Conversations on Slavery and Emancipation

This blog has been up for a few years, and I haven't done much with it. I've been busy working on my various projects, namely The Register of Freedmen, which I have been analyzing in various ways. I turn to this blog now as a way to help one of my students from Rust College, Joshua Stampley-Gardner, begin thinking through the myriad critical issues that arise as one studies slavery and emancipation. Joshua will be studying during the month of June at Emory University in Atlanta. His specific work involves constructing short bibliographies of slave owners represented in The Register. He will be doing some Internet research, but he will also search Emory's resources. In addition, he will read some classic texts such as Eugene Genovese's Roll Jordan Roll and W.E.B. DuBois's Black Reconstruction as he considers the degree to which African Americans may have been agents of their own experiences. Joshua also will read John Eaton's Jr.'s Reminiscences and Ira Berlin et. al's Freedom. These latter two works provide "proof" of sorts of African American agency, or better yet, activity during the war and Reconstruction.

In this blog, Joshua and I will converse as he reads, and we welcome anyone who happens upon the blog to join us. We will begin with Eaton's text, which is available online.