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Presentation about Carolina Maria de Jesus

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Presentation about Carolina Maria de Jesus

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Paper topic Peripheral women in Brazilian literature African heritage in verse and audacity

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Kimberle' Crenshaw Speaks out: Education Reforms Tied to Resegregation

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Kimberle' Crenshaw Speaks out: Education Reforms Tied to Resegregation

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‘Just the tip of the iceberg’: Kimberlé Crenshaw warns against rightwing battle over critical race theory

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Exclusive: Author and academic cautions pushback against racial justice education feeds revival of segregationist policies

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Historically Illuminating of Women Black Panthers

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Historically Illuminating of Women Black Panthers

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From Albany’s Teaching Black History Team Resource of the Week is African Queens: Njinga on netflix. See new storyThe Story Behind the Netflix Series African Queens: Njinga | Time also see teachers guide by the Langston society: https://www.flipsnack.com/ADDADD88B7A/netflix-presents-african-queens-queen-njinga/full-view.html. If you want another book, I suggest last year Teaching Black History Conference speaker, Dr. Nwando Achebe's Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa: Amazon.com: Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa (Ohio Short Histories of Africa): 9780821424070: Achebe, Nwando: Books

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Classroom Materials on the History of the African American Freedom Movement

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Classroom Materials on the History of the African American Freedom Movement

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https://sheg.stanford.edu/about/updates/2020/classroom-materials-history-african-american-freedom-movement?fbclid=IwAR1gd-vQzrHZwERGLJ8lY8sn5Rmw-nXG09HHTrRdXjyBufEkhj3E3bTVsYU

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Classroom Materials on the History of the African American Freedom Movement | Stanford History Education Group

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Explore a list of lessons and assessments with a focus on African American activism.

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Forgot to share this last week- a great resource for lesson ideas, artists, and other art-related curricula.

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Anti-Racist : a person who opposes racism and promotes racial tolerance.

Bias : favoring or showing prejudice towards certain people or ideas.

BIPOC : Black, Indigenous and People of Color.

Cultural Appropriation: inappropriately and/or incorrectly using or taking advantage of, or claiming ownership and rights to use another culture's capital and patrimony; such as fashion, trends, iconography, traditional art, ceremonies, etc.

False Narrative : a story that you perceive as being true but has little basis in reality, this perception can be due to insufficient or inaccurate information or to insufficient or inaccurate assessment.

NBIPOC : Non-Black Indigenous People of Color

Person of color : a person who is not white or of European parentage.

Stereotype : a category or group that we put people into (thinking a certain type of person or thing acts/thinks/looks a certain way).

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Reframing United States History:Examining the expansion and contraction of democracy as a through line of our nation’s history

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Reframing United States History:Examining the expansion and contraction of democracy as a through line of our nation’s history

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Jacob Lawrence & the Great Migration Series: Documenting Moments in a Movement

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Jacob Lawrence & the Great Migration Series: Documenting Moments in a Movement

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Jacob Lawrence_ The Great Migration Series

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“Four Women”: A Case Study of the Black Roots of American Music

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“Four Women”: A Case Study of the Black Roots of American Music

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Black Lives Matter at School Marketplace of Learning

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Black Lives Matter at School Marketplace of Learning

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History of PassingWho are you? Who decides? What is passing? 

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History of PassingWho are you? Who decides? What is passing? 

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Comparing Historic and Modern Civil Rights Organizations

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Comparing Historic and Modern Civil Rights Organizations

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Comparing Historical and Modern Civil Rights Organisations Lesson Pitch

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Women of the Movement: Unsung Heroes in the Fight for Civil Rights

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Women of the Movement: Unsung Heroes in the Fight for Civil Rights

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Women of the Movement_ Unsung Heroes in the Fight for Civil Rights

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Commenting By Proximity: Racial Justice Protests Using American Symbols

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Commenting By Proximity: Racial Justice Protests Using American Symbols

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Black Death and the Birth of America: the Creation of Martyrs from Crispus Attucks to George Floyd

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Black Death and the Birth of America: the Creation of Martyrs from Crispus Attucks to George Floyd

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 Information Wanted Ads as Resistance and Resilience

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 Information Wanted Ads as Resistance and Resilience

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Black Lives Matter: Solidarity with Latin America

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Black Lives Matter: Solidarity with Latin America

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Black Lives Matter_ Solidarity with Latin America

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Black Lives Matter Through Civil Discourse

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Black Lives Matter Through Civil Discourse

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Black Lives Matter Through Civil Discourse Presentation

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 Creating a Culturally Responsive & Inclusive Environment: 5 Step Action Plan for Professional Development 

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 Creating a Culturally Responsive & Inclusive Environment: 5 Step Action Plan for Professional Development 

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https://www.mrroughton.com/home

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The Popes, the Catholic Church and the Transatlantic Enslavement of African Peoples

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Teaching Black History Conference - July 2023

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Teaching Black History Conference - July 2023

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bjDxY-_tz02u3DH1_OyY3PnQpcl329k1/view?fbclid=IwAR2MC1Ve-zcb6okx9BHtPFyHjDhsTs98T2ShvN2guaLHt5H72Cxh9JyECxQ

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2023 Teaching Black History Conference_Hip Hop.edited.pdf

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To empower teachers and engage students by using popular music to create interdisciplinary, culturally responsive education materials for all 21st century classrooms.

Steven Van Zandt's TeachRock project brings rich, multimedia educational materials to teachers and students everywhere-at no cost. The lesson plan collections and resources at teachrock.org help teachers engage students by connecting the history of popular music to classroom work across the disciplines. From social studies and language arts to geography, media studies, science, general music, and more: TeachRock has engaging and meaningful arts integration materials for every classroom.

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To empower teachers and engage students by using popular music to create interdisciplinary, culturally responsive education materials for all 21st century classrooms. Steven Van Zandt's TeachRock project brings rich, multimedia educational materials to teachers and students everywhere-at no cost.

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Hidden in Plain Sight: Ghosts of Segregation

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Hidden in Plain Sight: Ghosts of Segregation

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Hidden in Plain Sight: The Ghosts of Segregation (Published 2020)

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Vestiges of racism and oppression, from bricked-over segregated entrances to the forgotten sites of racial violence, still permeate much of America’s built environment.

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Black Power Politics: Tracing the Effects of a Movement, Jakobi Williams on the Nerds in the Woods Podcast

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Black Power Politics: Tracing the Effects of a Movement, Jakobi Williams on the Nerds in the Woods Podcast

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Black Power Politics: Tracing the Effects of a Movement by Nerds in the Woods

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In this episode, we sit down with two scholars whose work complicates our understanding of black power politics and the scope of its influence outside of the U.S. cities with which it is most often associated. Episode host: Matthew Booker. Interviewer: Robert Newman. Interviewees: Jakobi Williams (Fellow, 2016–17) and Katherine Mellen Charron (Fellow, 2019–20).

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 The Arts as Resistance: an Exploration of Black Creators

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 The Arts as Resistance: an Exploration of Black Creators

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 Revising History to Understand the Past and Shape the Future

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 Revising History to Understand the Past and Shape the Future

# data[].attributes.headline
 Black Lives Matter is more than a slogan, it is also a slogan

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 Black Lives Matter is more than a slogan, it is also a slogan

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Black Lives Matter is more than a slogan.pptx

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 BlACK POWER: A Recipe for revolution...? 

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 BlACK POWER: A Recipe for revolution...? 

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Let's keep in touch and keep sharing resources.

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More Than a Slogan: Understanding the Historical Context of BLM - 2023 | Facebook

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https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library/collections/black-women-oral-history-project

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Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University

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Schlesinger Library / Collections

The Black Women Oral History Project interviewed 72 African American women between 1976 and 1981.

With support from the Schlesinger Library, the project recorded a cross section of women who had made significant contributions to American society during the first half of the 20th century.

Many interviewees in the collection had professional careers in fields such as education, government, the arts, business, medicine, law, and social work. Other women who were interviewed combined care for their families with volunteer work at the local, regional, or national level.

During the interviews, women discuss

childhood;

education;

family background;

influences affecting their choice of primary career or activity;

professional and voluntary accomplishments; and

ways in which being black and a woman affected their opportunities.

Biographies, photographs, and transcripts as well as audio from the project are available online from the Library's research guide to the Black Women Oral History Project Interviews, 1976-1981.

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Black Women Oral History Project | Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Schlesinger Library / Collections The Black Women Oral History Project interviewed 72 African American women between 1976 and 1981. With support from the Schlesinger Library, the project recorded a cross section of women who had made significant contributions to American society during the first half of the 20th century.

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Harvard Black Women's Oral History Project

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Harvard Black Women's Oral History Project

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https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library/collections/black-women-oral-history-project

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Schlesinger Library / Collections

The Black Women Oral History Project interviewed 72 African American women between 1976 and 1981.

With support from the Schlesinger Library, the project recorded a cross section of women who had made significant contributions to American society during the first half of the 20th century.

Many interviewees in the collection had professional careers in fields such as education, government, the arts, business, medicine, law, and social work. Other women who were interviewed combined care for their families with volunteer work at the local, regional, or national level.

During the interviews, women discuss

childhood;

education;

family background;

influences affecting their choice of primary career or activity;

professional and voluntary accomplishments; and

ways in which being black and a woman affected their opportunities.

Biographies, photographs, and transcripts as well as audio from the project are available online from the Library's research guide to the Black Women Oral History Project Interviews, 1976-1981.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Black Women Oral History Project | Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Schlesinger Library / Collections The Black Women Oral History Project interviewed 72 African American women between 1976 and 1981. With support from the Schlesinger Library, the project recorded a cross section of women who had made significant contributions to American society during the first half of the 20th century.

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Jakobi Williams webinar about Black Panthers

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Jakobi Williams webinar about Black Panthers

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Humanities in Class: Webinar Series

Jakobi Williams (NHC Fellow, 2016-17; Ruth N. Halls Associate Professor and Chair, Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies and Department of History, Indiana University)

January 20, 2022

How did the Black Panther Party influence the world? We will examine the monumental impact of the Black Panther Party (BPP) on non-African American groups both domestically and abroad as a model for grassroots community organizing to address disparities and disadvantages. Moreover, the lesson will demonstrate why and how groups emulated the BPP as a means for political and social change and will highlight the transnational importance of African American grassroots political activism. Global Call of Power to the People is a study of groups in Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Israel, Palestine, Italy, and India that did not have any direct contact with the BPP but chose to create movements in their countries modeled after the Panthers grassroots community organizing and racial coalition strategies.

Subjects

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How did the Black Panther Party influence the world? We will examine the monumental impact of the Black Panther Party (BPP) on non-African American groups both domestically and abroad as a model for grassroots community organizing to address disparities and disadvantages. Moreover, the lesson will demonstrate why and how groups emulated the BPP as a ...

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Free teacher license for Rosa Parks documentary

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Free teacher license for Rosa Parks documentary

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https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/teacher-license-to-screen-the-rebellious-life-of-mrs-rosa-parks/

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The 2022 documentary The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks is based on the bestselling biography by Jeanne Theoharis, executive produced by award-winning journalist Soledad O'Brien, and directed by Johanna Hamilton and Yoruba Richen.

The film chronicles Parks' childhood, her activism before and during the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott, her work for Congressman John Conyers in Detroit, and her involvement in causes such as voting rights, anti-apartheid, reparations, fair housing, women's rights, and the fight against police violence.

Thanks to support from the Soledad O'Brien Productions and The Ford Foundation, teachers and teacher educators can access licenses to share the film with their students from January 1 to March 31, 2023.

To request a link to share the film, fill out the form below. You will be asked to provide your name, school, how you plan to use the film, and agree to share a story about using the film. We also encourage teachers to help spread the word about the film by sharing a post on social media, asking students to write reviews, alerting colleagues in a school district e-newsletter, etc.

Once you respond to the questions, you will receive a link from Perigon Live to preview and share the film with your students. The film can be screened multiple times in case you want to share it with different classes or decide to share it in sections over multiple class periods. There is a closed captions option listed under the HD icon.

More About the Film and Related Resources

The documentary includes interviews with Jeanne Theoharis, Barbara Smith, Robin D. G. Kelley, Francis Gourrier, Keisha N. Blain, Mary Frances Berry, Ericka Huggins, Bryan Stevenson, Patrice Cullors, Rev. JoAnn Watson, Dan Aldridge, Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, Frank Joyce, and more. Also included are recorded interviews from Eyes on the Prize with Jo Ann Robinson.

Learn about the film and see clips in this Democracy Now! program with Jeanne Theoharis and Yoruba Richen.

Other Ways to See the Film

The film is streaming on Peacock. Here is the trailer.

Teaching Guide

Check out the teaching guide for The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks book and film.

Find additional teaching resources below.

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The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks Classroom Screening Licenses - Zinn Education Project

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The 2022 documentary The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks is based on the bestselling biography by Jeanne Theoharis, executive produced by award-winning journalist Soledad O'Brien, and directed by Johanna Hamilton and Yoruba Richen.

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TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Hello again. This is the first time I've hosted our show since Labor Day while I've been tending to a family health crisis. I'm deeply grateful to my on-air partner Dave Davies for hosting the show while I've been gone, to our book interview producer Sam Briger, who also stepped up to record some great interviews and to everyone else on our team who has protected me from having to think about anything but family. And thanks to our listeners who have expressed concern and support. It will probably be a few more days before I'm back full time, but it's great to be back to work.

And now onto today's show - you probably know my guest Chana Joffe-Walt from her work as a producer and reporter on "This American Life." Now that protests against the police killings and beatings of Black men and women have led to a new chapter in the American conversation about racial justice and racial inequity, Joffe-Walt has a five-part podcast about why there's still so much racial inequity in our public school system. She says in previous reporting, she'd looked at some of the many programs and reforms we've tried to fix our schools - like standardized tests and charter schools, smaller classes, longer school days, stricter discipline, looser discipline. Her series focuses on the problems caused by white parents - white parents who say they want their kids to go to schools with diversity. That's why her series is called "Nice White Parents." It's the latest season of "Serial."

Along with Nikole Hannah-Jones, Joffe-Walt won a Peabody Award for their 2015 reporting on "This American Life" on education and school segregation. Her "This American Life" episode Five Women focused on one man accused of sexual harassment by examining his behavior from the point of view of five women. Her current podcast, "Nice White Parents," focuses on a middle and high school that was formerly known as the School for International Studies in the gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood Cobble Hill. Before gentrification, the students were Black and brown kids from poor and working-class families. When white parents started sending their kids to the school, Joffe-Walt found the school's priorities changed to suit the needs of the white kids from homes with more money. Some white parents and students thought that a bad school was being made better by their presence. It's a point Joffe-Walt makes in the first episode of "Nice White Parents" while she's taking us on a tour of the school.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "NICE WHITE PARENTS")

CHANA JOFFE-WALT: And down in the library, I met three sixth-grade boys - white boys new to SIS. They're sweaty from playing soccer and looking very small against their huge backpacks. These boys, even at 11 years old, they've absorbed the same messages - that SIS wasn't so good before. It was a bad school.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: And the kids wouldn't pay attention, and they had, like, zone out every little thing. And I bet they learned very little. And now this generation, with us, I think we're doing a lot better, and I think that we're learning at a much faster pace.

JOFFE-WALT: He and his friends, they've turned the school around. That's what he's learning.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: It's going to be one of, like, the top choices, like, already. And, like, the book - like, when you're applying to middle schools, you get, like, a book sort of, like on statuses and stuff. And I think this school is actually, like, really high up in the statuses.

JOFFE-WALT: Nobody calls it the book on statuses. They call it a directory of schools with info, like enrollment numbers for different schools, test scores and special programs. But I love that he calls it the book on statuses because this is what happened at SIS. The school had a bad reputation among white families, and then suddenly it was in demand. Its status had changed because of the white kids.

A powerful draw for white families into any school is other white families. When there are enough other white families in a school, you reach what one city calls a bliss point. This is a real thing researchers study - how many white kids are needed at a school to make other white families feel comfortable? That number, the bliss point, is 26%. That fall, white families were crowding the school tours at SIS not because the test scores had improved - the new scores hadn't even come out yet - but because the other white families made them feel blissfully comfortable.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GROSS: Chana Joffe-Walt, welcome to FRESH AIR, and congratulations on "Nice White Parents." We should start by acknowledging that a lot of students are doing remote learning now and the meaning of school has just kind of changed since the pandemic. So let's start by acknowledging that.

JOFFE-WALT: Yeah, my two are home.

GROSS: Yeah, right. Right. So what we just heard - is the bliss point something you heard reflected by other white parents?

JOFFE-WALT: Yeah. I mean, nobody used that term, but I think so much of the conversation that parents have about schools uses sort of proxy language when it comes to race in particular. I mean, the things that parents talk to one another about is test scores or programming or, like, is that school safe or the pedagogy, which obviously - and the school test scores, obviously all very important questions when you're looking at a school. But it's pretty rare that you'll hear parents talk about the race of the kids who are in a school when they're searching for a school to choose. I think that's especially true of white parents.

And even though we know that race influences parent choice in school - and you can see that in places where there is a lot of racial diversity, like the neighborhood around this school - the schools can still remain segregated. I think white parents are pretty savvy at evading the explicit conversation around race, although it's clearly shaping our thoughts about schools.

GROSS: You started reporting this story when you were figuring out where to send your kids. And you were living in Cobble Hill in Brooklyn, the neighborhood in which this story is set - you know, in which the school that you're reporting on is in. What were your options, and what were your priorities in choosing a school?

JOFFE-WALT: I went in knowing a little bit about schools 'cause I had been reporting on schools, although I still think now that I was fairly naive in thinking about what I wanted from school and the way I thought about public school. I think I just sort of - I wanted my kids to go to the school nearby. I had a romantic idea about my kids walking to school with all the other kids in the neighborhood. And it was important to me that the school was racially diverse.

And I had - so I had the choice of my zoned school - where I live, you can go to your zoned school; you also have a lot of other options. So depending on how much research you do and how interested you are in exploring those other options, you can apply. You can have your child tested at 4 years old in New York City to be - to qualify for a gifted and talented track. And if you qualify for that track, there are schools that have those programs in them that are outside of your zone that you can go to. There are other kind of specialty programs like that - magnet programs, there was a dual-language program that we looked at. So I looked at a couple schools. I didn't go super deep into touring.

GROSS: What were the tours like of the schools, and how were white parents sold? How were they being kind of recruited to join the schools when you were shopping around for your kids?

JOFFE-WALT: I mean, one of the things that was really surprising, although probably should not have been surprising to me, was how much it really did feel like shopping - going on school tours. So I would show up in a school building - you'd look up on their website when they have a tour. You show up at, you know, 9 or 10 a.m. So that's already a fairly self-selected group of parents who are able to show up on a Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. to do a tour of the school. And very often, the schools that I was touring, the people who showed up for those tours were white parents and sometimes Asian parents. And the kids in the building were very often Black and Latino kids, a large majority of the students were. And so we'd sort of follow an administrator around the school as this, like, group of white parents following an administrator - very often a person of color - who was telling us about their school and really selling, like really talking about, we have a partnership with the Lincoln Center and we do yoga and we have a dance studio and you're going to be comfortable in this way - and parents asking, like, all sorts of questions that parents want to know about schools, about homework and the food that they have in the cafeteria.

I did not, on any of those tours, hear anybody mention the race - that the sort of race of the people in the group touring the school was completely different than the race of almost all the kids in the school. And that felt the most stark, and in particularly two schools that we looked at that had gifted and talented programs. So they have a track - a separate track for kids who are in the gifted program. And those kids are in separate classrooms. And so we would, as a group touring the school, peek into one of those classrooms. And you would notice, like, oh, here's where all of the white students are in this school - not entirely, but very, very noticeable - and also that nobody noted it.

GROSS: And that the gifted and talented program was, in a way, creating a new form of segregation within an ostensibly racially diverse school.

JOFFE-WALT: Yeah, yeah. The one school that I did ask about the gifted and talented program, I think I asked in a not very explicit way. But I think I said something like, do the kids - don't the kids talk about that they're in the gifted and talented program? And the person showing us to the school said, oh, no, no, no. Don't worry. They don't know. They can't - like, we never talk about it. We don't refer to them that way. The kids don't know.

And the school that my kids go to now has a gifted and talented program. And was - it was in first grade that my oldest son asked, why are all the other white kids (laughter) in the - he doesn't know it's called the gifted and talented program, but he knows it's a different class and that the white kids seem to all be in that class.

GROSS: Yeah. Well, your series examines, you know, this whole idea of diversity in the school from two different points of view - one, from the white parents looking for diversity for their schools, for their children, and the other from the parents of the, you know, Black and Latino children who were already attending the school and see this more as, like, gentrification; like the white, wealthier people are moving in and changing the priorities to suit their needs and not the needs of the children who were already here.

And also, in terms of the dual perspective on this, the white parents that you report on see, like, diversity as a real priority. For the Black parents and the parents of Latino kids, of Latinx kids, they just want better schools. And they think that the better schools shouldn't necessarily require the presence of white students and the activities of white parents. Eve Ewing, who has - she's a sociologist who writes about public schools in America. She asked you at one point, why are you so obsessed with the idea of integration? What did her question do for you in terms of making you think about what integration means?

JOFFE-WALT: It was a super helpful question. And I really remember the moment that she posed it because we were talking for, you know, several hours of kind of laying out the story for her. And the assumption that integration was a goal was sort of - shot through everything that we were talking about. And so I remember when she said, like, what is it that obsesses you? Why are you obsessed with integration?

It took me aback, I think, because I have taken as an assumption in my own life and also in my reporting that, you know, integration is good. And integration is good partially because segregation is anathema to the American promise, and that it's a part of the mission of public schools that schools be places where kids of different backgrounds come together and develop, you know, what Horace Mann called fellow feeling and connection to one another.

And I think Eve led me sort of down a path of really just trying to understand better what it - where integration comes from, where the push for integration comes from. The push for integration in almost all early integration cases come from a desire for equal resources and equal access and equal opportunity. And that doesn't have much to do with sitting next to white kids in a classroom or, you know, benefiting from the presence of white kids. It is really about - yeah - access to quality education. And it's a means to an end. It's not the goal in and of itself. And I think integration in my mind, and in the mind of, I think, a lot of progressive, white parents, has been turned into kind of a virtue in and of itself.

GROSS: Well, let's take a break here, and then we'll talk some more. If you're just joining us, my guest is Chana Joffe-Walt. Her podcast "Nice White Parents" is the current season of "Serial." We'll talk more about school segregation and attempts to create racial equality in our public schools after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MATT MCGINLEY'S "INTO THE ARCHIVES")

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with Chana Joffe-Walt. Her five-part series "Nice White Parents" is the current season of the podcast "Serial." It's about how some white parents, even white parents who say they want integration and diversity, have ended up being obstacles to true equity in our public schools.

The school that you reported on, the School for International Studies, this wasn't the first time that white parents were interested in the school, in creating an integrated school in the neighborhood. You found a folder with letters from parents dating back to 1963, when the school was known as Intermediate School 293 and it was in the process of being built. And so what were some of the common themes in 1963 from the white parents who were writing letters to the city saying they wanted the school to be integrated?

JOFFE-WALT: The most familiar thing was the way white parents were talking about integration. And in the '60s, it was integration. And, I think, in 2015, the word was more diversity. But the letters - I mean, the letters felt to me really - I was really surprised to find them and felt sort of startling to imagine that there had been white parents in this neighborhood when the school was being planned who were surrounded by a civil rights movement and a kind of black-led movement for liberation and civil rights and had said, we want to be on the right side of history. We want to be part of this movement. We want to have an integrated school. And the new board of education - you're planning to build it in a place where it will inevitably be segregated. And you should put it closer to the middle of the two segregated neighborhoods so that it can be integrated, so that we can send our kids there and be part of integration.

I think in reading the letters, it wasn't as clear, but in talking to the parents, it was definitely clear that the ideas about integration then were very similar to the ideas about integration in 2015, that it was about a racial togetherness and harmony and that there was a sort of inherent virtue and value in just putting people in the same building with each other and that that itself was a worthy effort.

