|
events
and news |
NOTE TO READERS
The "URR News" is a very informal and occasional listing of items of
interest to researchers of the Underground Railroad, particularly in the
Mid-Atlantic region. Most of the information included in "URR News" comes
from press releases and announcements, from items submitted by individuals
and brief reports on books and events written by myself. I have taken the
liberty of shortening and otherwise editing some of these announcements so
that they will better fit within the format of this newsletter. Anyone
wishing to list events or post a research query should send them to me at [email protected]
. Anyone interested in attending events listed
should contact the sponsoring organizations to verify that the information
about the event is current. This newsletter goes to people who have
requested to be included on the mailing list and to a small list of other
forums and discussion groups. Copies of the current and archival
newsletters are available on the Afrolumens web-site. --Chris Densmore
HARRIET TUBMAN DAY OF COMMEMORATION, HARLEM, NEW YORK CITY, MARCH 10, 2005
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact: Harriet Tubman Home 800-936-5716
Heroine of Zion, Moses of her People, an American Icon
Harriet Tubman is Honored
Day of Commemoration Thursday, March 10, 2005
Date: Thursday, March 10, 2005
Time: 6:00 P.M. o'clock
Place: Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
140-6 West 137th Street, New York City, New York
The State of New York honors Harriet Tubman's legacy with an official Day
of Commemoration on March 10, 2005. On this occasion the Harriet Tubman
Home, Inc. will lift up her legacy with an inclusive event, The Harriet
Tubman Public Commemoration and Investiture Ceremony at the birthplace of
the Freedom Church, Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in
Harlem, USA. This celebration is expected to attract a diverse gathering of
corporate, public, clergy, community and lay leadership.
The Harriet Tubman Home enters a new era with the investiture of the new
Chairman of the Board, Bishop George E. Battle, Jr. and the new President
and CEO, Karen V. Hill.
These two dynamic personalities will lead the Home to new heights. "This
marks the beginning of a galvanized effort to share Harriet Tubman with the
world in a manner consistent with her strong, unflinching core values",
stated George E. Battle, Jr.
As a national historic landmark, the 30 acre Harriet Tubman Home, located
in western central New York State, is now poised to take its rightful place
as a world renowned cultural and educational facility as it seeks to preserve
the historic buildings on the property, expand its educational programs and
services and build a world class cultural and educational facility. "An
historic building at the Tubman site was recently defaced with a spray
painted swastika, a universal symbol of intolerance, I view it as our call
to action to redouble our efforts to bring the Tubman legacy of good
triumphing over evil to all of America and the world, we must never be
silent" an impassioned Hill says regarding the significance of March 10th.
The legacy of Harriet Tubman evokes the spirit of tolerance social justice,
entrepreneurship, as well as community service and leadership. To keep her
legacy alive, this event is being chaired by those individuals and their
organizations that exemplify this spirit: Honorary Chairs are: Michael
Bailkin, Stadtmauer Bailkin, LLP; L.J Cross, President, New York Jets;
Howard Dodson, Director, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black
Culture; Calvin Martin, Grand Master, Prince Hall Masons, State of New
York, Bobbie Greene McCarthy, Director, Save America's Treasures at the
National Trust for Historic Preservation; and Mamie J. Stephens, Grand
Matron, Order Easter Star, State of New York, PHA. Chairing, the event is
Pamela D. Hayes, Esq.
William Still's The Underground Rail Road, first published in 1872, has
reissued in a new edition by Pexus Publishing in February 2005. This work
is an essential cornerstone of Underground Railroad Research, containing
accounts of dozens of fugitives that passed through Pennsylvania with the
assistance of William Still and the Vigilance Committee in the 1850s. This
new edition includes the text of the original 1872 edition, reset in new
type, but with the original spelling, grammar and punctuation retained. It
also includes Still 1878 introduction to the second edition and a critical
essay on Still by Sarah Smith Duckworth of Keene University.
Robert Smedley's History of the Underground Railroad in Chester and the
Neighboring Counties of Pennsylvania, first published in 1883, has been
reissued by Stackpole Books in 2005, with an introduction by Christopher
Densmore. Smedley's book was based on his extensive interviews with
participants of the Underground Railroad in the early 1880s in Chester,
Lancaster and Delaware Counties. The book stands as the most important
collective biography of Underground Railroad participants. This book is
also closely tied with Still's narrative, as a number of the Underground
Railroad operatives in rural Pennsylvania were tied into Still's network in
urban Philadelphia. The original recommendation for the reprinting of this
book came from the Kennett Underground Railroad Center.
JAMES MCGOWN ON THOMAS GARRETT OF WILMINGTON, DELAWARE
Closely related to the people and events described by Still and Smedley was
Thomas Garrett of Wilmington, Delaware. Wilmington was only a few miles
from Chester County, Pennsylvania, and not much further from Philadelphia,
and Garrett worked closely with William Still and with the Chester County
Underground Railroad agents. James McGowan's Station Master on the
Underground Railroad: the Life and Letters of Thomas Garrett, published by
McFarland, 2005, is a revised and much expanded edition of a work first
published in 1977 and includes the text of the surviving Garrett letters as
well as the results of McGowan's extensive research. Tubman scholars will
be interested in the close working relationship between Garrison and
Harriet Tubman.
Fergus Bordewich, Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War
for the Soul of America is scheduled for release by Amistad, an imprint of
HarperCollins in April 2005. The book is the result of extensive research
in primary resources as well as an understanding of the current scholarship
on slavery and the Underground Railroad. In recent years, while the
Underground Railroad has caught popular attention, it sometimes seemed that
much of the writing has focused on a very few individuals, perhaps leaving
the impression that Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman were the entire
story. Bordewich's book reintroduces a modern audience to a number of
individuals who were well known in the 19th century yet have been largely
neglected in the modern era, including Josiah Henson, Levi Coffin, Isaac T.
