’s institution. Each institution may nominate more than one individual, and faculty members of any academic rank may be nominated. Each nomination package should consist of the following:
1) Nomination form completed by the chief academic officer including nominator’s statement
2) Nominee’s curriculum vitae; and
3) Nominee’s statement of reasons for wishing to participate in the seminar and of anticipated outcomes (no more than one page).

Nomination Deadline:
Please send four copies of the completed nomination package to:
Stephen Gibson, Director of Projects
Council of Independent Colleges
One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 320
Washington, DC 20036-1142
Application must be postmarked by February 1, 2011

Please find below important information regarding the Summer Seminar for College Professors.

readings

Readings are sent by the Institute to participants of the seminar. Readings MAY include:

  • William L. Andrews, To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-American Autobiography, 1760-1865. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988.
  • Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Ed. David W. Blight. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2003.
  • Benjamin Drew, A North-Side View of Slavery. The Refugee: or the Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada. Related by Themselves, with an Account of the History and Condition of the Colored Population of Upper Canada: Electronic Edition. http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/drew/drew.html. Boston: John P. Jewett and Company, 1856.
  • Harriet A. Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself. Ed. Jean Fagan Yellin. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987.
  • David W. Blight, A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Narratives of Emancipation. Orlando: Harcourt, 2007.
  • http://www.docsouth.unc.edu/neh/. This web site through the University of North Carolina Library and edited by William Andrews is the most comprehensive source for all extant slave narratives (in full text) in English. Read Andrews’s introduction as well as sample some of the narratives, other than those assigned, both antebellum and postbellum.
  • William Grimes, Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave. Eds. William L. Andrews and Regina E. Mason. Oxford University Press, 2008.
travel & accomodations

Yale University is located in New Haven, Connecticut. The Tweed-New Haven Airport is located about fifteen minutes from the Yale Campus and is serviced by U.S. Airways Express commuter service and Pan Am Clipper Connection. Taxis from Tweed cost about $15.00 one way. Additionally, Bradley Airport is located an hour north of New Haven and is served by many major airlines. Connecticut Limo shuttles leave once an hour and cost $84 round trip. Amtrak provides service directly into New Haven's Union Station, about a ten-minute cab ride from downtown New Haven and the Yale Campus. MetroNorth provides commuter service on a regular basis from New York City into New Haven.

Workshop participants will be housed at the University's Swing Residence Hall (100 Tower Parkway). Rooms are arranged in suites of two single bedrooms, with a furnished living room, shared bath, and a kitchenette. The building is air-conditioned with phone and internet service provided. Several computer clusters and lounges are available in the complex. Some participants choose to bring laptops. Please bring your own Ethernet cable.

Swing Dorm provides sheets and towels only. Please note that participants should plan to bring alarm clocks, hangers, irons, and hair dryers. Kitchenettes are located in each suite. However, participants should bring their own utensils. Housekeeping services are provided throughout the week.

meals

Meals will be served cafeteria-style in dining halls shared by other programs. All meals will be paid for by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

graduate credit

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is proud to announce its agreement with Adams State College to offer three hours of graduate credit in American History to participating seminar teachers.

Teachers are required to submit a reaction paper and a copy of one primary source activity completed during or immediately after the seminar.

Teachers will also be given an opportunity to take additional online and distance coursework that counts toward an MA in History from Adams State College.

Enroll and learn more about the course description
For more details, please contact: Edward R. Crowther, Ph.D.

To ensure that your credit appears on your transcript as summer term class work, you must enroll by August 8, 2011.

additional resources

The Gilder Lehrman Institute will arrange for computer access and printer services to be available to participants during the week. Throughout the workshop limited access to campus computer labs and equipment for Internet research, word processing, and printing will be provided. Classrooms are equipped with the technological capabilities to accommodate presenters using a variety of media.

questions?

E-mail seminars@gilderlehrman.org or call 646-366-9666.