GROSS: One of the things that you found is - because you called a lot of the white parents who had written these letters. And the parents who you spoke to did not end up sending their kids to this school, even though they had pushed for the integrated school. Why didn't they send their children?

JOFFE-WALT: I heard a lot of different reasons about why people didn't send their kids. Some people left the city. And the school was being planned in the early 60s and opened in the late 60s. And so some of these parents had very young kids when they wrote these letters and joined the increasing number of people moving to the suburbs before their kids were old enough to have gone to a junior high school. And many parents who did stay in Brooklyn sent their kids to private schools.

GROSS: One of the things that you found is that the white parents back in 1963 who had advocated for integrated schools ended up not sending their children to the school that was integrated, but they ended up controlling where the school was going to be built, even though their children didn't end up going there. It was built in a location more convenient for the white children. Would you describe what happened?

JOFFE-WALT: Yeah, that still blows my mind. So this - I found this box of letters. And it's just letter after letter of parents from the white side of the neighborhood saying, we want integration. We believe in integration. We think the board of ed should follow through on its, like, empty rhetoric about believing in integrated schools and actually build the school in a fringe zone, which at the time was this idea of building fringe schools in strategically located places so that you could draw from two sides of segregated neighborhoods and integrate them that way. In New York City, that was possible in lots of neighborhoods. And they were arguing for the school to be a fringe school.

And in the pile of letters, there's this one letter from the tenants association for the Gowanus Houses, which is the public housing project that actually is the reason the school is being built. So there is this new, fairly new public housing project with more than a thousand families. And the board of ed recognized that it needed to increase school capacity in the neighborhood and so was planning this building because of that. And the white parents said, put the school in the fringe zone so that it can serve both communities. And the tenants association from the Gowanus Houses wrote to the board of ed to say, we actually want the school here. We want the school near where our families live so that it can serve the people who will actually go to the school and will provide desperately needed facilities. And we want the facilities.

So school, you know, is a place to get an education and is also often a place for people to gather and use the yard and use the basketball courts. And families from the Gowanus houses wanted that to be close by and wanted their kids to have a safe passage to be able to get to that school. But the school - but in the end, the board of ed built the school where the white parents were asking for it on the fringe, and then none of them sent their kids there.

GROSS: And the kids from the housing project had to walk several blocks further to get to school every day.

JOFFE-WALT: Right, yeah.

GROSS: Well, let's take a break here. And then we'll talk some more. If you're just joining us, my guest is Chana Joffe-Walt, the reporter on the five part series Nice White Parents, which is the current season of the podcast Serial. After we take a short break, we'll talk more about the role of white parents in creating diversity in our schools and in being obstacles to racial equality in our schools. I'm Terry Gross. And this is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF HERLIN RILEY'S "RUSH HOUR")

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Let's get back to my interview with Chana Joffe-Walt. Her five part series, Nice White Parents, is the current season of the podcast Serial. Serial is now part of The New York Times. Nice White Parents is about attempts to integrate our public schools and how white parents who say they want integration and diversity often become obstacles to true racial equity. Joffe-Walt is a reporter and producer for This American Life.

You have a terrific example of the conflicting needs and desires of the two economic classes in the school that you report on and at the school that was formerly known as the School for International Studies, SIS, a middle school high school. And while white parents were being pitched and marketed to to send their kids to this school, somebody named Rob Hansen, who lives near this school, was considering sending his kid, suggested, well, how about a French dual-language program? He was able to sell the school on that idea. And then he's a professional fundraiser. He fundraises for nonprofits. So he started fundraising for a dual-language French program. I want to play a clip from Nice White Parents. And this is set at a PTA meeting, a meeting of the PTA executive board. The co-president of the PTA, Imee Hernandez, who's Puerto Rican and grew up in Brooklyn, is attending, as is the principal of the school. And in this meeting, the PTA executive board is talking about how Rob has raised a lot of money, thousands of dollars for the dual-language program. But most of the people at this executive PTA committee didn't even know that it was happening. So, Chana, you start this off narrating what's going on.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "NICE WHITE PARENTS")

JOFFE-WALT: There are about a dozen grown-ups sitting on small plastic chairs around a classroom table, the PTA executive board. Principal Juman is here, too. Imee's leading. And the principal jumps in. She says she wants a minute to share how much the new fundraising committee had raised so far. Imee looks confused. Principal Juman goes on to say the new fundraising committee has had a lot of success.

JILLIAN JUMAN: But total, they have raised, according to Rob, about $18,000 And then we just had a donation from a family a couple weeks ago who want to be anonymous that they're going to give either five to 10, 10 grand in December. So this is big money.

JOFFE-WALT: People seem unclear what to do with their faces. This is good news, right? But also, wait. What's the fundraising committee to pay for? Imee turns to her husband, Maurice, a retired cop. Maurice is also the treasurer of the PTA because when he retired, his wife told him he couldn't just sit around at home. Maurice shrugs at Imee, doesn't seem to know anything about this new money. Imee turns back to Principal Juman. So can we use that money?

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "NICE WHITE PARENTS")

IMEE HERNANDEZ: That was the question - if the PTA can have access to this money because I know already, like...

JUMAN: But what is the PTA? So that's also the question that keeps going around. So this $18,000 Rob has raised under the umbrella of PTA.

JOFFE-WALT: That's Principal Juman.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "NICE WHITE PARENTS")

HERNANDEZ: OK.

JUMAN: So - I think.

HERNANDEZ: But who's got it? Where's it going? Like, yeah, this PTA member don't know nothing about it, so...

(CROSSTALK)

MAURICE HERNANDEZ: So how can that be accessed for Mr. Negron...

JOFFE-WALT: Maurice asks, how can that money be accessed for Mr. Negron, who wants new gym uniforms, or Mr. Lowe to get his microscopes?

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "NICE WHITE PARENTS")

HERNANDEZ: I mean, God bless Rob. And more power to him.

JUMAN: Yeah.

HERNANDEZ: But he's not an official member.

JUMAN: Right.

HERNANDEZ: So I think that's what makes it confusing, at least for me. You know, he is a PTA member because he's a parent. But he's not part of the executive board. So I think that's what makes it...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: That's probably true.

HERNANDEZ: Yeah, it makes it tricky. I mean, and, again, I'm not...

(CROSSTALK)

GROSS: That's a clip from Chana Joffe-Walt's podcast series Nice White Parents, which is the latest season of Serial. So the fundraising that Rob Hansen was doing for the French dual-language program - that money was only for that program. That's the way a lot of, you know, grants and donations work - that it's assigned to one project. So what are some of the other needs in the school that were getting ignored? Because all of the money that he was bringing in was going for this French dual-language program.

JOFFE-WALT: It wasn't always clear that all of the money that the new families - Rob and other white parents - were raising was explicitly for the French program. It was clear that the people who were contributing money, including a connection to the French Embassy, that that was out of an interest in having a French program and expanding French language in public schools. But as you can hear in that meeting, like, the communication about it just wasn't super clear. In that meeting, people brought up stuff that they bring up in schools all the time - like, the gym teacher wants school uniforms, and we want to raise money for that. And the science teacher would like to have some new microscopes. And these are things that parents have heard from teachers that they want. There's nothing wrong with having, you know, a foreign language being taught in a school. It just wasn't done in a way that - it was sort of arbitrary that it ended up being French language because the parents who were coming in had asked for it. And I think the parents who are already there would've been, you know, fine with supporting that had they felt involved in the decision. I really think it was partly just that they had not been - they felt like they had not been considered.

GROSS: Was there a lot of resentment that, you know, the new white family or families were creating this priority without the participation or even knowledge in some cases of other members of the PTA and other parents in the school?

JOFFE-WALT: Yes. Yeah. I mean, there was mixed feelings, though not everybody - but there was definitely some skepticism that turned into resentment that turned - like, that kind of deepened over the course of the year when it became clear to parents like Imee that these conversations had been happening actually all the way earlier in the summer and that there had been a lot of coordination of the parents who came in.

The one big other discussion that was happening that year was about creating a foundation - so still about fundraising. But there was an interest among some of the new parents to create a foundation within the school, a school-based foundation - so a way to raise money that - where the school could go to larger donors and companies and get bigger money. And there was definitely tension around that, in part because in the same way that people had skepticism that the French Embassy was going to be really interested in what the needs and interests of everybody in the school was, when it started to be like, we're going to go to Microsoft, and we have a meeting with Apple, and we're talking to these different companies. There was concerned that the interests of those companies and whatever programs they were going to be interested in were going to drive the agenda at the school.

GROSS: Is it fair to say there was a sense of entitlement, too, that - like, the white parents had contacts. They could contact the French Embassy. They knew wealthy people who were willing - they knew Francophiles who were willing to, like, donate money to this as opposed to just, like, cupcake sales or something. So because of their contacts, because of the power that they had, they were creating the priorities and raising the money. And, again, it seems like - from a lot of the Black parents and Latinx parents, it seemed like a loss of control.

JOFFE-WALT: Right. Right. So it wasn't always an objection to whatever was being proposed. Like, you know, Microsoft is going to give us more computers - great. It was an objection to the sort of we're - we have access, we are the ones who are bringing in these resources and interest from outside of the school, and a fear that that meant that for the parents who were there, that they were going to lose power and voice in a school that they had chosen and, for many of them, really liked already.

GROSS: OK. Let me reintroduce you. If you're just joining us, my guest is Chana Joffe-Walt. Her podcast "Nice White Parents" is the current season of "Serial." And "Serial" is now part of The New York Times. We'll talk more after we take a short break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MATT MCGINLEY'S "THE BLISS POINT")

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with Chana Joffe-Walt. Her five-part series "Nice White Parents" is the current season of the podcast "Serial." It's about how some white parents, even white parents who say they want integration and diversity, have ended up being obstacles to true equity in our public schools.

The school that you reported on, this wasn't the first time that white parents were interested in creating an integrated school in the neighborhood. You found a folder with letters from parents dating back to 1963. I want to play a clip with one of the women who pushed for an integrated school and ended up not sending her child there. And she had been a public school teacher who taught in an integrated elementary school until she had her own children. Her name is Elaine Henchy (ph). And you spoke to her by phone. And here's what she had to say.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "NICE WHITE PARENTS")

ELAINE HENCHY: I mean, one of the problems is that many of the white kids had higher sort of academic skills. They could read better. They, I think - I mean, if - the white kids knew how to read in first grade. And I guess there were Black kids who also could. But it just seemed as if most of the Black kids, you know, didn't really learn to read. But...

JOFFE-WALT: But part of - I mean, part of the vocal complaints of Black parents at this period of time was that their kids were not learning how to read because schools were segregated. And their kids were kept in schools that were inferior. And that was part of the argument for integration...

HENCHY: Yes. Yes.

JOFFE-WALT: ...That their kids were not going to get the resources and quality teaching and good facilities unless they were in the same buildings with kids like yours.

HENCHY: Right. I don't know what to say to that. I just - I guess I just began to feel that things looked really difficult for these kids. Schools were not made for them. If the schools were made for them, with their background, what would they be like? I think there was - and that's another whole thing. I don't know about it. I think there was sort of anger in the Black community at the white community. A lot of the teachers were white. There were more white teachers, I suppose.

People said that that was racism. And, of course, it was racism. But maybe the kids were a little angry at the school. I wouldn't - I couldn't fault them for that. But on the other hand, then they don't get as much from the school. I don't know. I thought the problems were kind of enormous. And I guess I just - at one point, I decided that my kids should go on to Brooklyn Friends. And, I mean, we could afford to pay for it. (Laughter) It wasn't easy, I mean, you know? But...

JOFFE-WALT: Did your feelings about integration change? Like, did you believe in it less?

HENCHY: Maybe.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

HENCHY: I think I would have said no, theoretically. But maybe they did. But I guess I saw it as a more difficult project then. I sort of - I did back off from it. I didn't...

JOFFE-WALT: Yeah. It felt, when you guys wrote these letters, like this is - integration is this exciting ideal and we can be part of it, and it's going to be a meaningful project that's also going to be kind of easy?

HENCHY: I certainly didn't think it would be so difficult. But I was innocent, you know? I don't know. I still believe in it, I do.

GROSS: When she says there, I was innocent, you think she really meant, I was naive?

JOFFE-WALT: Yeah. Yeah. And I think she was. And I think a lot of progressive, white parents - nice, white parents - have - share this with her. I definitely recognized myself in what Elaine was describing as a sort of attachment to this ideal of racial togetherness and a desire for that to happen without it asking much of me or costing me much.

GROSS: What were some of the hardest things for you in getting people to talk honestly with you about race? I think, for a lot of people, it's really - and, maybe, particularly for white people, it's difficult to talk about race and racial inequity.

JOFFE-WALT: Yeah. I mean, it was so - it definitely was more difficult with white people. I did not have the same problem getting lots of people of color to talk to me, although there was, like, a question of what I was doing and who I was. But I think that there was much more comfort in those conversations.

I think partly, I had to work really hard on being direct. I mean, the conversation that you played with Elaine, who was the only person who wrote letters in the 1960s who actually looked at the school and seemed like she was truly committed to this - some idea of integration and wanted to send her kids there and didn't - you know, we spoke once, and I listened back and was like, whoa, I totally chickened out. Like, I was just a coward in that conversation and didn't ask her directly all these things that I was wondering.

And I, myself, didn't kind of have the comfort to have conversations with other white people about the choices that we make. I think I was much more practiced at the conversation about schools where you say, like, yeah, we wanted to go there, but it was just so chaotic and we couldn't. And you're like, oh, OK. Yeah, get it. And you move on. You know, you just sort of accept the ways in which we excuse ourselves from our commitments and obligations to schools so easily. So I think in part, I just had to really work on explicitly naming a lot of the thoughts that I was having in my head and questions that I was having in my head and feeling more comfortable asking them and following up when somebody said something that, like, kind of made sense but sort of felt like a little bit of a shield.

GROSS: Finally, Chana, what's it been like for you to have your children learning at home during the pandemic? I mean, you've been studying schools, reporting on schools for years. And now the school for your kids is your home, and the responsibility to help them learn long-distance is yours and your husband's. So tell us what that's been like for you.

JOFFE-WALT: I've learned that I forgot a lot of math.

GROSS: Yeah.

JOFFE-WALT: And...

GROSS: I relate.

JOFFE-WALT: I think it's just made me think about what schools are for. What do I want them to get from school? And you do have a very, like, close view of what they are actually learning in school.

And for me, I've just mostly, like, missed - I really value the - just the socialization of being in a school. And that is - though I think in terms of reading and writing and, you know, continuing to be curious and engaged - like, those are things I worry about, although I worry about them less than just their ability to learn how to be with other people and learn from other people who are not just us.

I think it's just miserable all around. I don't think anybody is like, remote learning is really awesome...

GROSS: Yeah.

JOFFE-WALT: ...And what I always wanted was for my kid to have, like, seven different passwords on Google products and sit in front of a computer all day. So I've heard a lot of stories about if you're able to work from home right now and your kids are doing remote school next to you, you're learning basically what they're going to be like as an officemate to somebody in the future.

GROSS: (Laughter).

JOFFE-WALT: And I have noticed that my older son hums the entire day, all day long. Like, Jacob (ph) is a person who kind of, like, quietly hums to himself, which I did not know before and is, you know, something that his future officemate will get to enjoy. So, yeah, you just kind of get to observe your kid in a new context.

GROSS: Well, thank you so much, Chana, for talking with us.

JOFFE-WALT: Thank you. It was fun.

GROSS: Chana Joffe-Walt is a producer for "This American Life." Her five-part series "Nice White Parents" is the latest season of the podcast "Serial," which is now part of The New York Times.

Copyright © 2020 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio record.

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Podcast Examines How 'Nice White Parents' Become Obstacles In Integrated Schools

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TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Hello again. This is the first time I've hosted our show since Labor Day while I've been tending to a family health crisis.

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In this episode we turn to late 1960s Chicago, when three unlikely groups came together to form a coalition based on interracial solidarity. It's hard to imagine this kind of collaboration today, but we dove into how a group of Black radicals, Confederate flag-waving white Southerners, and street-gang-turned-activist Puerto Ricans found common ground. They called themselves: The Rainbow Coalition.

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How three unlikely groups worked together to achieve interracial solidarity : Code Switch

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In this episode we turn to late 1960s Chicago, when three unlikely groups came together to form a coalition based on interracial solidarity. It's hard to imagine this kind of collaboration today, but we dove into how a group of Black radicals, Confederate flag-waving white Southerners, and street-gang-turned-activist Puerto Ricans found common ground.

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Many programs are coming back online after COVID but I haven't updated it recently. Still lots of great opportunities. PLEASE let me know of other ones I haven't put here yet.

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Originally compiled by Wendy Harris (St. Paul, MN) and Laura West (Hot Springs, AR)© 2019 The information may not be shared on any websites without permission.
Where: Washington, DC

Length of program: 11 months

Cost: Free ($6,000 monthly stipend plus $1,000 monthly cost of living allowance; relocation allowance, professional travel allowance)

Who qualifies: K-12 STEM educators

Deadline: December

Description: The Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship (AEF) Program provides a unique professional development opportunity for accomplished K-12 educators in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to serve in the national education arena. Fellows spend 11 months working in a Federal agency or in a US Congressional office, bringing their extensive knowledge and experience in the classroom to education program and/or education policy efforts.

More information: http://science.energy.gov/wdts/einstein/

Where: Washington, DC and then to Normandy, France

Length: 2 weeks

Cost: Free (Travel to/from Washington, DC is reimbursed up to $300)

Who Qualifies: Social Studies or French educators who travel with 1 of their students (a rising Junior or Senior)

Deadline: December

Description: The Albert H. Small Normandy Institute will take fifteen student-teacher teams on the learning experience of a lifetime. The Institute is an intensive program to learn about the D-Day Campaign of 1944 and the sacrifices made by young Americans to defeat tyranny. Members of the Institute will begin studying World War II and the Normandy Campaign in January by reading materials provided by the Institute and participating in online discussions of those materials supervised by Institute staff from The George Washington University. From June 15 through June 28, 2019, Institute members will travel to the campus of The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., for a series of lectures and activities to deepen their understanding of elements of the conflict. Finally, the students and teachers will participate in a "staff-ride" (army-speak for a participatory educational tour led by GW professors) of many of the sites that played a role in the Normandy Campaign in France. Each student will be called upon to present a briefing concerning some element of the campaign at the appropriate site. For instance, a student giving a presentation on the Atlantic Wall will give their presentation inside one of the surviving German bunkers at Longues-Sur-Mer! As a capstone to the Institute, each team will select a member of the United States Armed Forces who participated in the Normandy Campaign and gave his or her life in the effort to liberate France, to prevent the spread of the fascist tyranny imposed by Nazi Germany, and to preserve our liberty. Each team will then, with assistance from the Institute staff, learn about that service member's life and write a biography of that soldier. The culmination of our Staff Ride will be an opportunity for the student member of each team to present a eulogy for their hometown hero while standing by his graveside in the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-Sur-Mer.

More information: https://www.ahsni.com/

Where: Washington, DC

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: Free (travel, lodging, and meal expenses reimbursed at U.S. government per diem rates)

Who qualifies: US History, Government, Civics, Law teachers

Deadline: March

Description: Designed especially for teachers of U.S. History, Government, Civics, and Law, the Federal Trials and Great Debates Summer Institute deepens participants' knowledge of the federal judiciary and of the role the federal courts have played in key public controversies that have defined our constitutional and other legal rights.

Participants will work closely throughout the week-long Institute with leading historians, federal judges, and curriculum consultants, focusing on three landmark federal trials through curriculum developed by the Federal Judicial Center.

More information: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/Programs/summer_institute_for_teachers/

Where: check website (Raleigh, NC in 2019)

Length of program: 4 days

Cost: free ($100 refundable deposit; $600 travel scholarship available)

Who qualifies: primarily K-12 educators and administrators

Deadline: check website

Description: Our annual National Teacher Institute brings together educators from all over the world. Educators will be immersed in a friendly, fun, and engaging learning environment, where they will be able to network with other educators, learn more about the historical topics that they teach in their classroom while acquiring new and innovative teaching methods. Our National Teacher Institute is more than just methodology, it's about making you a better, more well-rounded educator. We hope that you will leave the Institute with a better understanding of your subject matter, a passion for history education, and lifelong friendships.

More information: https://www.battlefields.org/events/national-teacher-institute-2019

Where: Various Russian locations

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: $800-$3300 (scholarships available)

Who qualifies: open

Deadline: varies

Description: Expeditions with a variety of emphases available. Our expedition volunteers record, film and photograph disappearing traditions and the people who are the tradition-bearers. Their work ends up in scholarly archives to be preserved for future generations.

More information: http://russianfolklorefriends.org/

Where: Various participating universities in the USA

Length of program: 2 weeks during the months of June or July (depending on program)

Cost: Free (includes program, housing, travel)

Who qualifies: High school teachers

Deadline: Check website for date

Description: The Reynolds High School Journalism Institute is an intensive two-week journalism training program for high school teachers. Instruction is based on the core tenets of journalism and the skills needed to produce a top-notch student publication, primarily online with multimedia tools.

More information: http://www.rjionline.org/asne-reynolds-high-school-journalism-institute

Where: Boston, MA

Length of program: 2 weeks in July

Cost: $150 (no graduate credit) or $505 (with credit)

Who qualifies: teachers and graduate students in American Studies, political science, history, and related disciplines

Deadline: May

Description: For over two decades, teachers and graduate students have explored in depth a topic drawn from American history, politics, culture, or social policy through the American Studies Summer Institute, co-sponsored by the University of Massachusetts Boston and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. The intensive two-week program, held at the Kennedy Library in July, includes informative and thought-provoking lectures and discussions led by a distinguished group of scholars and guests.

More information: https://www.jfklibrary.org/Education/Teachers/Professional-Development/American-Studies-Summer-Institute.aspx

Where: Washington, DC

Length of program: 3 days

Cost: Free

Who qualifies: Teachers

Deadline: check website

Description: The institute focuses on using new media and will feature professional development workshops, curatorial sessions, primary source analysis and collaborative lesson planning.

More information: http://www.newseum.org/2014/06/30/annenberg-newseum-summer-teacher-institute/

Where: Worcester, Massachusetts

Length of program: 3 days

Cost: free (dorm housing and materials included, $150 travel stipend, limited number of additional travel scholarships)

Who qualifies: high school psychology teachers

Deadline: April 15

Description: The APA/Clark University Workshop for High School Teachers has become one of the most sought-after professional development experiences available to high school psychology teachers. Held each summer since 2005 at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, the workshop brings together 25 high school psychology teachers to learn from master teachers, listen to faculty research presentations and keynote addresses, tour the Clark psychology laboratories and campus archives, network with one another.

More information: https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/topss/clark-university-workshop

Where: Walden Pond, Massachusetts

Length of program: 6 days

Cost: $50 (travel stipends available)

Who qualifies: high school educators and graduate students

Deadline: February

Description: The Approaching Walden seminar provides teachers with the skills they need to lead their students in a study of their home community. This place-based interdisciplinary workshop uses Henry David Thoreau's writings and philosophy as a model. Through Thoreau's example of living deliberately, we can learn how to do so in our own communities and pass it along to the next generation.

More information: https://www.walden.org/education/approaching-walden/

Where: Antarctica

Length of program: up to 2 ½ months in Antarctica, ongoing research activities over 2 ½ years

Cost: Free

Who qualifies: science educators from Germany, Italy, New Zealand or the US

Deadline: contact lhuffman@andrill.org or check website

Description: ANDRILL (geologic drilling) has established an immersion experience for science educators (ARISE) to facilitate development of mechanisms and materials to effectively connect ANDRILL with the public. The program will provide science educators with an insice view of ANDRILL, will engage them in Antarctic geoscience, and will utilize their expertise in education to develop and implement innovative approaches to geoscience education and public outreach. Elements of the program include on and off-ice research experience, and Antarctic geoscience course, and an educational working group.