Hopper, William Chapin, David Ruggles, Jonathan Walker and a many others.
We have needed the recently excellent work on recovering the reality of
Harriet Tubman, but it is gratifying to Tubman's co-workers receiving
attention. Unlike much of the writing on the Underground Railroad which is
largely accessible only to specialists, Bordewich, like Kate Clifford
Larson, has written a book that will is both respectable as scholarship and
will be accessible to the reading public.
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD TRAVELERS; RESEARCH AND FAMILY HISTORY SYMPOSIUM,
HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, APRIL 9, 2005
Using the Underground Railroad as both metaphor and tool, this symposium
presents emerging research and instruction on locating African American
ancestors and will include nationally known speakers and three tracks:
Academic Paper Sessions (selected by review) on topics ranging from family
experiences to available primary sources; Family History Sessions,
exploring tools to uncover African American ancestors; Joint Interest
Sessions, with current research on finding Underground Railroad travelers.
The symposium will take place Saturday April 9, 2005 at The Unitarian
Meeting House at 50 Bloomfield Avenue in Hartford, CT. from 8:30 a.m. to
4:45 p.m.
Keynote Speakers
- David Blight, Ph.D. (Gilder Lehrman Center director and author of Race and
Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory)
- Spencer Crew, Ph.D., (Executive Director, National Underground Railroad
Freedom Center)
- Tony Burroughs (genealogist and author of Black Roots: Methods for
Exploring Your African American Heritage)
Schedule
- 8:30 Welcome
- Katherine Kane, Executive Director, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center
- Keynote 1: The Underground Railroad Freedom Center
- Spencer Crew, Ph.D. Executive Director, National Underground Railroad
Freedom Center
- 9:00 Keynote 2: Finding Underground Railroad Travelers
- David Blight, Ph.D., Executive Director, Gilder Lehrman Center for the
Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition, Yale Center for International
and Area Studies
- 10:00 Joint Session
- Religious Opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law
- Lawrence B. Goodheart, Ph.D., University of Connecticut
- Academic Session
- Primary Sources for Research on the Underground Railroad
- Chair: Joan Hedrick, Ph.D. Trinity College
- Presenters: Bronwen C. Souders, "Genius of Liberty Runaway Slave
Advertisements: Research Tool for Oudoun County, Virginia and Beyond"
- Dorothy Spruill Redford, Somerset Place State Historic Site, "Slave
Identification Names: Bookkeeping Methods at Somerset Place Plantation."
- Family History Session
- Unlikely Sources: Reading Circles and Black Historical Societies
- Booker T. DeVaughn, Ed.D., interim President, Capital Community College and
family historian
- 11:00 Joint Session
- New England Abolitionists, the Children's Perspective
- Harriet Alonso, Ph.D., City College of New York
- Joint Session
- The Underground Railroad in New England and Canada
- Jane Williamson, Director, Rokeby Museum
- Family History Session
- Finding Native American Ancestors
- Vicki Welch, professional genealogist
- Academic Session
- Computer Applications for Information Management
- Chair: Matt Warshauer, Ph.D., Central Connecticut State University
- Presenters: Prince Brown, Jr., "A New Database Tool for Studying Slavery
and the Underground Railroad"
- James A. McGowan, "Finding People in William Still's Underground Railroad"
- 12:00 Lunch (included with registration fee)
- 12:30 Keynote 3: Black Roots: Methods for Exploring African American Heritage
- Tony Burroughs , professional genealogist and author of Black Roots: A
Beginner's Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree
- 2:00 Joint Session
- The Underground Railroad: Myth or Reality?
- Robert P. Forbes, Ph.D., Associate Director, Gilder Lehrman Center
- Jane Williamson Director, Rokeby Museum
- Family History Session
- Archival Depositories
- Robert Rafford, D.M., Northeast Professional Genealogy
- Academic Session
- Families and the Underground Railroad
- Chair: Patricia Hill, Ph.D., Wesleyan University
- Presenter: David W. Young, Johnson House Historic Site, "The Underground
Railroad through the Eyes of Abolitionist Children: Research Strategies
from the Johnson House in Philadelphia."
- 3:00 Family History Session
- Researching Sites
- Peter Hinks, Ph.D.
- Maria Hileman, Rochester Democrat
- Karyl Evans, filmmaker, producer of The History of African Americans in
Connecticut: Colonial Era to Civil War
- Family History Session
- Using Government Resources
- Bruce Stark, Ph.D., Connecticut State Archives
- Barbara Beeching, doctoral candidate, University of Connecticut
- Academic Session
- Women and the Underground Railroad
- Chair: Barbara Sicherman, Ph.D. Trinity College, Hartford
- Presenters: Kate Clifford Larson, "Harriet Tubman's Three Brothers: Finding
and Tracking the Identities of Runaway Slaves Through Scattered Primary
Documents"
- Katherine Flynn, "Finding Fugitive Slaves in Antebellum Boston: The Case
Study of Jane Johnson."
- 3:45 Closing Reception
Directions
The Unitarian Meeting House
50 Bloomfield Ave., Hartford.
Located near the intersection of Albany Avenue (Rt.44), and Bloomfield
Avenue, Rt. 189, in Hartford, CT.
For detailed directions, call (860) 233-9897 or see www.ushartford.org/map.html
[Editor's note: this is no longer a valid link]
Free Parking
For information on Hartford area accommodations, go to
www.enjoycentralct.com or www.enjoyhartford.com
For registration information, see:
http://www.harrietbeecherstowe.org/symposium_registration.pdf
For questions, email [email protected]
or call 860 522 9258 ext 306.
Christopher Densmore
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
March 1, 2005
|
