Before Charleston’s civil-rights-era leaders get older and pass on, a group of preservationists are hoping to identify sites of their most important work and mark it for all to see. But that’s just the first order of business for the newly created Charleston African American Preservation Alliance.
For more on this story, http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/aug/28/preserving-areas-civil-rights-sites/#comments
CfP: 2012 Southern Historical Association — Reminder with Revised Submission Deadline (9/15)
The Program Committee for the 2012 conference of the Southern Historical Association invites proposals on all topics related to the history of the American South from its pre-colonial era to today. In addition, for the 2012 meeting in Mobile, it extends a special welcome to proposals relating to:
* Mobile and the Gulf South (including its relation to the Caribbean and N. American interior)
* International, transnational, or comparative approaches to the American South
* 2012 as an anniversary of major historical events, publications, etc. (For example: War of 1812, Civil War 1862, Election of Woodrow Wilson 1912; Equal Rights Amendment 1972-1982. Or, the historical context for the 2012 Presidential Election and the American South).
The Program Committee accepts proposals for single papers but encourages session proposals that include two or three papers.
According to SHA policy, no one who appeared on the previous two programs, those at Charlotte and Baltimore, can be part of the program in Mobile. No two people from the same institution can be on the same session.
NOTE: New Policy regarding composition of proposals for the 2012 Program: Those submitting proposals should include suggestions of people who would be appropriate as commentators/chairs but not issue invitations. The Program Committee will select and invite a chair and usually two commentators.
DEADLINE: The deadline for proposals this year is September 15, 2011.
All 2012 proposals must be submitted online: http://www.uga.edu/sha/meeting/index.htm
If you are interested in submitting a session for the Latin American and Caribbean Section, please visit their web site: http://ww2.tnstate.edu/lacs/
2012 Program Committee Co-Chairs: Don Doyle and Marjorie Spruill, University of South Carolina don.doyle@sc.edu marjorie.spruill@sc.edu
Review of Robin Blackburn, The American Crucible: Slavery,
Emancipation and Human Rights
By Eric Foner
The Nation
August 10, 2011
http://www.thenation.com/article/162669/inhuman-bondage-slavery-emancipation-and-human-rights
This past spring, television viewers in Britain were treated to a six-part series called Civilization about the rise (and possible fall, if China has its way) of the West, hosted by the historian Niall Ferguson. One episode explored why after independence, the United States forged ahead economically while the nations of Latin America stagnated. In an unusual twist, Ferguson chose South Carolina, a state governed by a tight-knit planter oligarchy, as a model of Jeffersonian democracy resting on small property ownership, in contrast to the autocratic societies south of the border organized around large latifundia. Only after forty-five minutes of the one-hour show did Ferguson mention the existence of slaves-the majority of South Carolina’s population. When slavery was finally discussed, it was presented not as a crucial structural feature of early American society but as a moral dilemma, an “original sin” expiated by the election of Barack Obama.
SOURCE: Catholic Online (8-8-11)
Wealthy anonymous donors in the United States, a group of historians, archaeologists and concerned citizens are working to preserve what’s left of the infamous slave castle on Bunce Island near Sierra Leone in Africa. The area is a crucial site in remembering America’s slave trade in the 18th and 19th centuries. Philanthropists now want to build a museum that explores the island’s role in the transatlantic slave trade.
http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=42314
| ARTS | August 06, 2011 Museum Review: History As Viewed From Below By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN The North Carolina History Center explores, among other things, the fate of blacks during the Civil War and the grooming and hygiene of settlers in colonial days. |
A video the National Park Service made of a reading from the Gospel of John in Gullah is now available on YouTube at http://youtu.be/icbXwHdJs4k. Tell all your friends.
In an interesting look at the regionalism of the “Tea Party Movement,” Michael Lind reveals what scholars of modern conservatism have understood for some time. What do you think: Is the Tea Party mostly an expression of white southern extremism? To read the article click here
From the city wharves the topmasts of the steam frigate U.S.S. Niagara were barely visible beyond Morris Island. The ship had anchored in rough seas to await the Africans.
Named for the majestic waterfall and just back from the successful laying of the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable, the U.S.S. Niagara drew the curious who ventured out for a closer look at the vessel and her crew of more than 300 sailors and marines.
For more of this story, click on or type the URL below:
http://www.charlestonmercury.com/articles/2011/07/26/sesquicentennial/doc4e2f47e287881486072906.txt