More information: http://www.andrill.org/arise

Where: various US locations

Length of program: 3 days

Cost: Free (includes lodging, meals, and materials; $400 stipend for travel and expenses)

Who qualifies: K-12 teachers (preference for high school)

Deadline: fall - check website

Description: Participating teachers will read a series of primary source documents, travel to a relevant historic site, and engage in conversation with a select group of colleagues over the course of a weekend. These conversations are open-ended - teachers are not expected to reach a set conclusion about the material, are not required to take an assessment, and are not asked to complete a lesson plan. Participating teachers are only expected to engage fully in conversation, taking an active role in each of the six discussion sessions throughout the weekend.

More information: https://teachingamericanhistory.org/programs/colloquia/

Where: Seminars around the country

Length of program: 1 day

Cost: Free (includes breakfast and lunch)

Who qualifies: Most applicable to 8-12 grade teacher, but others may attend

Deadline: Varies

Description: The Bill of Rights Institute offers a variety of educational programs and instructional materials for educators. These include constitutional seminars around the country, as well as printed and online teachers' guides for use in history, government, civics, and social studies elementary, middle, and high school classes.

You will engage with leading academics on important constitutional principles, historical events, and Supreme Court rulings and explore ways to bring your knowledge to the classroom using Bill of Rights Institute materials and teaching strategies.

More information: http://billofrightsinstitute.org/educate/educator-programs-events/upcomingseminars/

Where: Washington, DC

Length of program: 1 week (2 different fellowships in 2018)

Cost: Free (includes all local costs and most meals, stipends available for travel to Washington)

Who qualifies: 7-12 social studies teachers

Deadline: March 15

Description: Join the Bill of Rights Institute for five days of enriching professional development in Washington, D.C. This program will give attendees the opportunity to read and discuss issues surrounding the fellowship topic.

More information: http://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/educate/educator-programs-events/foundersfellowship/

Where: Brussels, Belgium

Length of program: 5 days

Cost: Free (includes accommodations, breakfasts and up to 1000 € for airfare)

Who qualifies: K-16 educators

Deadline: March

Description: With the generous support of a Getting to Know Europe grant from the EU Delegation to the U.S., and in cooperation with the Center for European Studies at the University of North Carolina, each summer the University of Pittsburgh's European Studies Center plans a five-day trip to Brussels, Belgium to learn about the European Union. With funding from GTKE as well as the Center's National Resource Centers grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the ESC will provide funds to support summer study tours of Brussels for K-12 educators, and faculty teaching at community colleges or minority serving institutions (Title III or Title V-eligible institutions). This study tour will provide you with the opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge and experiences to further your understanding of Europe and the European Union.

More information: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/esc/outreach/educators/professional-development/brussels

Where: Europe, location changes each year

Length of program: 9 days

Cost: free?

Who qualifies: international teachers, pedagogical experts, and museum educators

Deadline: Check website

Description: Centropa is a U.S. registered, Vienna based non-governmental organization committed to preserving Jewish memory in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and the Balkans. They bring teachers together at seminars like the summer academy program where teachers learn about making videos to share across borders and ethnic divides. Centropa uses real Jewish stories from the 20th century to connect students through personal narratives to create digital story-telling projects. The summer academy includes pedagogical experts, teachers and museum educators from across the U.S., Israel and Europe. Centropa's goal is to broaden teacher understandings of the Holocaust and experiences of Jews in Europe through site visits, walking tours and guest lectures.

More information: http://seminars.centropa.org/CSA

Where: Brown University, Providence, RI

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: Free (includes meals, housing, reading materials)

Who qualifies: secondary social studies educators, librarians, literature teachers and college educators

Deadline: applications available in January

Description: Each summer, approximately 20 educators from across the country are selected on a competitive basis to participate in a Choices Leadership Institute held at the Watson Institute for International Studies and Public Affairs at Brown University. For one week, teachers learn from scholars, engage in best practices workshops, and learn from their peers in an intensive, rewarding environment.

More information: http://www.choices.edu/professional-development/teaching-fellows-program/

Where: Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: $100 (includes field trips, course materials for the workshop, coffee/tea, lunches and snacks) The National Park Service will provide lodging for all participants who do not live in commuting distance.

Who qualifies: educators, community workers, and cultural activists

Deadline: contact organizers

Description: The institute is a design laboratory for social engagement that provides a space for pedagogical experimentation and inquiry into issues related to human rights and education for liberation.

More information: https://www.nps.gov/chsc/learn/education/summer-teacher-institute.htm

Where: Valley Forge, PA

Length of program: 4 days

Cost: Free ($100 refundable deposit to ensure attendance. Scholarships are available to cover travel and lodging)

Who qualifies: All K-12 educators.

Deadline: registration opens in February

Description: Our annual National Teacher Institute brings together educators from all over the world. This four day event includes workshops, lectures, and tours from some of the leading experts in the history and education fields. Educators will be immersed in a friendly and engaging learning environment, where they will be able to network with other educators, learn new and innovative teaching methods, and network with like minded professionals.

More information: http://www.civilwar.org/aboutus/events/teacher-institute/

Where: VA (Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown)

Length of program: 3-days or 1 week in June or July

Cost: $2,200 for one week or $1250 for 3 days (scholarships available)

Who qualifies: Elementary, middle, and high school teachers

Deadline: scholarship deadline January 15

Description: During immersive, week-long sessions and NEW three-day themed seminars on location in Williamsburg, 25 participants and a Master Teacher engage in an interdisciplinary approach to teaching social studies with American history as the focus. Teachers have the opportunity to exchange ideas with historians, meet character interpreters and become part of the story in The Revolutionary City. Throughout each day, teachers work collaboratively with Colonial Williamsburg staff and Master Teachers to examine interactive teaching techniques and develop instructional materials that bring history to life in the classroom.

More information: http://www.history.org/history/teaching/tchsti.cfm

Scholarship application: http://www.history.org/history/teaching/TIScholarships.cfm

Where: Washington, DC

Length of program: 4 weeks

Cost: stipend of $7,000 to cover housing, travel and living expenses

Who qualifies: middle or high school social studies teachers experienced with using C-SPAN materials and are C-SPAN members

Deadline: March 2

Description: Fellowship recipients will collaborate with C-SPAN's education team at our offices in Washington, DC to develop new teaching materials using C-SPAN resources. Fellows also participate in C-SPAN's Summer Educators' Conferences where they share their ideas and experiences using C-SPAN's programs with conference attendees.

More information: https://www.c-span.org/classroom/opportunities/

Where: Abiquiu, NM

Length of program: 2 weeks in July

Cost: Free (after arrival in New Mexico)

Who qualifies: K-12 teachers

Deadline: April

Description: The Dar al Islam Teachers' Institute provides a broad set of information on Islam, including foundational principles, historical and diaspora based information, and discussion of current areas of interest at our Abiquiu site. The participants also study English translations of excerpts from the Qur'an and Hadith with Muslim scholars who have strong academic or traditional credentials, and are able to relate easily with a variety of North American educators.

More information: http://www.daralislam.org/programs/education/teachers-institutes.aspx

Where: Newport, OR (2018) Locations change annually

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: Free

Who qualifies: educators from research institutions, universities, community colleges, and high schools

Deadline: early February

Description: The purpose is to educate, excite, and engage teachers with the concept of observatory data in the classroom and work with researchers to develop curricula enabling teachers and students to utilize near-real-time data.

The will be a different format and topic than the previous workshops. MBARI and MBA are looking to explore distance education options and apps using real data, virtual reality, and anything else that might make sense. If you are a practitioner of distance education and/or have experience using either distance education or virtual reality we would be interested in having you participate.

More information: http://www.mbari.org/products/educational-resources/earth/

Where: United States and international

Length of program: 1-2 weeks

Cost: Free (includes full cost of your expedition: meals, accommodations, research permits, equipment costs, on-site transportation; travel stipend to offset some out-of-pocket travel expenses to and from the expedition site)

Who qualifies: K-12 educators from any subject

Deadline: January 8

Description: Spend 1-2 weeks on an Earthwatch expedition alongside other teachers led by prominent field researchers. Teachers have the opportunity to learn the scientific process first hand and help to solve some of the world's most pressing environmental challenges. Teachers return to the classroom with new perspectives and knowledge, invigorated and inspired to share the experience of real discovery with their students. No experience is necessary.

More information: http://earthwatch.org/Education/Teacher-Fellowships

Where: various locations and dates

Length of Program: 1 day

Cost: Free

Who qualifies: open

Deadline: check website

Description: Working closely with education entities across the United States, we deliver programs that support effective teaching of the Holocaust. Led by experienced facilitators, our programs include introductory offerings, as well as thematic and focused areas of study. All programs provide teachers with access to a range of classroom-ready content, sound teaching pedagogy and instructional strategies - all designed to engage students in a comprehensive study of events and to explore how the Holocaust continues to influence social issues in the world today. **Also offer 3-week online course and webinars,

More information: https://echoesandreflections.org/prepare/?class=inperson

Where: Chile

Length of Program: 5 months (July-November)

Cost: Free (stay with host family, get monthly stipend, covers domestic transportation to site)

Who qualifies: Native and near-native English speakers ages 21-35

Deadline: February

Description: Supported by the Chilean Ministry of Education and the UN Development Programme, the English Opens Doors Program works with native and near-native English speakers between 21 and 35 years old to teach English in Chile under the direction of head teachers in public and semi-private schools. EODP volunteers make a lasting impact on the lives of their students, motivating them to improve their English and participate in cross cultural exchange.

More information: http://www.centrodevoluntarios.cl/

Where: Philadelphia

Length of program: 2-5 days in the summer

Cost: check website (in the past: $20-50 registration, includes breakfast, lunch, curriculum materials)

Who qualifies: K-12 teachers

Deadline: see website for current offerings

Description: The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's economic teachers offer one-day, three-evening, and week-long professional development programs aimed at equipping K-12 teachers with the skills and knowledge to better teach their students about economics and personal finance in their own classrooms. Teachers receive professional development credit in their respective states.

More information: http://www.philadelphiafed.org/education/teachers/training-programs/

Where: Washington, DC

Length of program: 6 days

Cost: free (includes travel and housing)

Who qualifies: grades 3-12

Deadline: check website

Description: Come away from your week in Washington with: a virtual knapsack of digital tools and resources; lasting connections with a national network of fellow teachers and museum educators; the oratory skills to get your students on their feet performing speeches by Lincoln and Douglass; comfort taking students on content-driven experiential learning adventures; and excitement about using classroom drama to help historical characters come alive!

More information: https://www.fords.org/for-teachers/programs/

Where: New York, NY

Length of program: 4 days in June

Cost: free (includes meals and accommodations for those outside the tristate area), up to $300 reimbursement for travel

Who qualifies: high school teachers

Deadline: March

Description: The Foreign Policy Association seeks high school teachers with demonstrated commitment to international education to take part in its annual Great Decisions Teacher Training Institute. Teachers chosen will reflect geographically and demographically diverse high schools from around the continent and will be chosen on a competitive basis. Join us for four days of strengthening skills in teaching global affairs, exploring ways to expand international studies in the classroom, building professional support networks, and developing International Studies curricula.

More information: http://www.fpa.org/news/index.cfm?act=show_announcement&announcement_id=146

Where: Washington, DC

Length of Program: 1 week

Cost: check website

Who qualifies: public high school teachers

Deadline: check website (application available in January)

Description: An annual national teacher institute held in Washington, DC will facilitate the kind of teaching that will inspire lifelong learning and breathe new life into the values that brought freedom to the world. Teachers throughout the country would travel to DC, at no cost to them, and participate in lectures, discussions, and tours led by renowned historians and award-winning educators. Additionally, Friends hopes to provide teachers with tools, resources, and training to connect with and engage their students using digital technology and mobile applications in order to create a rich and multi-layered learning experience filled with sight and sound that brings to life the stories of millions of people who helped the nation during its darkest hours of the 20th century.

More information: http://www.wwiimemorialfriends.org/resources/teachers-network-and-conference

Where: Ticonderoga, NY

Length of Program: 5 days

Cost: competitive scholarship available

Who qualifies: Elementary, Middle, and High School teachers in public, charter, independent, religious-affiliated schools

Deadline: April 1

Description: The Fort Ticonderoga Teacher Institute features lecture-based discussions with visiting scholars, experiential and immersive experiences related to the Seven Years' War and World War I, behind-the-scenes opportunities, document and artifact analysis using the Fort Ticonderoga Collection, as well as classroom applications. Participants take part in activities revolving around artifacts and documents in Fort Ticonderoga's renowned collections linked to Historical Thinking practices, C3 Frameworks, and state learning standards.

More information: https://www.fortticonderoga.org/education/educators/teacher-institute

Where: variety of locations and dates

Length of Program: 1 week

Cost: $125 (includes food, lodging, materials)

Who qualifies: high school teachers

Deadline: check website

Description: In these week-long programs, high school teachers "go back to school" and are taught by university professors and mentor teachers. What's unique are the games and simulations: instructors run the activities with real students so the teachers can observe the students' interactions. The teachers see, up close, why FTE-designed lessons are so effective and leave with a better knowledge of economics, new classroom strategies, and a renewed enthusiasm for teaching. Different sessions have different focuses. FTE also offers online and shorter opportunities.

More information: http://www.fte.org/teacher-programs/

Where: variety of locations

Length of Program: 5 days

Cost: Free (scholarships are available for nearly every teacher, travel stipends also available)

Who qualifies: open

Deadline: Until full

Description: Variety of topics (see website)

More information: https://www.freedomsfoundation.org/teachers/all-programs/2019-programs/

Where: variety of countries

Length of Program: 3-6 months

Cost: Free

Who qualifies: K-12 teachers, guidance counselors, curriculum specialists, talented and gifted coordinators, special education coordinators, or media specialists/librarians who have a masters degree

Deadline: December 15

Description: Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program sends select US primary and secondary school teachers abroad for three to six months and brings international teachers to the US for a semester. Participants pursue individual projects, conduct research, take courses for professional development and lead master classes or seminars for teachers and students.

More information: https://exchanges.state.gov/non-us/program/fulbright-distinguished-awards-teaching-program-international-teachers

Where: Selected countries

Length of Program: online course in fall, 2-3 week international field experience the following spring or summer

Cost: Free

Who qualifies: middle school and high school teachers

Deadline: March

Description: The Teachers for Global Classrooms (TGC) Program provides a professional development opportunity for middle and high school teachers from the US to participate in a program aimed at globalizing teaching and learning in their classrooms.

More information: http://www.irex.org/project/teachers-global-classrooms-program-tgc

Where: International (outside of Western Europe)

Length of program: 4-6 weeks

Cost: Free (includes round-trip economy airfare, room and board, tuition and fees, and program-related travel within the host country)

Who qualifies: educators in the fields of social sciences, humanities, languages (Elementary, Middle, High, administrators/curriculum specialists, librarians, museum educators, media/resource specialists, faculty or administrators from 2-4 year institutions of higher education)

Deadline: The deadline varies, depending on how many programs get funded

Description: The program provides short-term study and travel seminars abroad for U.S. educators in the social sciences and humanities for the purpose of improving their understanding and knowledge of the peoples and cultures of other countries. Support is generally made available through interagency agreements. The Department of Education transfers funds through the State Department to Fulbright commissions in various countries to pay the costs associated with administering seminars. This partnership allows the program to use the services and expertise of binational organizations to plan and conduct seminars for U.S. educators.

More information: https://www2.ed.gov/programs/iegpssap/index.html

Where: International

Length of program: varies

Cost: Free (up to $5,000 fellowship)

Who qualifies: all teachers

Deadline: January

Description: Fund for Teachers enriches the personal and professional growth of teachers by recognizing and supporting them as they identify and pursue opportunities around the globe that will have the greatest impact on their practice, the academic lives of their students and on their school communities. Believing the teacher knows best how they can make a better impact in their classroom, Fund for Teachers awards fellowships for self-designed professional growth to PreK-12 teachers who recognize the value of inquiry, the power of knowledge, and their ability to make a difference. Each Fund for Teachers fellowship is worth up to $5,000 for individuals, or $10,000 for teams.

More information: http://www.fundforteachers.org/

Where: United States and some international

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: $50 + cost of books <$50 for public school teachers (includes room/board, travel allowance up to $400, or $500 for international)

Who qualifies: full time K-12 teachers or librarians from Gilder Lehrman Affiliate Schools (free to become an Affiliate School), National Park Service interpreters and museum educators

Deadline: February

Description: Institutes which focus on a wide range of US history topics.

More information: https://www.gilderlehrman.org/content/teacher-seminars

Where: Germany

Length of program: 2 weeks

Cost: Free but $350 refundable deposit (includes most domestic and international transportation, hotel accommodation, two meals per day while abroad, and any mandatory fees, such as museum entry fees, bicycle rental fees, etc.)

Who qualifies: K-12 social studies and/or STEM educators, university methods professors, curriculum coordinators, principals, applicable curriculum authors, applicable state Department of Education employees (from Canada or US)

Deadline: January 31

Description: Since 2002, TOP has sought to find the best and most qualified social studies and STEM educators and give them the opportunity to experience contemporary Germany in the most dramatic way possible: in person. From Berlin to Frankfurt, from Stuttgart to Munich, from Hamburg to Kiel, from Dresden to Schwerin, and from Weimar to Leipzig, each corner of Germany is sampled through sight, sound, touch, and taste!

More information: https://www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/spr/eng/top/tte/tst.html

Where: Mount Vernon, VA

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: Full scholarships and stipends available to teachers from select states (see website), some national scholarships also available

Who qualifies: anyone currently educating American students in a formal setting

Deadline: January 29

Description: The George Washington Teacher Institute Summer Residential Programs are 5-day immersive professional development experiences designed to support K-12 educators who teach about the life, leadership, and legacy of George Washington and the 18th-century world in which he lived.

More information: http://www.mountvernon.org/education/for-teachers/teaching-institutes-professional-development/residential-programs/summer-residential-programs/

Where: Washington, DC, Poland, Germany, Israel

Length of program: 3 weeks

Cost: $2,500 (includes round-trip travel from Washington, DC, trips to historical sites, hotel, and 2 meals daily)

Who qualifies: secondary teachers who implement Holocaust studies in their classrooms

Deadline: March

Description: The Summer Seminar of the Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Teachers' Program was initiated by Vladka Meed in 1984. The group of approximately 24 teachers visits historic sites and hears from survivors and prominent scholars. Past itineraries included visits to museums, study at educational centers, visits to concentration camps, and the site of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

More information: http://www.hajrtp.org/program.html

Where: Washington, DC

Length of program: 3 days

Cost: Free (not including travel or accommodations; some scholarships available)

Who qualifies: Middle and high school teachers and community college faculty educators, with less than 5 years experience teaching the Holocaust

Deadline: February

Description: There are 2 sections of the conference, one for English Language Arts and one for Social Studies. At the conference, Museum educators and scholars share rationales, strategies, and approaches for teaching about the Holocaust. Participants have the opportunity to tour the Museum's Permanent Exhibition, as well as the special exhibitions Remember the Children: Daniel's Story and Some Were Neighbors: Collaboration and Complicity in the Holocaust, and to explore the Museum's full range of resources. Those who complete the conference receive a set of educational materials and a voucher worth $100 to purchase Holocaust-related materials in the Museum Shop.

More information: http://www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/prodev/belfer/

Where: Washington, DC

Length of program: 5 days

Cost: Free (not including transportation and lodging)

Who qualifies: Teachers in 7-12 grades and community college faculty who show evidence of extensive knowledge of Holocaust history, successful teaching experience, and participation in community and professional organizations

Deadline: February

Description: The Museum Teacher Fellowship Program enables teachers to become leaders in Holocaust education by developing a corps of skilled educators to help lead the Museum's efforts to ensure quality Holocaust education in secondary schools. Teacher Fellows organize conferences, lead workshops, write curricula, serve on boards of Holocaust museums and education centers, and lead study trips to Holocaust sites. In July of the following year, they attend a follow-up program at the Museum to assess their efforts and to continue their study of the Holocaust with Museum staff and noted speakers.

More information: http://www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/prodev/belfer/

Where: Cincinnati, Ohio

Length of program: 5 days

Cost: check website

Who qualifies: Middle school, high school and community college teachers

Deadline: check website

Description: In partnership with Xavier University, the Holocaust Studies for Educators summer institute provides teachers with knowledge and resources to effectively teach the Holocaust in the classroom. The course is designed specifically for middle, high school and community college teachers, but is open to everyone currently teaching in the classroom.

More information: http://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/programs/holocaust-studies-for-educators/

Where: Los Angeles, CA

Length of program: 3 days

Cost: check website

Who qualifies: teachers of color

Deadline: check website

Description: We serve educators with advanced racial literacies who demonstrate potential for racial justice leadership in public schools. Using critical race frameworks, ITOC is intended as a community building, professional development space for teachers of Color to explore the racial climate of their schools, receive leadership training to navigate these realities, and strategize how to create racially transformative classrooms and schools.

More information: http://www.instituteforteachersofcolor.org/

Where: on the JOIDES Resolution ship

Length of program: check website

Cost: Free (includes travel to and from ports of call and a stipend)

Who qualifies: classroom teachers, informal science educators, artists, videographers, writers, social media experts and anyone who can make a good case for themselves (from US and other countries)

Deadline: check website

Description: JOIDES Resolution Onboard Outreach Officers sail on board the ship to share the science story with students, families, and the general public. Selected applicants will have the opportunity to learn shipboard science alongside the expedition's science party and translate the exciting science happening on board through creation of blogs, videos, social networking sites, live ship-to-shore video events and development of educational resources.

More information: https://joidesresolution.org/onboard-outreach-officer/

Where: check website (depends on location of ship)

Length of program: check website (approximately 10 days)

Cost: Free for U.S. participants (includes travel, food and lodging costs) (for the 2019 program)

Who qualifies: Pre-service and in-service educators, educators are encouraged to apply in 2-3 person teams

Deadline: check website

Description: Our School of Rock program is a professional development opportunity for formal and informal educators on board or involving the JOIDES Resolution. While living on board the ship (when possible) or in a land/lab-based workshop, teachers will work with scientists and technicians to learn about many aspects of earth science, geology, paleo-oceanography and more done aboard this amazing ship, what we learn from scientific drilling, and how to do the kinds of scientific analyses and lab exercises program-scientists do. This new-found knowledge will help teachers in creating or modifying existing resources for their students in many areas of the science curriculum.

School of Rock workshops occur once a year, usually during a transit or tie-up period for the vessel.

More information: https://joidesresolution.org/school-of-rock/

Where: Washington, DC

Length of program: 7 days

Cost: $500 (Includes housing, materials, meals, complimentary e-reader); financial assistance available

Who qualifies: high school teachers

Deadline: April

Description: The Certificate in Holocaust and Genocide Studies is a rigorous, non-degree program geared to the specific curricular and pedagogical needs of educators. The course is held on the campus of Georgetown University and will be taught by Georgetown faculty. Guest lecturers from think tanks, government and non-governmental agencies, authors, independent scholars, and clergy will enhance the learning experience. Participants will have access to Georgetown University's libraries, as well as the numerous museums and cultural institutions in Washington, DC. Participants will gain an understanding of the ways in which the Holocaust has shaped, and continues to impact, international relations and foreign policy. This focus reflects the strengths of Georgetown's School of Foreign Service and its location in the nation's capital.

More information: https://cjc.georgetown.edu/karski

Where: Japan

Length of program: 3 weeks

Cost: $1,000 (includes materials, round trip airfare from NY to Japan, all in-country (Japan) travel expenses, all hotel accommodations (double occupancy), all meals with the exception of a few lunches and dinners, and a one-year membership in Japan Society)

Who qualifies: All middle and high school classroom teachers, librarians and school administrators (principals, assistant principals, and department chairs only) in the U.S. Both individuals and interdisciplinary teams from the same school may apply.

Deadline: March

Description: The Educators' Study Tour to Japan offers educators nationwide the opportunity to travel to Japan for three weeks to experience Japan first hand and bring their experiences back to the classroom. and includes an intensive pre-departure orientation and a study tour to Japan in June-July. Eight to 10 full-time classroom teachers and librarians who teach about Japan as well as school administrators will be selected for the program through a competitive process. Demonstration of a firm commitment by the participants and their school administration to foster and sustain education on Japan in their school is an essential component of the application.

