#ASALH2022, RANDOM NATURE POD, and CIVIL RIGHTS MEMORY

I just arrived back in Starkville from ASALH. What a time!

Invited Presentations #Booked&Busy

These are all places that I will speak at in the 2022-2023 academic year. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be invited to speak at these amazing places this academic year. This is especially important since this is my first year as a tenure track Assistant Professor! I spoke at the National …

A History of a Life with its Deepest Intentions: The Analog/Digital After-life of Moses Grandy’s Narrative of Enslavement

Today those voices out of bondage seem to transmit what is now meant by “soul.”[1] Arna Bontemps

Punitive Landscape: Geographies of Escape and Concealment

This essay assesses relevant sources in the account of Ann Clarke’s escape from slavery with a view to examining how the political landscape of the Kansas Territory impeded or facilitated her escape. In identifying the zones of containment, concealment, and wayfinding this paper will illuminate how enslaved freedom seekers and their abolitionist allies circumvented the punitive landscape of Kansas Territory.

1857-Ann Clarke Escapes Slavery in the Great Plains

The hope? To illuminate how enslaved freedom seekers and their abolitionist allies circumvented the punitive landscapes within the antebellum Great Plains.

Slave Narrative Set in the Great Dismal Swamp Now Available on Audiobook: Moses Grandy’s Life

For Moses Grandy, his end in telling his story of enslavement was to reveal the horrors of slavery as he experienced it as well as use the proceeds of the sale of his book to purchase his enslaved children’s freedom who had been sold further south into Louisiana from the Virginia/North Carolina border.

Moses Grandy’s Mobility in the Antebellum U.S. South #BHM #Mobility #Freedom #Unfreedom

Born in 1786 on a farm owned by enslaver William Grandy in Camden County, North Carolina Moses Grandy learned as a child how difficult life was for an enslaved person. Of his early life Grandy writes, 

An Historical Geographer Reviews @fotmproject #dh #HGIS #slaveryarchive

Upon visiting the site I am impressed by its design. It is not cluttered or busy and the layout lends itself to the subject at hand in a manner that signals the gravity of the content contained. A difficult balance for projects dealing with traumatic records.
Very nicely done.

Chastity paints “Moses Grandy Tells His Story” #Artwork

I want to take a minute to give attention to the artwork here before us.

Wadmalaw Island, SC: In pictures

North Charleston Above: The road to Wadmalaw Island. Hwy 171 to 700 A strong oak. Spanish Moss. Bear Bluffs Fish Hatchery on Wadmalaw Island. Me-- taking in the psychic resonances of my Gullah ancestors. Map at Bears Bluff Fish Hatchery. It was an amazing experience to be there. To be where, historically, my ancestors worked …

From Watershed Blog

I wrote a piece at Watershed Blog on formerly enslaved men and the sea. Featured image is by Lovis Corinth, painted in 1884 Un Othello. Click here  

Abraham Lincoln in Edinburgh; Markers of Race

I've recently returned from my research trip to Scotland and it was wonderful. One of the most striking things I saw outside of the beauty of the architecture of Glasgow and Edinburgh was a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Edinburgh. I am always interested in iconography, memory, and transatlantic linkages to freedom and unfreedom. Built …