History U | Black Women's History | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Black Women's History

This History U course focuses on African American women’s history in the United States with certain aspects of Black women’s activism and leadership within the African Diaspora.

Course Instructor: Professor Kellie Carter Jackson, Wellesley College
Eligibility: High school students

Image Source: Unknown photographer, African American women with Nannie Burroughs in front, holding a banner reading, "Banner State Woman's National Baptist Convention," 1901 (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, 93505051)

Course Description

This History U course focuses on African American women’s history in the United States with certain aspects of Black women’s activism and leadership within the African Diaspora. We will examine ways in which these women engaged in local, national, and international freedom struggles while simultaneously defining their identities as wives, mothers, leaders, citizens, and workers. The course pays special attention to the diversity of Black women’s experiences and to the dominant images of Black women from Mumbet (the first enslaved Black woman to sue for her freedom and win) to contemporary issues of race, sex, and class in the Age of (Michelle) Obama. Participants will explore such questions as: What is Black women’s history? How does Black women’s history add to our understanding of American history? Where should Black women’s history go from here?

The views expressed in this course are those of Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson.

Content

Fourteen video sessions led by Professor Kellie Carter Jackson
Links to optional resources
Short quizzes to review your knowledge
A certificate of completion for 12 hours of course time

How to Access

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Course Introduction

Alysha Butler explains what you will learn in this course.

About the Scholar

Kellie Carter Jackson, Knafel Assistant Professor of the Humanities in the Department of Africana Studies, Wellesley College

Kellie Carter Jackson is the Knafel Assistant Professor of the Humanities in the Department of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. Carter Jackson’s research focuses on slavery and the abolitionists, violence as a political discourse, historical film, and Black women’s history. In her book Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence (University of Pennsylvania Press) Carter Jackson provides the first historical analysis exclusively focused on the tactical use of violence among antebellum Black activists. Force and Freedom was a finalist for the Frederick Douglass Book Prize and the MAAH Stone Book Prize.

Kellie Carter Jackson discussed Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence on the Gilder Lehrman series Book Breaks. Visit the Book Breaks Archive to watch the program.