More information: https://www.japansociety.org/page/programs/education/educators_study_tour/2015-educators-study-tour-to-japan

Where: Japan

Length of program: 2 weeks

Cost: Free (includes travel to/from the Joint Conference in the U.S., travel to/from Japan, lodging, insurance, official excursions, local transportation, and most meals)

Who qualifies: K-12 teachers

Deadline: January

Description: The Japan-U.S. Teacher Exchange Program for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) will provide up to 24 U.S. teachers and administrators with the opportunity to travel to Japan to learn about ESD efforts and strengthen ESD curricula in both countries. ESD is "a vision of education that seeks to balance human and economic well-being with cultural traditions and respect for the earth's natural resources," according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Teachers from Japan will travel to the U.S. in late April, and teachers from the U.S. will travel to Japan in late June. At the end of the program in each country, all participating teachers will gather for a few days of joint collaboration.

More information: http://www.iie.org/Programs/ESD/About

Where: Japan

Length of program: 10 days

Cost: Free (includes round-trip flight from home city to Japan and return, accommodations, transportation as called for by the itinerary, and some meals)

Who qualifies: never lived in Japan or visited Japan on a study tour; Economics, Social Studies and History teachers grades 6-12 from the US and Canada, supervisors, specialists, administrators, 4 year college faculty in teacher training programs

Deadline: February

Description: The Fellowship allows teachers to learn first-hand about contemporary Japanese society and enhance their classroom teaching of global perspectives.

More information: http://www.us-japan.org/programs/kkc/k2019/index.html

Where: Korea

Length of program: pre-trip online course, 10 day trip in July

Cost: Free (includes accommodations, 1/2 cost of airfare); $300 deposit refunded after post-trip requirements are completed

Who qualifies: full time social studies teachers, social studies staff developers, and social studies supervisors

Deadline: February

Description: Fellows will have a variety of experiences showcasing aspects of history, culture, and economics that have shaped the peninsula. This includes examining the outcomes of the Korean War, while also building an understanding about the simultaneous economic development and democratization of South Korea.

More information: https://www.worldhistoryde.org/korea-trip/

Where: Korea

Length of program: 2 weeks (spring, summer or fall)

Cost: Free (includes round-trip international airfare from JFK or LAX, accommodations and meals)

Who qualifies: American educators professionally engaged as textbook writers and editors, and East Asia specialists in higher education who would like to include Korea in their teaching, research or writing.

Deadline: August

Description: Educators spend approx. 12 days in South Korea, participating in various lectures, excursions, and discussions, as well as independent research in order to gain an enriched understanding of both Korea's past and present. Lectures on various topics including history, religion, education, and economics are given by experts in these fields at prestigious Korean institutions. The excursions include guided tours to various sites of historical and cultural significance such as the King Sejong's Royal Tomb, the Early Printing Museum, Haeinsa, Kyongju, Yangdong Historic Village, industrial site, and the DMZ, as well as visits to various museums.

More information: http://www.koreasociety.org/korean-studies/new_fellowship_programs_page.html

Where: Washington, DC

Length of program: 3 days (2 sessions)

Cost: $100 (includes breakfast and lunch); scholarships available

Who qualifies: K-12 educators (priority to social studies, English/language arts, and visual arts teachers)

Deadline: April

Description: Integrating portraiture into the classroom provides exciting opportunities to connect students with history, biography, visual art, and many other subjects. The museum portrays poets and presidents, visionaries and villains, actors and activists whose lives tell the American story. The Summer Teacher Institute will take a broad look at the Portrait Gallery's collection. Utilizing an interactive approach, NPG educators will model a variety of "learning to look" strategies - unique ways to hook and engage students when they look closely at portraits. Participants will learn how to "read" portraiture and use the art as a springboard into more in-depth discussion about biography and history.

More information: https://npg.si.edu/teacher-workshops/learning-look-summer-teacher-institute

Where: Washington, DC

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: Free (includes breakfast, lunch, tuition, materials)

Who qualifies: K-12 educators and school librarians

Deadline: March

Description: Library of Congress education specialists facilitate sessions modeling strategies for using primary sources to engage students, build critical thinking skills, and construct knowledge. Participants then consider, discuss, and develop applications to their students, their classrooms, and school libraries. During the week, participants draw from among the millions of digitized primary sources in the Library's collections to design and refine a specific primary source activity to implement in their classroom settings. While the emphasis is on teaching strategies, participants also have opportunities to meet experts within the Library and visit the Maps; Manuscripts; Prints & Photographs and other Reading Rooms to gather information and resources to use in developing their activities.

More information: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/professionaldevelopment/teacherinstitute/

Where: Mount Vernon

Length of program: 3 weeks (over the course of 1 year)

Cost: Free (includes one round trip fare to the Washington Library, housing, and $1000 stipend for each week in residency)

Who qualifies: K-12 teachers, curriculum specialists, media specialists

Deadline: February

Description: The Life Guard Teacher Fellowships will support the creation or dramatic transformation of curriculum materials, lesson plans, website content, interpretive tools, or other education resources to support a 21st-century classroom's needs. The subject of said materials must relate to teaching about George Washington and the founding era.

More information: http://www.mountvernon.org/education/for-teachers/teaching-institutes-professional-development/the-life-guard-teacher-fellowship-program

Where: Gettysburg, PA

Length of program: 3 days in November

Cost: 4 scholarship available (registration, lodging, group meals, travel reimbursement)

Who qualifies: elementary, middle or high school US history teachers in the US

Deadline: June

Description: What began 20 years ago as a modest proposal to bring Lincoln enthusiasts together for a small East Coast-based yearly history conference at Gettysburg has blossomed into one of the leading history organizations in the country. Today, our regular symposia are attended by scholars and enthusiasts from all over the nation and abroad, attracting as speakers and panelists some of the most revered historians in the Lincoln and Civil War fields.

More information: https://www.thelincolnforum.org/teacher-scholarships

Where: Virginia

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: Free (includes transportation, meals, lodging, teaching materials)

Who qualifies: high school history teachers and department heads from US and Marshall Plan countries

Deadline: check website

Description: Focusing on Marshall's contributions to the European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan), the workshop is held at the museum home of George C. Marshall in Leesburg, Virginia, the U.S. Department of State, and the Marshall Museum and Archival Library in Lexington, Virginia. Participants will review and receive complimentary copies of educational materials about Marshall appropriate to secondary level instruction.

More information: http://www.georgecmarshall.org/Marshall-Immersion-Workshop

Where: San Diego, CA

Length of program: 2 weeks

Cost: Free ($1000 stipend, instructional materials, meals, parking, and travel support for those outside the San Diego region)

Who qualifies: history teachers

Deadline: check website

Description: The program has different topics each year (2016 was Cold War, Korea, and Vietnam). Throughout the two week program, teachers will gain different perspectives on this extraordinary time in American history through presentation and lectures from experts and university professors published in the field. There will be opportunities to discuss this history with veterans and those who were present, museum field trip experiences, and pedagogical sessions that allow teachers to exchange information and develop plans to teach the material presented while considering best practices and nationwide standards developments. Frequent discussion and interaction among participants and between

teachers and Institute faculty is encouraged.

More information: http://www.midway.org/midway-institute-teachers

Where: Virginia

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: Free (fellowship includes $500 stipend, $500 for transportation, and up to $50/day for food)

Who qualifies: secondary social studies teachers

Deadline: March

Description: The Monticello Teacher Institute (MTI) is an immersive professional development opportunity designed to provide secondary social studies teachers the opportunity to research and study at Monticello and the Jefferson Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. Teachers will collaborate on projects such as lesson plans, curricular units, resource packets, or other creative products rooted in the history of the founding principles and their relevance today. Their onsite experience will be enriched and supported by group excursions, presentations by leading Jefferson scholars, and other focused workshop sessions.

More information: http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/barringer

Where: Los Angeles, CA

Length of program: 2 days

Cost: Free (limited travel/hotel accommodations for out of town participants)

Who qualifies: check listings for specifics

Deadline: check website

Description: The Museum of Tolerance presents a variety of 2-day workshops for teachers in conjunction with partners such as Facing History and Ourselves and Teaching Tolerance.

More information: http://www.museumoftolerance.com/site/c.tmL6KfNVLtH/b.9230113/

Where: Palmdale, CA

Length of program: see website

Cost: Free (includes travel, housing, meals, pre-flight and post-flight meetings, flight, online course, graduate course credit, substitute costs)

Who qualifies: high school physics and astronomy teachers from selected CA school districts

Deadline: see website

Description: NASA's Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors (AAA) is a three-part professional development (PD) experience for high school physics and astronomy teachers. The program is composed of: (1) blended-learning professional development comprised of webinars, asynchronous content learning, and a series of hands-on workshops, (2) a STEM immersion experience at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center's B703 science research aircraft facility in Palmdale, California, and (3) ongoing participation in the AAA community of practice (CoP) connecting participants with astrophysics and planetary science Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).

More information: https://www.seti.org/aaa

Where: Washington, DC, and other sites

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: Free after $100 registration fee (not including food, housing, and travel; stipend upon completion)

Who qualifies: upper elementary, secondary, and college

Deadline: 6 weeks before workshop (approx. May)

Description: Join us to conduct research with original documents in the holdings of the National Archives and Presidential Libraries. Discover some of those incredible teachable documents that help educators and students unlock the past. All workshops will have a national theme matching that of National History Day (NHD) in 2019. (Participation in NHD is not required.) You will explore a specific topic that fits within the broader theme, researching primary sources like letters, reports, petitions, case files, photographs, and more. You will identify between 3 and 5 items (documents, photos, maps, etc.) to digitize and make available online. We will add these to our online tool for teaching with documents- DocsTeach.org-while you're onsite. During the workshop, you'll produce a DocsTeach learning activity using these digitized primary sources.

More information: http://www.archives.gov/education/primarily-teaching/

Where: at locations around the country and online

Length of program: varies

Cost: Free (includes stipend and resources, and money to buy resources for your school)

Who qualifies: K-12 teachers (primarily teachers of world history, geography, social studies, language arts)

Deadline: varies

Description: NCTA offers educational programs in different delivery methods to accommodate the different needs, schedules and preferences of teachers. Whether in our online courses or more traditional classroom settings, participants interact with East Asia specialists, are introduced to extensive readings and other materials, and discuss effective strategies for bringing East Asia into their classrooms.

More information: http://nctasia.org/programs/overview/

Where: Philadelphia, PA

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: Free (scholarships available for lodging and travel)

Who qualifies: teachers

Deadline: April 6

Description: The 2018 institute capitalizes on the Center's wealth of historical, constitutional, and cultural resources to demonstrate the ways understandings of Rule of Law have been a constant presence in U.S. history and in America's constitutional identity. Educators will leave with new content knowledge, teaching tools, classroom-ready resources, and new skills for improving constitutional literacy through a Rule of Law framework.

More information: https://constitutioncenter.org/learn/professional-development/summer-teacher-institutes

Where: Indiana University, Bloomington

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: Free after $100 registration fee (includes housing, 1 meal/day, workshop), $300 book-buying grant for turning in lesson plan on time

Who qualifies: high school English and world literature teachers

Deadline: March

Description: Week-long intensive summer workshop for high school English and world literature teachers interested in incorporating Chinese, Japanese and Korean literature into their curriculum.

More information: http://www.indiana.edu/~easc/outreach/educators/literature/

Where: United States

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: Free (includes stipend of $1,200 to cover living expenses, books, and travel expenses)

Who qualifies: K-12 educators, administrators, substitute teachers, classroom professionals; separate programs for community college professors

Deadline: March

Description: Each year NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops provide the opportunity for K-12 educators to engage in intensive study and discussion of important topics in American history and culture. These one-week programs will give participants direct experiences in the interpretation of significant historical and cultural sites and the use of archival and other primary evidence. Landmarks Workshops present the best scholarship on a specific landmark or related cluster of landmarks, enabling participants to gain a sense of the importance of historical places, to make connections between what they learn in the Workshop and what they teach, and to develop enhanced teaching or research materials.

More information: https://www.neh.gov/divisions/education/summer-programs (new programs posted each November)

Where: locations around the US

Length of program: 2-6 weeks

Cost: Free (stipends to cover travel costs, books, research expenses, living expenses: $2,100 - 2 weeks, $3,300 - 4 weeks, $3,900 - 5 weeks, $4,500 - 6 weeks)

Who qualifies: Full time teachers in American K-12 schools; librarians and school administrators may also be eligible; separate programs for college and university professors

Deadline: March

Description: Each year the NEH offers teachers opportunities to study a variety of humanities topics in NEH Summer Seminars and Institutes. An NEH Summer Seminar enables 16 school teachers to explore a topic or set of readings with an expert scholar. The core material of the seminar need not relate directly to the school curriculum; the principal goal of the seminar is to expand and deepen teachers' understanding of the humanities through reading, discussion, writing, and reflection.

More information: https://www.neh.gov/divisions/education/summer-programs (new programs posted each November)

Where: Washington, DC

Length of program: 6 days (July)

Cost: $200 includes instruction, books and program resources ($2000 competitive fellowships available)

Who qualifies: K-12 teachers (individuals or teams)

Deadline: April

Description: The institute helps teachers strengthen their knowledge of art history and integrate visual art into classroom teaching. The program features lectures, gallery tours, teaching strategies, and hands-on learning experiences.

More information: http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/education/teachers/teacher-institute.html

Where: Aboard a ship to various locations (check website for options)

Length of program: 10-17 days, including travel time and pre-/post-trip stays on shore

Cost: Free (includes all room and board, transfers, round trip airfare between home airport and the ship, and substitute teacher costs for the days of the pre-voyage workshop if requested).

Who qualifies: National Geographic Certified K-12 classroom teachers and informal educators from the 50 U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico

Deadline: January

Description: Selected educators will travel aboard the ship National Geographic Explorer to various locations throughout the year. While aboard, Fellows will share the importance of geo-literacy with fellow travelers, develop activities to bring back to their classrooms, and have an adventure of a lifetime in the "land of the ice bears." Prior to the expedition, all Grosvenor Teacher Fellows will travel free to Washington, D.C. to participate in a workshop sponsored by Google, National Geographic, and Lindblad Expeditions. Through this program, exemplary educators are recognized for their commitment to geo-literacy and are given a professional development opportunity to be actively engaged in finding new ways to bring geographic awareness and ocean stewardship to their classrooms or informal learning environments through a field-based experience.

More information: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/education/programs/grosvenor-teacher-fellows

See https://www.nationalgeographic.org/education/professional-development/educator-certification/ about certification

Where: Los Angeles, CA

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: Free; $50 refundable deposit (includes breakfast/lunch; hotel and shuttle between hotel and seminar venue included for out-of-town participants)

Who qualifies: American teachers, school administrators, and related staff members

Deadline: check website

Description: The National Korean Studies Seminar (NKS) is a 5-day educational seminar designed to provide enriching information on various aspects of Korea's history and culture. Seminar activities include lectures given by renowned scholars in the field, hands-on activities such as arts and crafts and creating Korean food, and cultural excursions such as visits to the LACMA's Korea Hall, Friendship Bell in San Pedro, and Korean Immigration History Museum.

More information: https://koreanseminar.org/

Where: Washington, DC

Length of program: 1 week (July)

Cost: Free

Who qualifies: teachers of grades 4 and 5 (curriculum can be differentiated to grades 3-8)

Deadline: May

Description: Participants try out many book formats as well as writing exercises from ABC. Also, participants practice the Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) method for facilitating art discussions and brainstorm ideas for integrating visual arts with language arts, social studies, math, and science in their own classrooms.

More information: http://nmwa.org/learn/educators/teacher-institutes/abc-teacher-institute

Where: Various, depending on ship assignment

Length of program: Participants can expect to be at sea anywhere from one week to one month, with the average cruise lasting 12-14 days. Most of our participants try to sail on cruises offered during the summer vacation, but cruises take place throughout most of the year on a space-available basis.

Cost: Free (includes transportation to and from the ship, lodging, and per diem allowance; airfare is paid for up front by the government, all other costs are reimbursed, including non-airfare transportation costs, lodging, and per diem allowance)

Who qualifies: K-12 currently employed full time teacher or administrator. Must be employed in the same or similar capacity during the next school year. Also community college, college or university teachers; museum or aquarium educators and adult education teachers

Deadline: applications available November

Description: The mission of the Teacher at Sea (TAS) program is to give teachers a clearer insight into our ocean planet, a greater understanding of maritime work and studies, and to increase their level of environmental literacy by fostering an interdisciplinary research experience. The program provides a unique environment for learning and teaching by sending kindergarten through college-level teachers to sea aboard NOAA research and survey ships to work under the tutelage of scientists and crew. Then, armed with new understanding and experience, teachers bring this knowledge back to their classrooms.

More information: http://teacheratsea.noaa.gov/

Where: Kansas City, MO

Length of program: 4 days in June or July (TBA)

Cost: Free (includes stipend for transportation, hotel, and daytime meals; private access to the National World War I Museum, books and other supplies, PD hours and ongoing support from museum staff throughout the fellowship year)

Who qualifies: Full-time (7-12) teachers of any relevant subject matter including but not limited to history, math, literature, science, government, music and social studies

Deadline: (application available November or December)

Description: The National World War I Museum Teacher Fellowship Program will provide participants with unique and exciting opportunities to grow within their profession while creating materials and engaging in collaboration with similarly qualified and ambitious teachers from around the United States.

More information: https://www.theworldwar.org/learn/educators-students/teacher-fellowships

Where: New Orleans, LA or other site

Length of program: 1 week in July

Cost: Free (includes stipend for transportation, room and board, materials, free graduate credits)

Who qualifies: any middle or high school teacher at an accredited public, charter, private, or parochial school who has at least three years of classroom teaching experience

Deadline: February 1

Description: World War II was the defining event of the 20th century, and understanding its history is essential to understanding the world we live in today. The Summer Teacher Institute is an immersive 16-month professional development experience for middle and high school teachers focusing on the history and lessons of this transformative era. The program includes both an intensive weeklong seminar at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans and a weeklong excursion to a WWII-related destination.

More information: http://www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education/for-teachers/summer-teacher-institute.html

Where: La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica

Length of program: 2 weeks

Cost: Free (includes airfare, ground transportation, accommodation, meals, fees)

Who qualifies: teams of 4 middle and high school life science teachers (from different schools in the same district or region)

Deadline: most recent information from 2016, check website

Description: During July, Conservation International staff will take 16 teachers to the TEAM field site at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica for an intensive, 2-week field experience. Teachers will spend time in the field and classroom gaining first hand experience in the data collection protocols as practiced by the TEAM researchers, using camera traps, satellite imaging data, and other advanced field technologies. They will conduct teacher team-initiated research projects at La Selva that would be replicable at their schools or school communities throughout the US. These teachers will return to their schools with an in-depth understanding of the interrelationship between biodiversity, climate change, and human activities, and will be equipped with new techniques and resources to enhance their own classroom teaching.

More information: http://www.northropgrumman.com/CorporateResponsibility/CorporateCitizenship/Education/ECOClassroom/Pages/default.aspx

Where: Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin or Paris

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: $2395 (includes lectures, accommodations, 2 meals/day, activities); some fellowships available

Who qualifies: Teachers, librarians, school leaders, counselors, and administrators

Deadline: May

Description: Led by distinguished scholars, seminars are designed to give participants access to current scholarship and university resources in a variety of fields, to introduce them to innovative approaches to traditional ideas and subjects, to explore new pedagogical and curricular possibilities, and to provide a variety of cultural, social, and imaginative experiences, all in four of the cultural capitals of the world: Cambridge, Paris, Oxford, and Barcelona. The seminars involve plenary sessions given by outstanding academics and intellectuals, regular discussions on more focused educational themes, a comprehensive schedule of cultural events and outings, historical tours, museum and gallery visits, and free time for individual research and relaxation. Elective Study Groups, are each designed to provide an academic focus for the participant's experience, and to take advantage of the expertise of the Study Group leader.

More information: http://www.oxbridgeprograms.com/Educator-Journey

Where: Polar (Arctic and Antarctic) regions

Length of program: 3-6 weeks

Cost: Free (includes travel, lodging, food, essential field gear, substitute costs)

Who qualifies: middle school and high school teachers

Deadline: September

Description: PolarTREC (Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating) is a program in which K-12 teachers spend 3-6 weeks participating in hands-on field research experiences in the polar regions. The goal of PolarTREC is to invigorate polar science education and understanding by bringing K-12 educators and polar researchers together.

More information: http://www.polartrec.com/about

Where: 5 different US cities and Qatar

Length of program: 2 years

Cost: free (all expenses covered)

Who qualifies: US primary and secondary school teachers in the social sciences, humanities, and arts

Deadline: October

Description: Participants attend a series of five fully-funded workshops held in different U.S. cities to explore themes related to the Middle East including sessions with experts in the field. They work closely with education specialists to develop effective pedagogical approaches to the content. The program will conclude with a week-long cultural immersion tour to Qatar.

In addition to the workshops, participants take part in monthly activities in groups and with individual mentors to develop curricula and reinforce content knowledge and skills. They also develop a toolkit of teaching strategies and resources to share with other educators to help them become more effective and confident when teaching about the region.

Upon completion of the professional development workshop series, participants are provided with funding and resources to present their portfolios at two professional development workshops, at the local and national levels

More information: https://www.qfi.org/opportunities/teacher-leadership-program/

Where: Québec, Canada

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: $649 (includes all transportation for program-related activities during the Institute, lecturer fees, admissions to educational sties, curriculum materials, hotels and some meals). Participants are responsible for transportation to/from Montréal.

Who qualifies: K-12 social studies, geography, history and French teachers

Deadline: May

Description: This summer institute for teachers of social studies, geography, history and French will provide participants with a comprehensive overview of the six elements of geography, historical foundations, and contemporary cultural insights through first-hand experience in the province of Québec.

More information: https://umaine.edu/teachingcanada/professional-development-2/

Where: Bentonville, AR

Length of program: 1 month

Cost: Free ($4,000 stipend at end of fellowship to cover transportation and housing)

Who qualifies: high school teachers (language arts, history, social sciences, or sciences)

Deadline: February

Description: The William Reese Teacher Fellowship seeks to enrich high school curriculum by encouraging research into the development of interdisciplinary connections between American art and core curriculum subjects. Administered by the Crystal Bridges Library, the Fellowship is designed to encourage creative research projects that draw on the assets of the library to create arts-integrated curriculum that will enhance traditional teaching methods and student engagement. A computer and work station in the Crystal Bridges Library will be provided.

More information: https://crystalbridges.org/reese-fellowship/

Where: Harvard, MA

Length of program: 5 days

Cost: Free (Funding is also available for travel within the U.S. and accommodations for institute participants)

Who qualifies: Educators teaching at the middle school, high school, and community college levels in any discipline.

Deadline: April 1

Description: This training introduces educators to a powerful set of specific methods and frameworks that will enable them to teach about religion in pedagogically rich and constitutionally sound ways.

More information: https://rlp.hds.harvard.edu/for-educators/summer-institute

Where: Philadelphia, PA

Length of program: 5 days

Cost: limited number of scholarships

Who qualifies: teachers

Deadline: April 15

Description: The Rendell Center will provide distinctive learning opportunities for educators and significant financial assistance to help make participation possible. The Rendell Center will host summer institutes, including a "Constitutional Scholars Institute" featuring an intensive, week-long course on the substance and teaching of American History, civics, and the Constitution.

More information: https://www.rendellcenter.org/ (scroll down to Professional Development)

Where: China

Length of Program: 3-5 weeks

Cost: international airfare (half is reimbursed) (includes housing, food and in-country travel)

Who qualifies: K-12 teachers

Deadline: January

Description: SABEH is offering a 3-5 week opportunity that includes one week of travel to experience Chinese culture, schools, teaching, and travel with eager Chinese teachers of English while sharing American methods of teaching English based heavily on oral interchange. Teachers teach a maximum of three 90-minute classes per day, five days a week. This does not include planning time, which usually adds at least another hour or two each day. Teachers are also required to attend 4 workshops prior to leaving for their assignments.

More information: https://www.sabeh.org/teach-in-china

Where: New Jersey

Length of program: 3 weeks

Cost: free ($1,000 stipend)

Who qualifies: grades 4-12 teachers

Deadline: March

Description: CCSNJ's South Jersey Summer Institute for Educators is a unique approach to addressing the readiness of the future workforce. The Institute gets to the heart of the issue by exposing area teachers to the South Jersey economy, the skills, traits and characteristics businesses look for when hiring employees. For more than 20 years, this three-week intensive program has graduated nearly 500 area teachers. These teachers incorporate the lessons learned at the Institute into their teachings and reach more than 50,000 students - our future workforce.

More information: http://www.chambersnj.com/CCSNJ/SummerInstitute/CCSNJ/SummerInstitute/SummerInstituteMainPage.aspx?hkey=28cbc696-4d2c-4c85-b032-90dffa1e95b8

Where: Annapolis, MD or New York, NY

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: New York - $200 (includes books and final luncheon), Annapolis - free (includes tuition, books, housing and most meals; funding may be available for travel)

Who qualifies: high school educators

Deadline: April 15

Description: The Teachers Institute explores original texts through seminar-style discussions. It is designed to encourage and enhance the teaching, study, and understanding of American history, culture, and democratic principles.

More information: https://www.sjc.edu/annapolis/programs/summer-teachers-institute

Where: Ottawa and Montréal

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: $650 + travel to study location (scholarships available) (includes all course fees, classroom instruction, accommodation, 2 dinners, resource materials)

Who qualifies: K-12 teachers

Deadline: May

Description: Learn about Canada, its capital, and the distinct cultures that have formed the second largest nation in the world - all within comfortable and unique classroom settings with presentations by university faculty (WWU, UW, U Ottawa, UQAM), government officials and tribal leaders.

More information: https://k12studycanada.org/scsi/

Where:

Length of program: 4 days

Cost: Free (includes full tuition, housing and most meals)

Who qualifies: all public and private certificate-holding school teachers K-12

Deadline: Spring (check website)

Description: The Stratford Hall Summer Teacher Institute is an annual residential opportunity for educators located on the grounds of Stratford Hall in Westmoreland County, Virginia.

More information: https://www.stratfordhall.org/2019shti/

Where: Washington, DC

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: Free after $150 registration fee + $180 for week at hotel (includes several meals; $200 stipend for teachers who conduct trainings for other teachers)

Who qualifies: Applicants must teach or supervise secondary social studies or law-related education

Deadline: March

Description: Supreme Court Summer Institute for Teachers is six days of educational activities related to teaching about the U.S. Supreme Court. The Institute includes sessions led by Supreme Court experts, journalists, authors, and attorneys, who give teachers an in-depth understanding of how the Court chooses and decides cases, and what it is like to argue before the Court. The Institute covers six current or recent cases. This exciting opportunity culminates with a visit to the Court to hear decisions handed down and a private reception at the Court. The Institute prepares teachers to use innovative teaching methods with current and past cases. Beyond the content-rich sessions and activities, teachers are also equipped with the skills and tools to train fellow teachers at home.

More information: http://www.streetlaw.org/en/programs/Program/10/Supreme_Court_Summer_Institute_for_Teachers

Where: Arab countries

Length of program: 10 days in fall (November in 2016)

Cost: $25 application fee, $250 and some other expenses (includes International Round trip Airfare, site visits, airfare between countries, most meals, hotel, receptions, ground transportation, visas)

Who qualifies: middle school and high school educators and administrators

Deadline: email edu@bilateralchamber.org for more information

Description: The TEACH Fellowship is a cross-cultural exchange program between educators from the United States and the Arab world. The educators compare best practices, teaching methodology, and classroom experiences with each other.

More information: http://bilateralchamber.org/series-programs/international-trade-programs/education/teach/

Where: various national parks

Length of Program: 160 hours (specifics negotiated for each placement)

Cost: Free (stipend at end for housing, transportation)

Who qualifies: K-12 educators

Deadline: varies

Description: This program links National Parks and teachers from schools with underserved student populations in urban and rural school districts. Teacher-Ranger-Teachers (TRTs) spend the summer learning, and sometimes also living in the park. TRTs perform various tasks depending on their interests and the needs of the park that focus on educational programs of the NPS. TRTs spend the majority of their time engaging with park education projects, learning about park resources, and developing lesson plans to use in their classrooms and in the park with students. TRT experiences also include exposure to a variety of work performed in National Parks by employees from many career fields in the service. When TRTs return to school in the fall, they spend part of their classroom time presenting their TRT projects to their own students and to a wider education audience. These presentations can be connected ot NPS outreach during National Park Week in April or at other times during the school year.

More Information: http://teacherrangerteacher.org/

Where: Dayton, OH

Length of program: 3-4 days in June

Cost: $100 registration fee (includes curriculum, manipulatives, lodging, meals, flight suit and equipment, 1:1 instruction as a student pilot)

Who qualifies: Currently licensed, practicing educators in grades K-12 teaching one or more of the content areas of science, technology, engineering, and/or math. (US Citizens from around the world can apply)

Deadline: See website

Description: The Teachers Air Camp experience is an exciting and rigorous adventure for all who participate. Participants remember why they became a teacher all over again by working together to master a fun and challenging curriculum. The carefully designed experiences illuminate options that are available for students in the STEM fields after graduation and emphasize how principles of STEM can be infused into almost any lesson to enhance the learning process.

More information: https://aircampusa.org/educator/

Where: Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, DC

Length of program: 1 week in June or July

Cost: $200 (scholarships available)

Who qualifies: 6-12 teachers (priority to Social Studies and English/Language Arts teachers)

Deadline: April

Description: Join colleagues from across the country at the Smithsonian American Art Museum for an exciting exploration of the connections among American art, technology, and your curricula. Attend one of our week-long institutes in the nation's capital, Washington, D.C. Stay connected with your newfound colleagues and museum staff throughout the year.

More information: https://americanart.si.edu/education/k-12/professional-development/summer-institutes

Where: varies

Length of program: 3 days

Cost: ree ($500 stipend, get one-year membership in the National Council for History Education, Continental breakfast and lunch provided.)

Who qualifies: 6-12 teachers (priority to Social Studies and English/Language Arts teachers)

Deadline: see website

Description: Funded by a grant from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program, NCHE offers 3-day colloquia exploring the use of the Library of Congress's digitized primary sources. Each colloquium has a unique theme and is presented at a distinguished institution, providing teachers access to additional resources to use in concert with the Library's primary sources.

More information: https://www.nche.net/tiahcolloquia

Where: New York, other US and international locations

Length of program: 1 week in June or July

Cost: Free (includes airfare, lodging, and food, receive $350 fellowship)

Who qualifies: Middle school, high school and college faculty with at least 5 years of classroom experience and at least 5 years from retirement

Deadline: February 1

Description: Every educator who participates in a TOLI program becomes a member of TOLI's Holocaust Educators Network (HEN) and leaves with strategies, materials, and ideas for use in their own classrooms. By bringing the lessons of the Holocaust into today's world, they become powerful social advocates and can inspire their classrooms to promote social change in their communities. With funding and support from private, public, corporate, and individual partners we are adding hundreds of new educators to HEN every year. TOLI offers The 12-day TOLI New York City Summer Seminar, 5-day TOLI Satellite Seminars across the US, and TOLI International Seminars with partners in Europe.

More information: https://www.toli.us/about/

Where: Independence, MO

Length of program: 5 days

Cost: $100 (includes private hotel room for teachers outside the Kansas City area)

Who qualifies: teachers

Deadline: February 1

Description: email for more information

More information: https://www.trumanlibrary.org/educatio.htm

Where: Turkey

Length of program: 2 weeks

Cost: Free

Who qualifies: Middle and high school teachers

Deadline: (application through participating WACA - World Affairs Councils of America chapters)

Description: Through this program, teachers enhance their classroom curriculum while exploring Turkey. Upon their return, the teachers integrate their gained knowledge into their curricula and share their experiences with their local communities through TCF-funded cultural programs on Turkey, organized by local World Affairs Councils.

More information: http://www.turkishculturalfoundation.org/pages.php?ID=25

More information for Minnesota teachers: http://micglobe.org/calendar/documents/PortraitofTurkey2014.pdf

Where: various WWII cemeteries

Length of program: 1 year

Cost: Free (confirm on website)

Who qualifies: teachers

Deadline: See website for details, information should be posted in the fall

Description: Understanding Sacrifice is a year-long professional development opportunity takes eighteen teachers on a journey of exploration and discovery through the lives of American heroes of WWII. It is conducted by National History Day®, the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), and the National Cemetery Administration. Teachers produce educational materials in a variety of disciplines from art to science and, of course, history. These classroom resources are then hosted for free on abmceducation.org to help teachers around the world reinvigorate the teaching and learning of WWII.

More information: https://www.nhd.org/understanding-sacrifice

Where: Seattle, WA

Length of program: 1 week

Cost: Free (dorm housing and travel stipend to those outside of Seattle)

Who qualifies: K-12 teachers

Deadline: see website

Description: One-week seminars for K-12 teachers on China and/or Japan.

More information: https://jsis.washington.edu/earc/category/programs/summer-institutes/

Where: San Diego, CA

Length of program: 1 or 2 weeks summer

Cost: Free (includes $1000 stipend, travel support, meals onboard, books, and continued education credits)

Who qualifies: High school teachers

Deadline: Applications are accepted starting Jan 1

Description: Our seminar programs are specifically designed for teachers of history and social studies to learn about the Cold War, the wars in Korea and Vietnam, and World War II in the Pacific, and to incorporate that knowledge, including a variety of perspectives, into their classroom lessons.

More information: http://www.midway.org/midway-institute-teachers

Where: Washington, DC

Length of program: 5 days

Cost: $100 (includes breakfast, lunch and shared dorms; $500 travel reimbursement at completion of program)

Who qualifies: All educators, including librarians, media specialists, curriculum coordinators, pre-service and classroom teachers. Priority for middle and high school educators who work directly with students

Deadline: Feb 1

Description: Discover the history behind this iconic building and explore how you can use the stories from the White House to enhance your social studies classroom at the 2018 White House History Teacher Institute.

More information: https://www.whitehousehistory.org/white-house-history-teacher-institute

Where: international or domestic locations

Length of program: 18 months (online class, fieldwork)

Cost: in development - check website

Who qualifies: K-12 educators

Deadline: spring

Description: The Global Competency Certification Program is a transformative online advanced certification and Masters level program that prepares K-12 educators to effectively teach for global competence and to equip students to succeed in an interconnected world. Created by World Savvy in collaboration with Teachers College, Columbia University, and Asia Society, the Global Competency Program is a personalized course of study designed for in-service teachers. Over an 18-month period, teachers participate in online academic coursework, experience domestic or international fieldwork and engage in collaborative practice groups.

More information: http://globalcompetency.org/

List-serv for opportunities about Asia. Contact Laurel Singleton at laurel.singleton@colorado.edu

List-serv for opportunities about the Middle East (CMES Weekly Newsletter). Contact Julie Ellison-Speight jellison@arizona.edu

Who qualifies: U.S. citizens who demonstrate a commitment to civic responsibilities and to professional and collegial activities and who qualify for admission with graduate standing at an accredited U.S. university that offers a qualifying master's degree program are eligible to apply. Applicants must be committed to teaching American history, American government, and/or social studies full time in grades 7-12.

What is it: The James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation offers $24,000 James Madison Graduate Fellowships to individuals desiring to become outstanding teachers of the American Constitution at the secondary school level. Fellowship applicants compete only against other applicants from the states of their legal residence. Generally, one Fellowship per state is awarded each year.

More Information: http://www.jamesmadison.com/

Who qualifies: The Library of Congress awards grants under the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Regional program to school districts, universities, cultural institutions, library systems and other educational organizations who wish to incorporate TPS materials and methods into their existing education and professional development programs for pre and in-service teachers, librarians, media specialists and other K-12 educators.

What is it: The TPS Regional program provides assistance and grants of up to $20,000 through its regional coordinators in the East, Midwest and West. The program promotes the widespread, sustained and effective use of primary sources from the Library of Congress within the educational community by increasing access to the TPS program for teachers who are not served by members of the TPS Educational Consortium.

More Information: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/regional/index.html

What is it: Bring the park to your classroom. Contact the National Park sites below to borrow and/or purchase traveling trunks and kits for classroom use. Some kits and trunks may be available for limited time periods and within limited regions. For best results, contact the park with any questions you have.

More Information: https://www.nps.gov/teachers/teacher-resources.htm#q=traveling+trunks&fq%5B%5D=Type%3A%22Traveling+Trunk%22

What is it: A place for educators to find thought-provoking news, conversation and support for those who care about diversity, equal opportunity and respect for differences in schools.

Teaching Tolerance's educational kits and subscriptions to its magazine are FREE to classroom teachers, librarians, school counselors, school administrators, professors of education, youth directors at houses of worship and employees of youth-serving nonprofit organizations.

More Information: https://www.tolerance.org/classroom-resources/film-kits

What is it: YLI, a program of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, develops FREE education resources designed to assist civics teachers, and encourage students to participate in the political process.

YLI jump-starts a lifetime of civic engagement for the next generation by creating innovative technology-based projects that bring the American democratic process to life in your classroom.

More Information: http://208.81.226.245/

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Free (or Inexpensive) Teacher Travel Programs Originally compiled by Wendy Harris (St. Paul, MN) and Laura West (Hot Springs, AR) © 2019 The information may not be shared on any websites without permission. Program: Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Program Where: Washington,

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Incorporated as a non-profit organization in April 2003, The Harriet Wilson Project, was formed by a group of civic minded citizens who came together to raise awareness, celebrate and honor the life and accomplishments of Harriet E. Wilson, a pre-Civil War black author from Milford, New Hampshire.

​Governor Chris Sununu to Honor Wilson ...

See the latest in what we have to offer in lectures, speakers, and programs.

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Welcome to the official Harriet Wilson Project Page

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Incorporated as a non-profit organization in April 2003, The Harriet Wilson Project, was formed by a group of civic minded citizens who came together to raise awareness, celebrate and honor the life and accomplishments of Harriet E. Wilson, a pre-Civil War black author from Milford, New Hampshire.

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Welcome to the Royall House and Slave Quarters

The Royall House and Slave Quarters functions as a site of memory. In the eighteenth century, the plantation was home to the Royalls, the largest slaveholding family in Massachusetts, and at least sixty enslaved women, men, and children whose forced labor helped build the Royall family's wealth. As one of the only remaining freestanding quarters where enslaved people lived and worked in the North, the museum bears witness to their lives, to the intertwined stories of wealth and bondage in pre-Revolutionary Massachusetts, and to the resistance and political and legal activism of enslaved and free Black people in the eighteenth century.

The museum is open to the public for tours on weekends from June through October, while school and group tours are available from mid-March to mid-November. The museum also presents a range of public programs throughout the year. Members receive free admission to the museum and free or discounted admission to most programs.

Museums Are Not Neutral

As people across the world take to the streets to protest the police killings of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, George Floyd in Minneapolis, and Tony McDade in Tallahassee, we have a responsibility to speak out.

We are committed to telling the history of slavery and freedom while highlighting how the legacy of enslavement creates systemic inequalities today. Thus, we stand in solidarity with the protesters bravely fighting against police violence and demanding justice, accountability, and a transformation of policies that sustain racial and economic inequalities.

Our job is not only to listen, but also to uplift and amplify the history and voices of Black people locally, nationally, and globally in the struggle for freedom.
Museums Are Not Neutral. Black Lives Matter.
--

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The Royall House and Slave Quarters functions as a site of memory. In the eighteenth century, the plantation was home to the Royalls, the largest slaveholding family in Massachusetts, and at least sixty enslaved women, men, and children whose forced labor helped build the Royall family's wealth.

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The Little Book of Racial Healing

Tom DeWolf, one of the ten family members in Traces of the Trade, has co-authored with Jodie Geddes a new book describing the Coming to the Table Approach to truth-telling and transformation. More about the book here.

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The Little Book of Racial Healing Tom DeWolf, one of the ten family members in Traces of the Trade, has co-authored with Jodie Geddes a new book describing the Coming to the Table Approach to truth-telling and transformation. More about the book here.

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This is a tool I use to review terminology and language with my students. - Merry

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Note to readers: The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program is currently revising this webpage in order to reflect accurate and contextual ways to talk about slavery, freedom, and the Underground Railroad. If you have feedback or comments you would like to share, please email network_to_freedom@nps.gov.
Introduction

While different meanings have been attached to the term Underground Railroad in different times and places, when the National Park Service's National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom uses the term, it to references escape from slavery in the United States through flight and/or assistance in that escape. These escapes lasted from the beginning until the end of legal slavery here, and happened in the north, south, east, and west. The Underground Railroad represents one of the earliest grass roots movements in the United States in which people united across racial, gender, religious, and class lines in hopes of promoting social change. While allies assisted in journeys to freedom, those who sought freedom are at the center of this story, because there is no Underground Railroad without freedom seekers.

Many labels for escaping African Americans were constructs of enslaving society or by paternalistic abolitionists. As such, terms discussing slavery and freedom from the period tend to reflect how the dominant society viewed African Americans and their efforts toward freedom. Instead, the National Park Service and its partners strive to use language that more accurately reflects both the inherent humanity of enslaved people and historical accuracy.

There is not universal consensus on what words are most appropriate to use when talking about slavery. In one example, some historians prefer to use words like "fugitive" to emphasize that when freedom seekers liberated themselves, they simultaneously broke state and/or federal laws. Others object to the criminal sound of the term, feeling that it unfairly maligns those seeking freedom through escape, or argue that it legitimizes the perspective of the society that upheld the legality of slavery.

As another National Park Service document, "Terminology and the Mass Incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II" points out, words that a person uses reflect their personal experience, their depth of knowledge, and their worldview. The selection of particular words by an individual or by consensus within an organization may also serve ideological or political purposes. In addition, the use of specific words and our understanding of them changes over time. It is for this reason that the Network to Freedom has taken an interpretive approach to addressing terminology, one in which the topic is used as an educational tool in appropriate contexts.

Terminology

A person opposed to slavery. Abolitionists were typically politically active and worked to eradicate the legal framework of slavery. They may or may not have acted on their antislavery principles by helping individuals escape from slavery.
Chattel
Portable personal property. Chattel slavery equated human beings with livestock, furniture, and any other portable personal property. Chattel could be inherited, sold, or transferred without permission, in the case of the enslaved person.
Conductor
This refers to an individual who escorted or directed freedom seekers between stations or safe houses. A conductor need not have been a member of an organized section of the Underground Railroad, only someone who provided an element of guidance to the freedom seeker.
Emancipation
This term is often used to refer to either individual or group freedom. For example, those enslaved in the District of Columbia were freed by an act of Congress in 1862, the Compensated Emancipation Act. The word is familiar because of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation issued in January 1863 which declared an end to slavery in states that were in rebellion against the United States . Individuals also attempted to emancipate themselves through escape or legal decisions.

Enslaved Person
This term is used in place of slave. It more accurately describes someone who was forced to perform labor or services against their will under threat of physical mistreatment, separation from family or loved ones, or death. For the general purposes of this website, the term refers to one of the tens of millions of kidnapped Africans transported to the Americas and their descendants held in bondage through the American Civil War.

Enslaved person emphasizes the humanity of an individual within a slaveholding society over their condition of involuntary servitude. While slavery was a defining aspect of this individual's life experience, this term, in which enslaved describes but person is central, clarifies that humanity was at the center of identity while also recognizing that this person was forcibly placed into the condition of slavery by another person or group.
Enslaver versus Master, Owner, or Slaveholder
An enslaver exerted power over those they kept in bondage. They referred to themself as a master or owner - hierarchical language which reinforced a sense of natural authority. Today, the terms "master" or "owner" can continue to suggest a naturalness to the system while also distancing us from the fact that enslavers actively enslaved other human beings who were entitled to the same natural rights as themselves.

The terms slave master and slave owner refer to those individuals who enslaved others when slavery was part of American culture. These terms can imply that enslaved people were less capable or worthy than those who enslaved them. Using the word master or owner can limit understanding of enslaved people to property. These terms also support a social construct that there are people who should naturally hold power (i.e. slave owners, slave masters) and those who should naturally not (enslaved individuals).
Freedom Seeker versus Fugitive
Freedom seeker describes an enslaved person who takes action to obtain freedom from slavery.

The labels fugitive, runaway, and escapee were constructs of slave-holding society and patronizing abolitionists. These terms reflect how slave-holding society viewed African American efforts toward freedom and ultimately and take away their individual agency.

The term fugitive is linked to the various Fugitive Slave Laws (1793, 1850) passed by the U.S. Congress, and emphasizes that the fugitive was acting criminally to escape from bondage. This language was key in attempts to preserve the view that the law was on the side of the slaveholding society-which it was-while reinforcing the view that the fugitive was incapable of acting responsibly in a society governed by the rule of law.
Manumission
The freeing of an individual or group of enslaved African Americans by will, purchase, legal petition, or legislation. Some enslaved African Americans saved up from jobs for hire or sale of goods to purchase their own manumission. Slaveowners sometimes freed individuals as a favor or picked favored enslaved people to free at the slaveholder's death. Some enslaved people were willing to take the risk of going to court to seek their freedom. Some people distinguish manumission from emancipation, using manumission to refer to only one individual at a time.
Maroon
Describes a community when used as an adjective or a member of a community when used as a noun of enslaved African Americans who escaped slavery and lived in a remote place like a swamp or the mountains. These settlements often actively assisted other freedom seekers. The Everglades and the Great Dismal Swamp were sites of maroon communities.
Operative or Station Master
An accomplice to escape by a freedom seeker. They might help arrange an escape, serve as a conductor, or otherwise help those escaping. If the freedom seeker was caught, the operative might provide a lawyer or money for fines and bail and/or arrange purchase from the slaveholder.

A stationmaster provided shelter or a hiding place to freedom seekers. They often served as a clearinghouse for information regarding safe routes and nearby pursuit of freedom seekers and coordinated with conductors and other stationmasters to provide safe passage for freedom seekers upon departure from that station.
Personal Liberty Laws
These laws for rights like habeas corpus, trial by jury, and protections from seizure defended those escaping, in direct opposition to the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. Northern states like Indiana enacted laws providing these rights to freedom seekers starting as early as 1824. Such laws show the growing resistance to slavery in the North. Due to the cases of Ableman v. Booth and the United States v. Booth, the state of Wisconsin acted to nullify the decision of the Supreme Court whose southern justices found personal liberty laws unconstitutional.
Slave
As with enslaved person, this term is used for a person forced to perform labor or services against their will under threat of physical mistreatment, separation from family or loved ones, or death. For the general purposes of this website, the term refers to one of the tens of millions of kidnapped Africans transported to the Americas and their descendants held in bondage through the American Civil War.

Slave is a commonly used term to describe an enslaved African American, but one that suggests that the individual's identity was more fundamentally as property than as a human. It can also suggest that the person accepted their enslavement as a definition of their own identity. Additionally, it leaves out the presence of an enslaving individual or group whose ability of enforcement through violence backed the system of slavery. The National Park Service uses slave only when necessary in a historical context as part of a quote, preferring enslaved person as a more descriptive, complete choice.

Slave Patrol
Formed by state militias and county courts or by plantation owners themselves, these groups were responsible for preventing crime by Blacks and for keeping enslaved African Americans in the place prescribed for them by slave-holding society. Members might be poor whites or wealthier property owners. Mounted on horses, they were often armed with guns, whips, and clubs, and were not afraid to be brutal. They stopped Black individuals and demanded identification to demonstrate that Black individuals were not freedom seekers. Slave patrols had the right to search slave quarters.
Station
The station provided a haven for traveling freedom seekers, was secured by the stationmaster, and took many forms. Stations might be basements, cabins, homes, barns or caves, or any other site that provided an element of security while giving the freedom seeker an opportunity for rest and provisions.
Underground Railroad
The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program defines the Underground Railroad as the resistance to slavery through escape and flight.

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Language of Slavery - Underground Railroad (U.S. National Park Service)

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Note to readers: The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program is currently revising this webpage in order to reflect accurate and contextual ways to talk about slavery, freedom, and the Underground Railroad. If you have feedback or comments you would like to share, please email network_to_freedom@nps.gov.

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Lynchings by County (click for details)

Racial Terror: Lynching in Virginia is an ongoing research project examining one of the darkest, yet almost forgotten, pages of American history: the lynching of thousands of people in the US South. In particular, this website focuses on telling the stories of all the known lynching victims who were killed in Virginia between 1866 and 1932, most of them African American men. Even though a small number of the victims of mob violence were white, lynching was essentially a form of state-sanctioned terrorism against African Americans - almost none of the lynchers ever faced trial, and even fewer were convicted for their crimes. Lynching was indeed a key institution in the preservation of white supremacy in the Jim Crow South.

In addition to telling the stories of lynching that so often have been erased from local histories and collective memories, this website also stores more than 600 historical newspaper articles describing those barbaric acts of 'popular justice'. These articles are available for anyone to read and use for their own research. A map of Virginia is also provided to display where each lynching occurred.

As this project is a work in progress, the website will be periodically updated with information about events, sources, tools to explore the database, as well as in-depth investigations of single lynchings and analysis of geographical, temporal and sociological patterns of racial violence in Virginia.

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Racial Terror: Lynching in Virginia is an ongoing research project examining one of the darkest, yet almost forgotten, pages of American history: the lynching of thousands of people in the US South. In particular, this website focuses on telling the stories of all the known lynching victims who were killed in Virginia between 1866 and 1932, most of them African American men.

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https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/albert/albert.html

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The House of Bondage,
or, Charlotte Brooks and Other Slaves, Original and Life Like,
As They Appeared in Their Old Plantation and City Slave Life;
Together with Pen-Pictures of the Peculiar Institution, with Sights and Insights
into Their New Relations as Freedmen, Freemen, and Citizens:
Electronic Edition.

Albert, Octavia V. Rogers (Octavia Victoria Rogers), 1853-1889?

Funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities
supported the electronic publication of this title.

Source Description:
(title page) The House of Bondage or Charlotte Brooks and Other Slaves, Original and Life-like, as They Appeared in Their Old Plantation and City Slave Life; Together with Pen-pictures of the Peculiar Institution, with Sights and Insights into Their new Relations as Freedmen, Freemen, and Citizens.
(cover) The House of Bondage
(spine) The House of Bondage
Octavia V. Rogers Albert
xv, 161 p., ill.
New York
Hunt & Eaton
1890

Call number 326.973 A333H (Perkins Library, Duke University)

The electronic edition is a part of the UNC-CH digitization project, Documenting the American South.
This electronic edition has been created by Optical Character Recognition (OCR). OCR-ed text has been compared against the original document and corrected. The text has been encoded using the recommendations for Level 4 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines.
Original grammar, punctuation, and spelling have been preserved. Encountered typographical errors have been preserved, and appear in red type.
Any hyphens occurring in line breaks have been removed, and the trailing part of a word has been joined to the preceding line.
All quotation marks, em dashes and ampersand have been transcribed as entity references.
All double right and left quotation marks are encoded as " and " respectively.
All single right and left quotation marks are encoded as ' and ' respectively.
All em dashes are encoded as --
Indentation in lines has not been preserved.
Running titles have not been preserved.
Spell-check and verification made against printed text using Author/Editor (SoftQuad) and Microsoft Word spell check programs.

Library of Congress Subject Headings, 21st edition, 1998

Languages Used:

LC Subject Headings:

Albert, Octavia V. Rogers (Octavia Victoria Rogers), 1853-1889?

African Americans -- Biography.

Slaves -- United States -- Biography.

Fugitive slaves -- United States -- Biography.

Freedmen -- United States -- Biography.

Slaves -- United States -- Social conditions.

Slaves -- Religious life -- United States -- History -- 19th century.

Slavery -- Louisiana -- History -- 19th century.

Slavery -- Georgia -- History -- 19th century.

Plantation life -- Louisiana -- History -- 19th century.

Plantation life -- Georgia -- History -- 19th century.

Slaves' writings, American.

Revision History:

2001-01-11,
Celine Noel and Wanda Gunther
revised TEIHeader and created catalog record for the electronic edition.

2000-09-06,
Natalia Smith, project manager,
finished TEI-conformant encoding and final proofing.

2000-08-31,
Lee Ann Morawski
finished TEI/SGML encoding

2000-08-06,
David Faflik
finished scanning (OCR) and proofing.

[Cover Image]

[Spine Image]

[Title Page Image]

[Title Page Verso Image]

THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE
OR
CHARLOTTE BROOKS AND OTHER SLAVES
ORIGINAL AND LIFE-LIKE, AS THEY APPEARED IN THEIR
OLD PLANTATION AND CITY SLAVE LIFE; TOGETHER
WITH PEN-PICTURES OF THE PECULIAR INSTITUTION,
WITH SIGHTS AND INSIGHTS
INTO THEIR NEW RELATIONS
AS FREEDMEN, FREEMEN,
AND CITIZENS

BY

MRS. OCTAVIA V. ROGERS ALBERT

WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY
REV. BISHOP WILLARD F. MALLALIEU, D.D.

NEW YORK:
HUNT & EATON
CINCINNATI:
CRANSTON & STOWE
1890

Copyright, 1890, by
HUNT & EATON,
NEW YORK.

PREFACE.

THE following pages, giving the result of conversations and other information gathered, digested, and written by Mrs. Octavia V. Rogers, deceased wife of the Rev. A.E.P. Albert, A.M., D.D., first appeared in the columns of the South-western Christian Advocate, some months after her death, as a serial story, under the name of The House of Bondage. It was received with such enthusiasm and appreciation that no sooner was the story concluded than letters poured in upon the editor from all directions, urging him to put it in book form, so as to preserve it as a memorial of the author, as well as for its intrinsic value as a history of negro slavery in the Southern States, of its overthrow, and of the mighty and far-reaching results derived therefrom.

No special literary merit is claimed for the work. No special effort was made in that direction; but as a panoramic exhibition of slave-life, emancipation, and the subsequent results, the story herein given, with all the facts brought out, as each one speaks for himself

and in his own way, is most interesting and life-like.

The conversations herein given are not imaginary, but actual, and given as they actually occurred. No one can read these pages without realizing the fact that "truth is often stranger than fiction." As such we present it to the public as an unpretentious contribution to an epoch in American history that will more and more rivet the attention of the civilized world as the years roll around.

An only daughter unites with the writer in sending out these pages penned by a precious and devoted mother and wife, whose angelic spirit is constantly seen herein, and whose subtle and holy influence seems to continue to guide and protect both in the path over which they since have had to travel without the presence and cheer of her inspiring countenance.

To her sacred memory these pages, the result of her efforts, are affectionately inscribed.

A.E.P. ALBERT.

LAURA T.F. ALBERT.

EDITORIAL ROOMS South-western Christian Advocate, NEW ORLEANS, LA., November 15, 1890.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.
GREAT TRIBULATIONS.
The death of Lena--Her dying testimony--Aunt Charlotte's mistress ties a servant by the thumbs--She returns and finds her dead . . . . .27 Page viii

CHAPTER XI.
PRISON HORRORS.
Uncle John taking lessons--Andersonville horrors-- Blood-hounds--Silas bitten by blood-hounds and eaten by buzzards . . . . .75 Page ix

CHAPTER XVII.
A COLORED SOLDIER.
Colonel Douglass Wilson on the war--Color-bearer Planchiancio and Captain Caillioux--Joel Brinkley, a Yankee school-teacher, caned nearly to death . . . .129 Page x

INTRODUCTION.

THE story of slavery never has been and never will be fully told. In the last letter that John Wesley ever wrote, addressed to Wilberforce, the great abolitionist, and dated February 24, 1791, and this only six days before his tireless hand was quieted in death, he wrote these words: "I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy" (slavery and the slave-trade), "which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils; but if God be for you who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O, 'be not weary in well doing.' Go on in the name of God and the power of his might till even American slavery, the vilest that ever saw the sun, shall vanish away before it."

It is because American slavery was "the vilest that ever saw the sun" that it is and will remain forever impossible to adequately portray its unspeakable horrors, its heartbreaking sorrows, its fathomless miseries of hopeless grief, its intolerable shames, and its heaven-defying and outrageous brutalities.

But while it remains true that the story can never be completely told, it is wise and well that the task should be attempted and in part performed; and this for the reason that there are some who presume that this slavery, "the vilest that ever saw the sun," has been, and is still, of divine appointment; in short, that from first to last it was a divine institution. It is well to remind all such people that the Almighty Ruler of the universe is not an accessory, either before or after the fact, to such crimes as were involved in slavery. Let no guilty man, let no descendant of such man, attempt to excuse the sin and shame of slave-holding on the ground of its providential character. The truth is that slavery is the product of human greed and lust and oppression, and not of God's ordering.

Then it is well to write about slavery that

the American people may know from what depths of disgrace and infamy they rose when, guided by the hand of God, they broke every yoke and let the oppressed go free. Finally, it is well to tell, though only in part, the story of slavery so that every man, woman, and child of the once enslaved race may know the exceeding mercy of God that has delivered them from the hopeless and helpless despair that might have been their portion if the Lord God Omnipotent had not come forth to smite in divine and righteous wrath the proud oppressor and bring his long-suffering people out of their worse than Egyptian bondage.

This volume, penned by a hand that now rests in the quiet of the tomb, is a contribution to the sum total of the story that can never be entirely told.

In her young girlhood the author had known the accursed system, and she knew the joy of deliverance. With a deep, pathetic tenderness she loved her race; she would gladly have died for their enlightenment and salvation. But she has gone to her reward, leaving behind her the precious legacy of a sweet Christian

influence that can only flow forth from a pure and consecrated life.

May this volume go forth to cheer and comfort and inspire to high and holy deeds all who shall read its pages!

WILLARD F. MALLALIEU.

BOSTON, MASS., Nov. 15, 1890. Page xv

THE AUTHOR.

THE author of this volume, Octavia Victoria Rogers, wife of the Rev. A.E.P. Albert, D.D., was born in Oglethorpe, Macon County, Ga., of slave parentage, December 24, 1853, and was educated at Atlanta University, in that State. She and Dr. Albert first met at Montezuma, Ga., where they taught school together, in 1873; and on October 21, 1874, they were united in holy wedlock. They had an only daughter, who survives her mother. She united with the African Methodist Episcopal Church under the preaching of Bishop H. M. Turner, at Oglethorpe, Ga., and was converted and united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, under the pastorate of the Rev. Marcus Dole, at Union Chapel, New Orleans, in 1875. Her own husband baptized her at Houma, La., in 1878, during the first year of his ministry. She was an angel of mercy whose loving spirit will long be cherished by all who knew her but to love her. Now she rests from her labors, and her good works do follow her. Peace to her precious memory!

COMPILER.

THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE.

CHAPTER I.
CHARLOTTE BROOKS.

Causes of immorality among colored people--Charlotte Brooks--She is sold South--Sunday work.

NONE but those who resided in the South during the time of slavery can realize the terrible punishments that were visited upon the slaves. Virtue and self-respect were denied them.

Much has been written concerning the negro, and we must confess that the moral standing of the race is far from what it should be; but who is responsible for the sadly immoral condition of this illiterate race in the South? I answer unhesitatingly, Their masters.

Consider that here in this Bible land, where we have the light, where the Gospel was preached Sunday after Sunday in all portions of the South, and where ministers read from

the pulpit that God had made of one blood all nations of men, etc., that nevertheless, with the knowledge and teachings of the word of God, the slaves were reduced to a level with the brute. The half was never told concerning this race that was in bondage nearly two hundred and fifty years.

The great judgment-day is before us; "for we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ." There are millions of souls now crowned around the throne of God who have washed their robes white and are praising God, although they spent their lives in sorrow, but who will rise up in judgment and condemn this Christian nation. The Spanish Inquisition can hardly compare with the punishments visited upon this once enslaved race. But let me introduce you to some characters that will amply illustrate what I mean.

It was in the fall of 1879 that I met Charlotte Brooks. She was brought from the State of Virginia and sold in the State of Louisiana many years before the war. I have spent hours with her listening to her telling of her sad life of bondage in the cane-fields of Louisiana. She was always willing to speak of "old

master and mistress." I remember one morning as she entered my home I said to her, "Good-morning Aunt Charlotte; how are you feeling to-day?"

She said, "La, my child, I didn't sleep hardly last night; my poor old bones ached me so bad I could not move my hand for a while."

"What's the cause of it?"

"Why, old marster used to make me go out before day, in high grass and heavy dews, and I caught cold. I lost all of my health. I tell you, nobody knows the trouble I have seen. I have been sold three times. I had a little baby when my second marster sold me, and my last old marster would make me leave my child before day to go to the cane-field; and he would not allow me to come back till ten o'clock in the morning to nurse my child. When I did go I could hear my poor child crying long before I got to it. And la, me! my poor child would be so hungry when I'd get to it! Sometimes I would have to walk more than a mile to get to my child, and when I did get there I would be so tired I'd fall asleep while my baby was sucking. He

did not allow me much time to stay with my baby when I did go to nurse it. Sometimes I would overstay my time with my baby; then I would have to run all the way back to the field. O, I tell you nobody knows the trouble we poor colored folks had to go through with here in Louisiana. I had heard people say Louisiana was a hard place for black people, and I didn't want to come; but old marster took me and sold me from my mother anyhow, and from my sisters and brothers in Virginia.

"I have never seen or heard from them since I left old Virginia. That's been more than thirty-five years ago. When I left old Virginia my mother cried for me, and when I saw my poor mother with tears in her eyes I thought I would die. O, it was a sad day for me when I was to leave my mother in old Virginia. My mother used to take her children to church every Sunday. But when I came to Louisiana I did not go to church any more. Every body was Catholic where I lived, and I had never seen that sort of religion that has people praying on beads. That was all strange to me. The older I got the more I thought

of my mother's Virginia religion. Sometimes when I was away off in the cane-field at work it seemed I could hear my mother singing the 'Old Ship of Zion.' I could never hear any of the old Virginia hymns sung here, for every body was Catholic around where I stayed."

"Aunt Charlotte, did you say you never attended church any more after leaving Virginia?"

"No, my child; I never saw inside of a church after I came to Louisiana."

"What did you do on the Sabbath?"

"La, me! I had plenty to do. Old mistress would make me help in the kitchen on Sundays when I had nothing else to do. Mistress was Catholic, and her church was a good ways off, and she did not go often to church. In rolling season we all worked Sunday and Monday grinding cane. Old marster did not care for Sunday; he made all of us work hard on Sunday as well as any other day when he was pushed up. 'Most all the planters worked on Sunday in rolling season where I lived. In Virginia every body rested and would go to church on Sunday, and it was strange to see every body working on Sunday here. O,

how I used to wish to hear some of the old Virginia hymns!

"I remember my mother used to have a minister to come to see her in Virginia, and he would read the Bible and sing. He used to sing 'O where are the Hebrew children? Safe in the promised land.' I did not have religion when I came out here. I did not have any body to tell me any thing about repentance, but I always prayed, and the more I would pray the better I would feel. I never would fail to say my prayers, and I just thought if I could get back to my old Virginia home to hear some of my mother's old-time praises it would do my soul good. But, poor me! I could never go back to my old Virginia home."

CHAPTER II.
CHARLOTTE'S STORY.

Meeting Jane. Lee from Virginia--Conversion of Charlotte Brooks.

"FOUR years after I came to Louisiana the speculators brought another woman out here from my old State. She was sold to a man near my marster's plantation. I heard of it, and, thinks I, 'That might be some of my kinsfolks, or somebody that knew my mother.' So the first time I got a chance I went to see the woman. My white folks did not want the 'niggers' to go off on Sundays; but anyhow my old marster let me go sometimes after dinner on Sunday evenings. So I went to see who the woman was, and I tell you, my child, when I got in the road going I could not go fast enough, for it just seemed to me that the woman was one of my folks. I walked a while and would run a while. By and by I got there. As I went in the gate I met a man, and I asked him what was the woman's name; he said her

name was Jane Lee. I went around to the quarters where all the black people lived, and I found her. I went up to her and said, 'Howdy do, Aunt Jane?' She said, 'How do you know me, child?' I said, 'I heard you just came from Virginia; I came from that State too. I just been out here four years. I am so glad to see you, Aunt Jane. Where did you come from in Virginia?' 'I came from Richmond. I have left all of my people in Virginia.'

"Aunt Jane was no kin to me, but I felt that she was because she came from my old home. Me and Aunt Jane talked and cried that Sunday evening till nearly dark. Aunt Jane said she left her children, and it almost killed her to ever think of them. She said one was only five years old. Her old marster got in debt, and he sold her to pay his debts. I told her I had left all of my people too, and that I was a poor lone creature to myself when I first came out from Virginia. Aunt Jane asked me did the people have churches here. I told her no; that I had not been in a church since I came here. She had religion, and she was as good a woman as you ever saw. She

could read the Bible, and could sing so many pretty hymns. Aunt Jane said it seemed to her she was lost because she could not go to church and hear preaching and singing like she used to hear in Virginia. She said people didn't care for Sunday in Louisiana."

"Aunt Charlotte, it must have been a joyful time with you when you first saw Aunt Jane Lee."

"Yes, I tell you. I stayed with her till evening. I was afraid old marster would not let me go to see Aunt Jane any more, and when I got in the road, I tell you I did not lose any time. It was dark when I left Aunt Jane; but before I left her house she prayed and sang, and it made me feel glad to hear her pray and sing. It made me think of my old Virginia home and my mother. She sang,

" 'Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,
Pilgrim through this barren land.'

"I had heard that hymn before, but had forgot it. All next week it seemed to me I could hear the old Virginia hymn Aunt Jane sung for me that Sunday evening when I was working in the cane-field.

"It was nearly rolling season when Aunt Jane first came to Louisiana, and we all was so busy working night and day I did not have a chance to see her in a long time after I left her that Sunday evening. But two or three months after that I got a chance to go to see her again. Old marster let me go and stay all day that Sunday. He said we all had made such a good year's work, and he was mighty well pleased with us. But he was not always glad and pleased with us. Sometimes he would get mad about something going wrong on the place, and he would beat every one of us and lock us up in the jail he made for us."

"What! Did he put you in jail on Sunday?"

"Yes; 'most every Sunday morning when we did not have any work to do. The next time I went to see Aunt Jane we had another happy time. She could read right good in the Bible and hymn-book, and she would read to me one or two hymns at a time. I remember she read to me about Daniel in the lions' den, and about the king having the three Hebrew children cast in the fiery furnace, and when he looked in the flames of fire he saw four men,

and one looked like the Son of God. O, how Aunt Jane used to love to read about the Hebrew children!

"I finally got religion, and it was Aunt Jane's praying and singing them old Virginia hymns that helped me so much. Aunt Jane's marster would let her come to see me sometimes, but not often. Sometimes she would slip away from her place at night and come to see me anyhow. She would hold prayer-meeting in my house whenever she would come to see me."

"Would your marster allow you to hold prayer-meeting on his place?"

"No, my child; if old marster heard us singing and praying he would come out and make us stop. One time, I remember, we all were having a prayer-meeting in my cabin, and marster came up to the door and hollered out, 'You, Charlotte, what's all that fuss in there?' We all had to hush up for that night. I was so afraid old marster would see Aunt Jane. I knew Aunt Jane would have to suffer if her white people knew she was off at night. Marster used to say God was tired of us all hollering to him at night."

"Did any of the black people on his place believe in the teachings of their master?"

"No, my child; none of us listened to him about singing and praying. I tell you we used to have some good times together praying and singing. He did not want us to pray, but we would have our little prayer-meeting anyhow. Sometimes when we met to hold our meetings we would put a big wash-tub full of water in the middle of the floor to catch the sound of our voices when we sung. When we all sung we would march around and shake each other's hands, and we would sing easy and low, so marster could not hear us. O, how happy I used to be in those meetings, although I was a slave! I thank the Lord Aunt Jane Lee lived by me. She helped me to make my peace with the Lord. O, the day I was converted! It seemed to me it was a paradise here below! It looked like I wanted nothing any more. Jesus was so sweet to my soul! Aunt Jane used to sing, 'Jesus! the name that charms our fears.' That hymn just suited my case. Sometimes I felt like preaching myself. It seemed I wanted to ask every body if they loved Jesus when I first got converted. I wanted to ask

old marster, but he was Creole, and did not understand what I said much. Aunt Jane was the cause of so many on our plantation getting religion. We did not have any church to go to, but she would talk to us about old Virginia, how people done there. She said them beads and crosses we saw every body have was nothing. She said people must give their hearts to God, to love him and keep his commandments; and we believed what she said. I never wanted them beads I saw others have, for I just thought we would pray without any thing, and that God only wanted the heart."

CHAPTER III.
AUNT CHARLOTTE'S FRIENDS.

Death of Aunt Charlotte's children--Jane Lee's master leaves the neighborhood--Nellie Johnson tries to escape to her old Virginia home.

"AUNT CHARLOTTE, what became of your baby? were you blest to raise it?"

"No; my poor child died when it was two years old. Old marster's son was the father of my child."

"Did its father help to take care of it?"

"Why, no; he never noticed my child."

"Did you have any more children?"

"Yes; but they all died."

"Why could you not rear any of them?"

"La, me, child! they died for want of attention. I used to leave them alone half of the time. Sometimes old mistress would have some one to mind them till they got so they could walk, but after that they would have to paddle for themselves. I was glad the Lord

took them, for I knowed they were better off with my blessed Jesus than with me."

Poor Charlotte Brooks! I can never forget how her eyes were filled with tears when she would speak of all her children: "Gone, and no one to care for me!" Sometimes she failed to come and see me (for she always visited me when she was able; never missed a day, unless she was sick, during the two years I lived near her). She was in poor health, and had no one to help her in her old age, when she really needed help. She had spent her life working hard for her masters, and after giving all of her youthful days to them was turned upon this cold, unfriendly world with nothing. She left her master's plantation with two blankets, and was several days on the road walking to get to the town of--, and, having become so exhausted, dropped them by the way-side. She said when she arrived at her destination she had nothing but the clothes she had on her back. She was then old and feeble.

I remember she used to come and beg me to save the stale coffee for her, saying she had not eaten any thing all day. Notwithstanding

all of her poverty she was always rejoicing in the love of God. I asked her once whether she felt lonely in this unfriendly world.

She answered, "No, my dear; how can a child of God feel lonesome? My heavenly Father took care of me in slave-time. He led me all the way along, and now he has set me free, and I am free both in soul and body."

She said, "I heard a preacher say once since I got free, 'Not a foot of land do I possess, not a cottage in the wilderness.' Just so it is with me; sometimes I don't have bread to eat; but I tell you, my soul is always feasting on my dear Jesus. Nobody knows what it is to taste of Jesus but them that has been washed by him. Many years ago, my white folks did not want me even to pray, and would whip me for praying, saying it was foolishness for me to pray. But the more old marster whipped me the more I'd pray. Sometimes he'd put me in jail; but, la, me! it did not stop me from praying. I'd kneel down on the jail floor and pray often, and nearly all day Sundays. I'd fall asleep sometimes praying. Old marster would come and call me about sundown. He would always

call out loud before he got to the jail to let me know he was coming. I could always tell his walk. I tell you, I used to feel rested and good when he let me out. He let me go so I could always be ready to go to work on Monday morning. One Sunday night, just as I got to my door, Aunt Jane met me. I was just coming from the jail, too. I knowed Aunt Jane was coming to hold prayer-meeting, and I hurried. If old marster heard us he would put me in jail the next Sunday morning; but, child, that did not stop me; I was always ready for the prayer-meeting. I told Aunt Jane I had been in jail all day, and it was a happy day in jail, too.

"Aunt Jane's white folks was not so hard on her as mine was. They did not let her go off at night, but she would slip away and come and lead prayer-meeting at my house. She always brought her Bible and hymnbook. She read to us that night something like this: 'I know my Redeemer lives.'"

I said to her, "O, yes, Aunt Charlotte; I remember it very well. It is in the book of Job, nineteenth chapter, twenty-fifth verse."

"Well, it has been so long since I heard it

read. Wont you get the Bible and please read it for me?"

"With much pleasure I'll read it to you. Here it is: 'For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.' I've read three verses of that chapter for you."

"Thank you, too, for it. O, how it makes me think of them happy times in the cane-field I used to have! I do wish I could read. I long to read the Bible and hymn-book. When I was in Virginia I used to study some. I learned my A, B, C, and begun to spell some in my blue-back spelling-book. I could spell 'ba-ker' and 'sha-dy,' and all along there in the spelling-book; but after I came to Louisiana I forgot every thing."

I said, "You have no hope of learning, now that you are free, although you are at liberty to do as you please?"

"No, my child; I can't see how to thread my needle now. I have given all my young

days to the white folks. My eye-sight is gone. Nothing for me to do but to wait till my Jesus comes."

"Aunt Charlotte, what became of Jane Lee?"

"Well, about five or six years before the war her marster moved 'way off to Texas, and I never saw her any more. We all cried when she left us. We felt lost, because we had nobody to lead us in our little meetings. After a while I begun to lead, and then some of the others would lead. Aunt Jane caused many of our people to get religion on our place. Where she lived the black folks were all Catholic, and she could not do much with them. I tell you, them Catholic people loved them beads and crosses they used to pray to. The last time Aunt Jane was with us she told us her white people was going to move, and she might never see us any more in this world; but she said, 'Charlotte, promise me you will meet me in heaven.' And then she turned around to all the others in the little cabin that night and asked them all to promise to meet her there. We all promised to fight on till death. La, me! such crying there

in that little cabin that night! Aunt Jane cried, and we cried too. It was past midnight when we all parted. Aunt Jane had about two miles to go after she left our place that night. She lived about two miles from our plantation.

"Aunt Jane said that when she came out here a pretty woman was brought here with her by the name of Nellie Johnson. Nellie was sold to a mighty bad man. She tried to run away to her old Virginia home, but the white men caught her and brought her back. Aunt Jane told me Nellie was almost white, and had pretty, long, straight hair. When they got her back they made her wear men's pants for one year. They made her work in the field in that way. She said they put deer-horns on her head to punish her, with bells on them. Aunt Jane said once while she was passing on the levee she saw Nellie working with the men on the Mississippi River, and she had men's clothes on then. The white folks used to have the levee worked on often before the war. They were afraid the levees would cave in."

CHAPTER IV.
CRUEL MASTERS.

Nellie Johnson is barbarously treated--Sam Wilson living in the swamps of Louisiana--Richard's wife living on another plantation--His master refuses to allow him to visit her--He is caught by the patrollers and beaten almost to death.

"AUNT JANE loved Nellie, although Nellie was no kin to her, and she used to talk very often to me about her white people using her so bad. She said once that a baby was born to Nellie on the road when she was coming in the speculator's drove, and the speculator gave the child away to a white woman near by where they camped that night. The speculator said they could not take care of the child on the road, and told Nellie it was better to let the white woman have the child."

"Poor Nellie! I reckon she was trying to go back to see her child when she was caught by the white barbarous, creatures who evidently were without human nature."

"Yes, I think so too," said Aunt Charlotte, "for blood is thicker than water. The white people thought in slave-time we poor darkies had no soul, and they separated us like dogs. So many poor colored people are dead from grieving at the separation of their children that was sold away from them."

"Aunt Jane said Nellie's owner was so bad! She said they had a man named Sam Wilson; he stayed one half of his time in the swamp. His master used to get after him to whip him, but Sam would not let his marster beat him. He would run off and stayed in the woods two and three months at a time. The white folks would set the dogs behind him, but Sam could not be caught by the dogs. The colored people said Sam greased his feet with rabbit-grease, and that kept the dogs from him. Aunt Jane said to me that she did not know what Sam used, but it looked like Sam could go off and stay as long as he wanted when the white folks got after him."

Aunt Charlotte said to me, "I tell you, my child, nobody could get me to run away in those Louisiana swamps. Death is but death, and I just thought if I'd run off in those

swamps I'd die. I used to hear old people say it was just as well to die with fever as with ague; and that is what I thought. Aunt Jane said Sam was from Louisiana, and was a Catholic. She said she did not know what sort of religion Sam's was, to let people dance and work all day Sunday. She used to try to get Sam to come to her prayer-meetings, but she could not get him inside the door when they was praying and singing. She said Sam used to laugh at them, and call our religion ' 'Merican niggers' religion.' "

"Aunt Charlotte, how many of you all used to carry on prayer-meeting after Aunt Jane left?"

"Well, let me count; we had Mary, Lena, Annie, Ann, Sarah, Nancy, and Martha--seven sisters and four brethren, Billy, Green, Jones, and Richard. La, me! what a good time we all used to have in my cabin on that plantation! I think of them good, happy times we used to have now since freedom, and wish I could see all of them once more. I tell you, child, religion is good anywhere--at the plow-handle, at the hoe-handle, anywhere. If you are filled with the love of my Jesus you are happy.

Why, the best times I ever had was when I first got religion, and when old marster would put me in that old jail-house on his plantation all day Sunday.

"Richard used to be mighty faithful to his prayer-meeting, but old marster begun to be mighty mean to him. His wife lived on another plantation, and marster told Richard he had to give up that wife and take a woman on our place. Richard told old marster he did not want any other woman; he said he loved his wife and could never love any other woman. His wife was named Betty. I believe Richard would die for Betty. Sometimes Richard would slip off and go to see Betty, and marster told the patrollers every time they caught Richard on the plantation where Betty lived to beat him half to death. The patrollers had caught Richard many times, and had beat him mighty bad. So one night Richard heard the dogs coming in the woods near his wife's house, and he jumped out of his wife's window, and he went for dear life or death through the woods. He said he had to always pass over the bayou to go to his wife, but that night the patrollers were so hot behind him that he lost

his way. He had a skiff he always went over in, but he forgot about the skiff when they were after him. Richard said he just took off every piece of clothes he had on and tied them around his neck and swam across the bayou. He lost his hat, and went without any all day in the field. Richard said when he got to the bayou he was wet with sweat, and it was one of the coldest nights he had ever felt in Louisiana. He said he had about two miles to go after he got over the bayou, and when he got across he just slipped on his clothes he had around his neck, and ran every step of the way to his own plantation. Sometimes they would catch Richard and drive four stakes in the ground, and they would tie his feet and hands to each one and beat him half to death. I tell you, sometimes he could not work. Marster did not care, for he had told Richard to take some of our women for a wife, but Richard would not do it. Richard loved Betty, and he would die for her."

"Did you say Richard was a Christian, Aunt Charlotte?"

"Yes; he used to pray and sing with us, many, many times, all the hymns Aunt Jane

sung to us. I remember Richard used to sing:

"'In the valley, in the valley,
There's a mighty cry to
Jesus in the valley;
So weary, so tired, Lord, I wish
I was in heaven, hallelu.'"

Aunt Charlotte said: "Poor Richard! I reckon he is dead now. When the Yankees came he was one of the first ones to leave our place, and I never heard from him any more. I reckon if he is dead he is resting at last in heaven. O, he had so many trials in this cold, unfriendly world! But he never give up praying and trusting in the Lord. Sometimes when we all would be hoeing the cane we did not go home to dinner, but we had our victuals in a basket, and we ate under a shade-tree. When it was hot marster used to let us have one hour and a half at twelve o'clock. Then we used to have good times under the shade-trees. We used to talk of Aunt Jane Lee, and we would sing some of her hymns till we all would go to sleep."

CHAPTER V.
GREAT TRIBULATIONS.

The death of Lena--Her dying testimony--Aunt Charlotte's mistress ties a servant by the thumbs--She returns and finds her dead.

"YOU remember I told you about Lena being one of our sisters in our prayer-meetings," said Aunt Charlotte.

"Yes; I recollect, I believe, a great many names you have spoken to me about every time you came talking about your past unhappy life; and I must confess to you that I have enjoyed your conversation very much. I have concluded to write the story of your life in the cane-fields of Louisiana, and I desire to write it in your own words, as near as possible.

"La, me, child! I never thought any body would care enough for me to tell of my trials and sorrows in this world! None but Jesus knows what I have passed through."

"Tell me, Aunt Charlotte, about Lena."

"She died with small-pox, and we all grieved and missed her among us. I had to 'tend to Lena when she was sick. I was the only one that had the small-pox at that time. She told me when she first got sick she would not live. But she said, 'Charlotte, I have been working and praying for this hour. O,' she said, 'God has promised to lead all who will follow him. I have been toiling so long; now I'm about to cross over.' I said to Lena, 'Yes, my sister, Jesus stopped dying to redeem one soul on the cross. Remember how Aunt Jane used to read to us that Jesus promised the thief on the cross that he should be with him in paradise.' Lena asked me to sing, 'On Jordan's stormy banks I stand, and cast a wistful eye.' O, I can never forget Lena! She is in heaven this day, I believe. We learned that hymn from Aunt Jane Lee. Just before Lena died she said, 'Glory be to God and the Lamb forever! Safe at last, safe at last!' These were her last words to me. I remember when old marster got mad with Lena he used to put her in jail all day on Sunday and give her nothing but bread and water to eat."

"Aunt Charlotte, my heart throbs with sympathy,

and my eyes are filled with tears, whenever I hear you tell of the trials of yourself and others. I've read and heard very often of the hard punishments of the slaves in the South; but the half was never told."

"No, half of it aint been told. I could sit right here and tell you the trials and tribulations I have had to go through with my three marsters here in Louisiana, and it would be dark before I got half through with my own; but if I tried to tell of the sorrows of others, what I have seen here in Louisiana since I have been here, it would take me all the week, I reckon."

"But Aunt Charlotte, have you nothing good to tell? Did your master never show any sympathy for his slaves?"

"My dear child, if you believe me, I never got one dollar from my marster in my life. After rolling was over he would get big jugs of whisky and make us all drink at his house door, but after that nothing more but hard work and rough treatment from one year's end to the other.

"I want to tell you about poor Ella, old mistress's house-servant. She was only twelve

years old. Ella's mother did not live with her. Mistress had no more feeling for her than she had for a cat. She used to beat her and pull her ears till they were sore. She would crack her on the head with a key or any thing she could get her hands on till blood would ooze out of the poor child's head. Mistress's mother give Ella to her, and when Ella got to be about eighteen mistress got jealous of her and old marster. She used to punish Ella all sorts of ways. Sometimes she tied her up by her thumbs. She could do nothing to please mistress. She had been in the habit of tying Ella up, but one day she tied her up and left her, and when she went back she found Ella dead. She told old marster she did not intend to kill her, that she only wanted to punish her. Mistress and marster did not live good after she killed Ella, for a long time. Poor Ella! I don't know where she is to-day. She was a Catholic. You could always see her with her beads and cross in her pocket. She is in purgatory, I reckon; for the Catholics say the priest can hold mass and get any body out for so much money. But nobody held mass for Ella, and so she will have to stay in purgatory.

But, I tell you, I believe there is only two places for us--heaven and torment. If we miss heaven we must be forever lost."

"Yes, Aunt Charlotte, that's the teaching of the Bible."

"Aunt Jane used to tell us, too, that the children of Israel was in Egypt in bondage, and that God delivered them out of Egypt; and she said he would deliver us. We all used to sing a hymn like this:

" 'My God delivered Daniel, Daniel, Daniel;
My God delivered Daniel,
And why not deliver me too?
He delivered Daniel from the lions' den,
Jonah from the belly of the whale,
The three Hebrew children from the fiery furnace,
And why not deliver me too?'

"O, you ought to hear Richard sing that hymn! I never can forget Aunt Jane, for when old marster used to be so hard on me it seemed I'd have to give up sometimes and die. But then the Spirit of God would come to me and fill my heart with joy. It seemed the more trials I had the more I could pray."

"Aunt Charlotte, you remind me of Pilgrim's Progress."

"Yes, I remember about Pilgrim traveling

from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City."

I said, "His name was John Bunyan. He was confined in jail twelve years on account of his religion."

"Was he a slave too?"

"No; he was not a slave, but at the time he lived people were persecuted on account of their religious belief."

"Yes, my child, that's the way it is here in Louisiana. The most of the white people were Catholics around where I lived, and we poor darkies that did not believe in Catholic religion had to suffer on account of it. But that's the time a true child of God prays, when he gets in trouble. For I know the most peaceful hours were when marster would put me in jail all day Sunday. We used to sing this song:

" 'O, brother, where was you?
O, brother, where was you?
O, brother, where was you
When the Lord come passing by?
Jesus been here,
O, he's been here;
He's been here
Soon in the morning;
Jesus been here,
And blest my soul and gone.'

"Yes, my dear child, that hymn filled me with joy many a time when I'd be in prison on Sunday. I'd sit all day singing and praying. I tell you, Jesus did come and bless me in there. I was sorry for marster. I wanted to tell him sometimes about how sweet Jesus was to my soul; but he did not care for nothing in this world but getting rich. He had a brother living in Georgia. I believe he did not believe in Catholic religion.

"We all knowed his brother from Georgia, because he used to always come out in rolling season to see us make sugar. He used to love to hear us sing. Once while he was out he took mighty sick, and I had to attend to him. He asked me to pray for him. I said, 'Yes, sir; I will pray for you, but you must touch the hem of the Saviour's garment yourself.' 'Yes,' he said, 'I am a Christian, and have been for many years.' We used to hear him sing, when he was riding over the field looking at the cane, one hymn he used to like. It was this:

" 'When my heart first believed,
What a joy I received,
What a heaven in Jesus's name!'

"I knowed that hymn, and it used to do me good to hear him sing Aunt Jane's hymns. He married a woman in Georgia; and he had lived there so long till he almost forgot how to speak French. Old marster did not like 'Merican people. Old mistress used to have balls on Sunday. She had me and her cook fixing all day Sunday for the ball on Sunday night sometimes. Mistress's religion did not make her happy like my religion did. I was a poor slave, and every body knowed I had religion, for it was Jesus with me every-where I went. I could never hear her talk about that heavenly journey."

CHAPTER VI.
A KIND MISTRESS.

Death of Aunt Charlotte's mistress--Second marriage of Aunt Charlotte's master--George, one of Aunt Charlotte's fellow-servants, beaten nearly to death and one eye put out for being overheard talking about freedom.

"MY mistress took sick with fever, and we all did not think she was bad off. We knowed she had been used to being sick now and then, but would soon be up. But she never left her bed alive. They sent for the priest just before she died. He greased her with something, I believe, and they say she took the sacrament from the priest that day. But I am afraid she is lost. She died just like she lived. Mistress did not live right, and she did not die right. The old saying, 'Just as the tree falls, just so it lies.' So many times I used to want to talk to her about her religion; but she seemed to know every thing, and I was a poor creature that knowed nothing but how to work for marster in the cane-field. Marster

had mass for mistress, I don't know how many times; but what good did it do her soul?"

"None whatever, Aunt Charlotte; we must make our peace with God before we leave the world. This world is our dressing-room, and if we are not dressed up and prepared to meet God when we die we can never enter the promised land; for there is no preparation beyond the grave. The Bible tells us, 'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.'"

"Yes," said Aunt Charlotte; "I have heard Aunt Jane say she used to hear the preacher in Virginia preach that very text. She used to say, 'The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life.'"

"Why, Aunt Charlotte, she was equal to a preacher; she was certainly above the average of colored women."

"Yes, my child, she was raised in Virginia, and she learned how to read before she came out here."

"Aunt Charlotte, at the death of your mistress did you all get on any better with your master?"

"No, my child; old marster always ruled that place. He went to Georgia and married a lady,

and we all was mighty glad he married a 'Merican woman, because we thought we would be allowed to go to church. But, la, my child! she did not believe in Catholic religion, but old marster ruled her and she could not do what she wanted. It would do your soul good to hear her sing the hymns when she came to our place. Sometimes on Sunday mornings she would go out in the flower-garden, and we would hear her singing,

" 'Happy day, happy day,
When Jesus washed my sins away.'

"They did not live good together. I always believed he was sorry he married her, for she was not Catholic. I used to see her crying when he would leave her and go off. He was rich, but that did not make his last wife happy. She was a pretty young woman, but she soon began to look old after she came to our place. She would let us have our little meetings, but he would not allow her to have any thing to do with us. I liked old marster's last wife. She used to come in the kitchen on Sundays and talk about religion. She wanted to go to 'Merican church, but it was so far away she

could not go often. It was about twenty miles away from our place. Sometimes, though, she went. I remember she told me that the minister took for his text one Sunday morning, 'Rest for the people of God.' I said to mistress, 'La! how I wish I could heard that preached!' She said to me, 'Yes, Charlotte, it would do your soul good to hear that minister preach.' I knowed mistress could not let me go to church. Marster didn't like 'Merican or Protestant religion, and he didn't want none of us to go. I just tell you, my child, Catholic religion and 'Merican religion can't go together. A woman does mighty bad business marrying a Catholic man if she believes in 'Merican religion. They don't live peaceful together. We never had any more dancing on Sunday nor Monday after marster married that 'Merican woman. Sometimes marster's kinfolks would come to see his last wife on Sunday evening, but they did not have any pleasure together. You know oil and water wont mix, and just so with the Catholic and 'Merican religions. They believe our religion is nothing."

"If the Catholics could feel that spark of heavenly love that pervades the soul of every

true converted child of God, Aunt Charlotte, they would never doubt the American religion."

"I believe so, my child. When the Yankees came I left the plantation, and I don't know what become of mistress after I left her; but I think of her now, and would be so glad to see her. If she is dead I believe she is at rest, for she used to talk about that Christian journey so much."

"Yes, Aunt Charlotte, I knew of white women who were truly converted here in the South, and who took pleasure in teaching the colored people the Scriptures. I knew, in the State of Georgia, white families who would compel their slaves to attend church on Sundays and would not allow them to work on that day. If they did not attend church they would go out in the colored people's cabins and read the Bible to them very often on Sundays and explain it to them. I don't mean to say that the whites did this as a general thing, but many of them did."

"But how could they have good religion and keep us poor darkies in bondage and beat us half to death?"

"Well, Aunt Charlotte, I am hardly able to answer you satisfactorily, I must confess, for when I pause and think over the hard punishments of the slaves by the whites, many of whom professed to be Christians, I am filled with amazement. Religion fills our souls with love for God and humanity. The Bible, moreover, says, 'We know we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.' And you know as a rule there were comparatively few colored people during the period of slavery, or even now, but what are members of some Christian denomination. So they were their brethren through Christ.

"Aunt Charlotte, did you slaves know what brought on this last war?"

"Yes, child; we heard people say the Yankees was fighting to free us. But, my child, it was death for us poor darkies to talk about freedom. We had a man on our place named George. Marster did not like him much, no how, and one day he overheard George talking about freedom; and, I tell you, he half killed him that day. He beat George a while, and then would make the driver beat him a while. They say they give George nine hundred lashes

and then made him wash all over in salt water. While he was whipping him he put out one of George's eyes. Poor George didn't have but one eye after that. But, let me tell you, it was not three months after that before marster bought a fine horse, and he used to drive him to his buggy all the time. Old marster loved that horse better than he loved his wife, I think. One morning he was driving out, and the horse got scared at something and run away, broke the buggy all to pieces, throwed marster flat on the around and broke his leg. Old marster never did walk without a crutch after that. I tell you I was sorry for marster, for he suffered so much when he was down in the bed from his broken leg. But I thought no good would ever come of him when he put out George's eye."

"Yes," said I, "we read in the Bible that 'fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.'"

CHAPTER VII.
BROKEN-DOWN FREEDMEN.

Aunt Charlotte splitting rails--In Sunday-school--Joe Sims, a runaway, sleeping in the woods with rattlesnakes--Eating out of trashboxes.

"AUNT CHARLOTTE, people who never knew any thing about slave-life in the South can hardly credit the reports that have been circulated by those who have resided here. For it seems to me that the terrible treatment the slaves received from the hands of their masters was more than any human being could bear."

"But, my child, every word is true. I can't tell you half what my two eyes have seen since I have been in Louisiana. The white folks did not take the niggers for nothing more than brutes. They would take more time with fine horses, and put them up to rest. We poor darkies were never allowed to rest. I have split rails many and many a day, and sometimes my back would almost break when I'd

have to roll logs, but I had to keep pulling along. When night came I could hardly drag one foot before the other. I'd go to my bed, and it would be wet where it leaked through the top of the house, and I'd just fall in it and would not know it was wet with water till next morning. I'd find leeches sticking to my legs, and blood would be all on my feet. I'd get them in the woods cutting wood. I tell you, if you get a leech on you it will draw like a blister. When I came to my house at night I was too tired to eat. I went to bed a many time hungry--was too broke down to cook my supper after working all the day hard."

"Why, I can't see what kept you alive, Aunt Charlotte, till now!"

"The dear Lord and Saviour kept me alive, and he is still taking care of me. Ever since I came to town I never miss going to church; and the other Sunday morning I went into the Sunday-school before church began, and I heard the children sing something like this:

" 'All the way my Saviour leads me.'
And when them children sang that it filled my eyes with tears, for I just thought how

good the Lord had been to me. He had brought me through so much hardship, and I said, 'Here I am, Lord, blest to sit down and hear singing and preaching.' It was the first time I had ever heard that hymn, and I thought it was so sweet to my soul."

"Yes," I said, "it's one of my favorite hymns."

"Wont you get your book and read it for me if you please?"

"Here it is:

"O, bless the Lord for the chance of hearing those words! They suit my case. I want to sing that very hymn in glory. Yes, 'Jesus led me all the way.' Sometimes I don't know where I'll get a piece of bread when I get up in the morning, but still I'm living and praising God. We poor old colored people were turned off the plantations without any thing in this world to go on--turned out like sheep in the woods. Mrs. B-- promised me last week if I'd come around and wash dishes for her every day she would give me the scraps she had left always at meals. I thank the Lord for that much. I don't need much in this world, no how--just enough to keep soul and body together. I know I can't stay here much longer, I don't want nothing in this world. If I can just get a little coffee every morning and a piece of bread I am satisfied."

"Aunt Charlotte, you can't always get a little coffee and bread?"

"No, child."

"Why, it seems you could get enough to do

among the different families here in this town."

"No, bless your soul; the most of the white people don't want me--they say I am too old. I can't see how to work, and what I could do they wont let me."

"Aunt Charlotte, I see a great many old, feeble-looking men and women around in this place."

"Yes, many of them just like me--nobody to help them, and they are too old to do work, and just go wandering about picking up any thing they can get. Poor old Brother Joe Sims picks up, one half of his time, scraps out of the trash-boxes. He picks up rags for a living, and I have seen him eating out of the box of trash sometimes. Brother Joe is a member of our church; he never misses to come to church on Sundays. He came from Virginia too. He used to tell me how he stayed in the woods after he was sold out here. He said once his marster got after him to whip him and he would not let him do it. He said he run away in the woods for a long time. Brother Joe said he had a bed made of moss and limbs of trees in the woods. He said

every day he would go off and get something to eat wherever he could, and then go back to his moss bed at night. You ought to hear him tell about the rattlesnakes that used to keep him company in the woods. He said the snakes got so used to him that they stayed under his moss bed at night. Sometimes he could hear them turning over under him. The snakes would go off in the day and come back at night. He could kill them if he wanted to, but he was glad to have them for company.

"You see, my child, God will take care of his people," said Aunt Charlotte. "He will hear us when we cry. True, we can't get any thing to eat sometimes, but trials make us pray more. I just tell you, I don't sleep all night no night. I can't; for the Spirit of God wakes me up between midnight and day, and I just gets right down on my knees and tells my Father all about my trials here below. We all are free, but we can't stop praying; we must keep on; we aint out of Egypt yet. We have been let loose, and now we are just marching on to a better land."

"Aunt Charlotte, it really makes me feel

happy to hear you express your faith in the goodness of God. He has wrought wonderful works for the colored people here. He has raised up friends all through the North for them. Never was education so cheap as now. School-houses are being built all through the South for them. The money is being given by philanthropic Christians to educate the colored children. Education and morality will lift the colored people up out of the degradation in which they have been kept so long by their educated white Christian brethren."

"But, my child, so few of the children can go to school about here. We have school six months in this town, and you can see the children coming for a little while, and then they have to leave to go to work in the cane-field. All are poor, and they have to work to get something to eat. The children learn to read a little, and after that they leave school. I know a few go off to New Orleans sometimes to school, but only two or three. O, I wish the good times had come when I was young!"

CHAPTER VIII.
THE CURSE OF WHISKY.

The Methodist Episcopal Church--The colored people and whisky-drinking-- When the Yankees came to Louisiana--The end of Aunt Charlotte's story.

"AUNT CHARLOTTE, which church are you a member of here?"

"I am a member of the Methodist Church. Our minister said the other Sunday the Methodist Church divided on account of slavery many years ago, and that the old mother-Church never failed to crush out slavery at every turn. It seems to me every Christian that honors God in the pardoning of their sins ought to agree to every thing that is holy and good. How could any Christian man believe it was right to sell and buy us poor colored people just like we was sheep? I tell you, I have seen black people, in slave-time, drove along--may be one hundred in a drove--just like hogs to be sold. Sometimes men were sold from their wives and mothers from their

children. I saw a white man in Virginia sell his own child he had by a colored woman there. They say a 'Merican man never would take care of his children he would have in slave-time by the black women, as a Frenchman would here in Louisiana. Old marster used to say niggers did not have a soul, and I reckon all the white folks thought so too."

"Aunt Charlotte, education and religion taught them better."

"Yes, child; for when I first got religion I did not want to hurt an ant. Every thing was love, joy, and peace with me. I sometimes think my people don't pray like they used to in slavery. You know when any child of God gets trouble that's the time to try their faith. Since freedom it seems my people don't trust in the Lord as they used to. 'Sin is growing bold, and religion is growing cold.' That's what our minister says sometimes."

"Aunt Charlotte, I am told that the colored people are suffering more from the habit of indulging in strong drink than any thing else here in the South."

"Yes, my dear child; in the time of slavery

one hardly knew what whisky was in some places; but since freedom we see men and women drunk. About a year ago I went out to a plantation near this town and I saw two hundred liquor-barrels emptied and laying around on the place. All the planters keep whisky for the laborers, and they spend more money for drink than they do for any thing else. They don't get much for their work, no way, and I can't see how the hired men can drink so much whisky."

"Aunt Charlotte, how much are the men paid per day?"

"They get only fifty and sixty cents a day. Some of the men have a wife and four or five children to take care of. They have their wife to help them, but, la, me! the wife's help is next to nothing in the field. The women can't get as much as the men, no way, although they go out and work hard all day long and keep up with the men too."

"I can't see, Aunt Charlotte, how any man who has four or five children can afford to drink when he makes only fifty and sixty cents per day!"

"Well, I tell you how they do. They always

have an account open in the plantation store, and they allow them to get any thing they want from the store. If they come out in debt at the end of the year they work on the next year and pay it. Sometimes they find at the end of the year they owe the planter fifty dollars for whisky. Why, my dear child, I know children on some of them plantations ten years old never had a pair of shoes to keep their feet off the cold, frosty ground since they were born."

"Yes, I am induced to believe, Aunt Charlotte, that whisky is causing more suffering among the colored people than slavery, or as much, any way. The temperance society that has been lately organized in this town is destined to do much good among the colored people."

"Yes; the preacher holds temperance meeting every Sunday evening now in our church after preaching. It would do your heart good to hear our sisters make little temperance speeches after preaching on Sunday evenings. We had a sister named Ellen, and her husband was named Jack. Sister Ellen couldn't read, but she would make her speech whenever her

time came around on Sunday evening. She said, 'Brothers and sisters, I don't know much and can't say much, but let me tell you all, since Jack got in this little society the preacher started here he is changed all over. Why, Jack used to sleep in the gutters of water one half of his time at night. I used to have to pick Jack up almost every night and carry him home. He's got religion too. Jack is a good man. He did not care any thing for his children, and I could not get a cup of coffee one half of my time when he drank gin; but now I get coffee, sugar, and shoes, and he takes care of his children too. Now,' she said, 'come up, all you men sitting over yonder, come and join this little society.' We all would laugh at Sister Ellen, for she seemed so earnest in her talk. She would shake her fist and knock on the railing around the altar whenever she got up to speak. She did not mind us laughing, though; she went right on. One time after she got through speaking about ten men and women came up and joined the 'little society.'"

"Aunt Charlotte, it is a great pity, and, indeed, a great sin, for the planters to keep

whisky on their plantations for their laborers. It's a temptation set before them."

"Yes; I always thought so too; but the planters don't care just so they get them to do the work good. They don't get too drunk to work through the week; but on Sundays they lay about almost dead drunk on some plantations. I tell you, I am afraid whisky will ruin my people yet."

"I trust not, Aunt Charlotte. There is a great temperance movement going on throughout this country, and we are destined to see good results from it. We hope to have a law to prevent the sale of any intoxicating drinks. It may be many years, but I believe we shall have it."

"I trust in the Lord to bring it to pass. Our people suffer more than any body, for we were turned loose without any thing, and we got no time to waste. We must get education, and, above all things in this world, get religion, and then we will be ladies and gentlemen."

"Yes; I believe religion and education will lift them upon a level with any other of the civilized races on earth. It's true we see so

much prejudice manifested almost every-where we go; but we must wait on the Lord. He has promised to carry us through."

Aunt Charlotte said: "It makes me so glad to see my people going to school. Never did I think to see these good times! White people would not let us learn the book in slave-time. I used to want to learn when I was young, but they would not even let us have a book to study in. La, child! when the Yankees came out here our eyes began to open, and we have been climbing ever since. Whenever I see a Yankee it makes me mighty glad, for I just feel that God sent them down here to set us free. When the war was going on I heard they was fighting for us. I tell you, when it was going on I did not cease to pray. We done the praying and the Yankees done the fighting, and God heard our prayers 'way down here in these cane-fields. Many times I have bowed down between the cane-rows, when the cane was high, so nobody could see me, and would pray in the time of the war! I used to say, 'O, my blessed Lord, be pleased to hear my cry; set me free, O my Lord, and I will serve you the balance of my days.' I

knowed God had promised to hear his children when they cry, and he heard us way down here in Egypt."

Thus ends the story of Aunt Charlotte's life in the cane-fields of Louisiana. But the half cannot be told.

CHAPTER IX.
JOHN AND LORENDO.

Work to be done--John Goodwin and Lorendo, his wife--Uncle John's little brother washed away by the rain.

IF missionary preachers and teachers are needed in the heart of Africa they are needed in this Southland too, among these millions of lately emancipated souls. It is true we find in the cities and towns that the colored people have schools of some sort; but, leave the railroads twenty or thirty miles, and we behold the heathen at our doors. They are reared up in superstition, the same as before the war, in a great many places. They need well-educated ministers, for the blind cannot lead the blind. I am glad, however, to note that the Methodists, the Baptists, the Congregationalists, and the other denominations are doing very much toward the education of colored men for the Christian ministry. May God, who guided Israel, continue to direct the hearts of the philanthropic Christians every-where to

turn a listening ear to the sad cry of these needy souls whom Christ died to save.

"Whatsoever thing thou doest
To the least of mine and lowest,
That thou doest unto me."

It is, indeed, a mystery to those who have witnessed the cruelty of the whites in the South toward the poor, ignorant, innocent, degraded, and helpless people whom God, in his own good time, has liberated. Here, with an open Bible, a Christian land of prosperity for the Caucasian; but, alas! what for the negro? O, bishops and ministers of every Christian denomination in this Southland, how can you, as heralds of Jesus, sit quietly by and see the needs of seven millions or more of human souls crying in the valley of sin and sorrow and not give a listening ear to them? Go out into the highways and hedges and tell them of Jesus, mighty to save. Do you preach that Jesus tasted death for every man? How strange that here in the South the Methodist Church and the Baptist Church seem ready and willing to send missionaries to other countries, and are not willing to extend a helping hand to these needy souls who have served

them so long and faithfully! Behold your "brethren in black" at your doors; arise and let them in. And the least you do for Jesus will be precious in his sight.

During my stay in the town of --, where I met Charlotte Brooks, I met another slave who had formerly lived in the State of Georgia. He was a cooper by trade, and had a wife and three children. John Goodwin was his name. Here in the South it is considered by the black people a mark of respect to address the older men and women as "uncle" and "aunt;" and, as Mr. Goodwin was aged and gray, I, too, soon learned to address him as "Uncle John." So one day, as he passed by, I called to him and said:

"Uncle John, Aunt Charlotte tells me that you formerly lived in the State of Georgia. I came from there when I was young, and am therefore very glad to meet you. Wont you come around to see me some time and have a good talk about our native home?"

He said: "Yes, ma'am; I'd be mighty glad to come 'round and have a good long talk about my old home. It makes me glad to see any body from Georgia. I came out here to

Louisiana long before the war begun. When my old marster died all his property was divided among his children, and my marster's oldest daughter drawed me, and she married and moved here to Louisiana."

Uncle John then bowed his head and said, "Good-morning, ma'am."

He promised that he would come in a few days and bring his wife, Lorendo, with him. Sure enough, in a few days in comes Uncle John and his wife. As he entered he said:

"Here's my wife, Mrs. A. She is a Creole woman; her name is Lorendo. I left my other wife in Georgia when the white folks brought me out here."

What a great pity that husbands and wives should thus have been separated!

"That's the cry all over the South, Uncle John," I said.

"Yes, ma'am; I thought when I left wife and children in Georgia it would break my heart; but, bless the Lord, I'm still on pleading terms of mercy."

I said, "Did you find by moving to this State you fared any better?"

"No , ma'am ; the white folks were bad

every-where. The only difference I found out here is the white people did not regard the Sabbath day. Why, ma'am, they would make the darkies work all day Sunday sometimes when they was pushed up with the grass in the cane."

"Yes, I've learned they desecrated the Sabbath to a fearful extent; and even now, Uncle John, we see almost ever body selling and buying on Sunday. I presume it is a habit that they have indulged so long that they hardly know how to discontinue it. Even among the Protestant churches we find many who disregard the Sabbath in this State."

Aunt Lorendo said: "Why, ma'am, I never knowed nothing else but buying and selling all my life on Sunday. I was born right here in Louisiana, and the priest and every body else always got whatever they wanted on Sunday. I did not know it was wrong."

I asked Uncle John if he knew Aunt Charlotte Brooks.

He said: "Yes, ma am; I been knowing Sister Charlotte for a long time. She is a good member of our church here. She suffers with rheumatism mighty bad."

"Yes, Uncle John; I've learned to love her since my stay here. She has spent many hours with me telling of her slave-life in this State. I don't think there are many women who have gone through the hardship that she has and endured it. She must have had an extraordinary constitution."

"Why, ma'am, Sister Charlotte just suffered like the most of us did. Sometimes you could find white people who treated we poor slaves right good; but it was not often. Why, in my young days I used to pick cotton all day and half of the night. My marster used to set a tree on fire for us to see how to pick cotton. I have picked as much as three and four hundred pounds of cotton in one day a many a time. I tell you, my old marster used to work us half to death trying to get rich."

In many portions of the State of Georgia there are high and rugged hills. Here we find low and marshy land, and it is therefore very unhealthy for weak and feeble persons, especially those who suffer with any throat or lung troubles. Uncle John related many thrilling accounts of his slave-life in the State of Georgia. He had a baby brother named Jim, and

his mother, having to work in the field every day, was compelled to leave her children. It was a very common habit, in some portions of the State, to build the cabins upon the high hills with earth floors; and Uncle John's mother always left the baby in the cradle, during the day, all alone. So one day she was in the field plowing, and a heavy rain-storm came up, and she hastened to her cabin as soon as she could; for she knew her dear little babe was there, only two years of age, and no one with it, and it poured down through the cabin, and also washed through it, like a branch of water.

Uncle John said: "I tell you, when my mammy got to her cabin she saw where little Jim had been in the cradle; but he was out and gone, she did not know where. Mammy saw where the rain had washed clear through her house, and she said she knowed the branch was not far from the house, and big gutters all the way between her house and the creek; so she went down toward the creek as fast as she could, and there she found little Jim being rolled over and over by the rain. Mammy said Jim was almost to the creek when she

took him up. My mammy cried a while and she prayed a while when she found her child that day."

Uncle John declared that the little baby boy who was picked up almost one fourth of a mile from her cabin that stormy day is now living in the State of Alabama. He is a local preacher there.

"My mammy had to work hard all day long with all the balance of the men. She was a mighty smart woman," said Uncle John. "After working all day in the cotton-field she would come home and work half of the night for herself and children. She used to wash, patch, spin, and cook for the next day to carry out in the field."

CHAPTER X.
A CONVERTED CATHOLIC.

Going to church on Sunday in Georgia--III-treatment of Uncle John's daughter--Aunt Lorendo's second visit--Her conversion from Romanism--Her Cousin Albert to be hung--Hattie runs away to the woods and gives birth to a child there.

I ASKED Uncle John if he did not find it hard, after moving to Louisiana, that he could not attend church as he used to in Georgia.

"Yes, madam; I missed the good preaching I used to hear in Georgia. We all walked a many a time ten and twelve miles to go to church there on Sunday. My mammy used to cook on Saturday for us all to carry with us on Sunday; and we all would get up before day on Sunday morning and start off to church. I tell you, we would walk a while and rest a while under the shade of the trees on the road-side. Sometimes we would get to the church before ten o'clock. They always

begun preaching at eleven o'clock, and we'd be afraid we would not get there in time. My wife in Georgia was named Nancy; she got religion while the minister was preaching. I had religion before my wife did. Nancy had been praying for a long time. She used to go away off in the woods to pray. I went in the woods many times to pray; I thought I could pray better in the swamp."

Uncle John said: "I remember until this day the text that minister took that Sunday when Nancy got religion. It was, 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock.' I tell you, ma'am, Nancy shouted, and was so happy we could hardly get her home that evening. She shouted all along the road as we walked. We all got happy on our way back that night, and I do believe it was ten o'clock before we reached home. Nancy cried out in church when she was converted, and said, 'Glory be to God and the Lamb forever! I am washed clean by the blood of Jesus.'"

Uncle John said: "Poor Nancy! I reckon she is dead now. She was our white folks' cook. We had a little girl ten years old; she waited in the house. They would blindfold

her and beat my poor child half to death. I tell you, my heart would bleed sometimes when I'd see how my child was treated. I could do nothing for my wife and children. I was not allowed to open my mouth."

Uncle John could hardly suppress the tears from his eyes while relating the sad condition of his wife and the inhuman abuse of his daughter when he left them in Georgia, although it had been many years. He said, "O, if I could only see my children once more!"

He left me that evening with the promise that he would come to see me again, and that he would have his wife visit me too. Aunt Lorendo said, "I know where you live now, and will stop to see you sometimes when I pass." I told her I thanked her, and that I should be pleased to have her stop at any time. I said, "It affords me real pleasure to have yourself and husband relate your trials and sorrows that you both had to endure so long."

It was not long before Aunt Lorendo called again. As she entered the door I said: "Good morning, Aunt Lorendo; how are you feeling?"

"I am pretty well," she said.

I asked, "How is Uncle John?"

"O, he is well as might be expected for an old man. You know he passed through so much hardship in slavery, he will never feel well till he gets home. He caught so much cold and is so painful he can't hardly rest at night. But," she added, "I trust we both will rest by and by."

"Yes, Aunt Lorendo, the Bible promises that there is 'rest for the people of God.' And it affords us joy to know that although we have trials and tribulations here we who prove faithful till death shall enter that 'rest prepared for the people of God.'"

"Yes, ma'am; I used to be Catholic, but I never knowed how good the 'Merican religion was till I married John. He was a member of the 'Merican church, and he got me to go with him on Sundays to his church; and the more I went the more I liked it. I made my first communion when I was fifteen years old in the Catholic Church, and I was a Catholic for a long time. I tell you, I used to think no other religion was good like mine. I made fun of the 'Merican religion; but now, ever since I been changed, I feel like I been new born. I tell you that 'Merican religion makes any body

feel happy all over; it runs all through you, down from your head to the very soles of your feet! But Catholic religion is all doings and no feeling in the heart."

"Aunt Lorendo, when you were a Catholic did you always confess every thing to the priest?"

"Yes, ma'am; I'd tell the priest every thing I did wicked. But, I tell you, one time I had a cousin that told the priest he wanted to get free, and asked him to pray to God to set him free, and, bless your soul, ma'am, the priest was about to have my cousin hung. The priest told my cousin's marster about it, and they was talking strong about hanging my cousin. They had my cousin up and made him tell who had told him any thing about freedom. But the priest managed some way to save my poor cousin. Madam, I tell you, from that day on I could not follow my Catholic religion like I had. You know the Catholics always tell the priest ever thing; they talk to him like a father; and so it was with my cousin. He would tell the priest every thing. He never thought he would tell on him."

"Why, Aunt Lorendo, don't you know the

Catholics were bitterly opposed to the emancipation of the slaves? Why, the pope was the only power in the world that recognized the Confederacy. They assisted powerfully in carrying on the civil war. It is strange, however, that we find that here in the South among the Catholic churches we don't see the caste prejudice so clearly manifested among all the other denominations; nevertheless, they believe God has made the black man to serve the white man.

"Aunt Lorendo, Aunt Charlotte has spent many hours with me telling of her slave-life here in Louisiana, and as you were born and reared here perhaps the revelation of your experiences will be as thrilling as hers. I must say that she has caused tears to flow from my eyes many a day while relating her hardships."

"Yes," replied Aunt Lorendo; "we come through so much hardship sometimes I wonder why we poor darkies did not all die out in slave-time. They used to run away in the woods and stay till all the clothes was off their backs. Why, ma'am, I know one time, right in my neighborhood, one woman--her mistress always had the overseer beating her--her

name was Hattie--she used to run away and live in the woods for three and four weeks at a time. I remember I was out in the field hoeing cane in slave-time, and as I was getting toward the end of my row of cane I heard somebody over the fence in the woods calling me, and at first I did not know what to do; but as I looked up through the fence I saw it was Hattie. Madam, if you believe me, Hattie was almost naked that day! She asked me to give her something to eat; and I did give her all I had in my bucket. Hattie said, 'Lorendo, I had my child here in the woods; it is dead and I buried it in a piece of my frockshirt.' I said, 'La! Hattie, how in the world did you do by yourself?' She said, 'I don't know, Lorendo. All I can tell, God took care of me in these woods. O,' she said, 'I have so many trials with my mistress. I try to satisfy her, but nothing I do pleases her. I left my home, I reckon, two months. I tore all my clothes off of me. See! I am almost naked.' I said, 'Hattie, why did you run away?' 'Because, Lorendo,' she said, 'old mistress came up to me one morning and went to beating me with a big iron key all over my head,

and I tell you, she almost give me a fit. I give her one hard slap and left her. I knowed marster would almost kill me, and I left for the woods before he came home.'"

I asked Aunt Lorendo if Hattie had a husband; she said no, that Hattie had two children by her master's son, and she reckoned the one Hattie had given birth to in the woods was by his son too. Hattie wanted to get married to one of the men on the place, but the master would not let her, because he wanted her for his son.

"Well, Aunt Lorendo, what finally became of Hattie?"

"O, bless you, the patrollers at last caught her with the nigger-hounds one day when we was all coming out in the field, and we met poor Hattie. They had caught her that morning. Madam, I remember just like it was yesterday. There was six white men and ten hounds. All the white men was on horses, and poor Hattie was in front barefooted, the dogs behind her. Hattie was almost naked that morning; blood was all on her feet as she was walking along. I saw all of it with my own two eyes. O, how sorry I felt for poor

Hattie! I heard when they got her home her marster put her in stocks every night and would beat her every morning. Hattie at last died from punishment, I believe."

Now, my readers, these are not imaginary thoughts, but they were actually related to me. While I pen these lines I can hardly suppress the tears when I picture to my mind a poor woman marching before six men, six horses, and ten blood-hounds with blood oozing from her feet. There were none to care for her or give a friendly word in her behalf. Poor creature, she had given birth to a child in the woods, being compelled to wander about like a wild beast in the forest on account of the inhuman treatment of the white man in this Bible land of ours! Just you imagine the poor creature, a precious soul in the sight of God, no doubt, this temple of the living God, being driven by blood-hounds, bruised and mangled as she marched before them. And with all that she was carried home and put in stocks at night and beaten every morning. On being asked how she got on in the woods without any human help she said, "I don't know; all I can tell you, God took care of me."

Dear Christian reader, can we doubt the presence of God with her? Did he not say, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end?" He has promised to guide us safely home if we will only follow him. Surely "He is a Rock in a weary land!" Glory be to God for all of his precious promises. Hattie could have cried out:

Aunt Lorendo's visits proved a source of much pleasure, as did Aunt Charlotte's many welcome visits.

CHAPTER XI.
PRISON HORRORS.

Uncle John taking lessons--Andersonville horrors--Blood-hounds-- Silas bitten by blood-hounds and eaten by buzzards.

UNCLE JOHN always made it a habit to stop in on Saturday evenings. He was a steward of his church, and as he could not read very well he said he had made up his mind to study and try to learn more. He wanted to learn to read the Bible and hymn-book, anyhow, he said. He had to lead prayer-meeting in his church very often, and he said it would do him so much good if he could only read his Bible and hymn-book; so he employed me to teach him. I must confess Uncle John was pretty hard to teach. His mind was blunted, no doubt, and, having to work hard every day, and old and feeble as he was, I did not expect much of him. He decided that the first thing I must do was to read a chapter in the Bible, and also to read

a hymn, saying he wanted to get them "by heart." His favorite hymns were: "Show pity, Lord," "How firm a foundation," "Must I be to judgment brought?" and "Try us, O God."

He would say: "La, Mrs. A., if I only had these good times in my young days! But I tell you, ma'am, I am glad I'm blest to see freedom! How many of my poor people died in slave-time and never knowed nothing but hard work all their life-time! I know," he said, "my poor Nancy is dead, and buried somewhere in Georgia. She worked hard all of her life-time, for the white folks never knowed what rest was. Sometimes I dream of all of my people I left in Georgia. It seems I can see my mammy in my sleep, and she comes right up beside my bed and talks with me sometimes. I know she is in heaven, for she used to be always talking about heaven when I was with her."

I said: "It would afford you so much joy to see your children once more; I reckon they are still living."

He said: "Yes, ma'am; I reckon if they is still living they is all married; but the white folks was so bad in slave-time I expect they all

is dead. They used to run black people down with nigger-hounds, and would let the dogs bite them all over."

"Yes, Uncle John; your wife spent several hours not long ago telling of a poor woman that lived there near her plantation who was caught by the dogs, and she said the last she saw of the woman she was bleeding from dog-bites."

"Yes, ma'am; the white folks was bad here in Louisiana, but I think they was worse in Georgia for blood-hounds."

"Why, Uncle John," I said, "it looks as if allowing the dogs to bite them would bring on hydrophobia, and thereby cause a great many deaths among the slaves?"

"Yes; they did die often; but I always thought they died from being worked to death. Why, ma'am, I have seen poor colored men bleeding and dying from dog-bites. Once right in Georgia I saw a man where he crawled 'way off from his plantation and died under a shade-tree. Madam, that poor man had iron around his feet when we found him, and the buzzards had almost eaten his body up. I knowed the poor man; his name was Silas.

He had run away and was caught by the dogs one morning, and his marster came up to him while he was fighting with the dogs, and Silas give one dog a blow and almost killed him. The hound was one of the best ones his marster had. Madam, Silas's marster got off of his horse right there where they caught him and beat Silas with his pistol all over for nothing because he would not let the dog bite him. He made the dogs bite Silas all over his body. The dogs bit him under the throat. When he got Silas home he put him in irons, but Silas could not walk. Silas was almost dead when his marster put the irons on him."

Uncle John said: "Poor Silas! I will never forget how I went out one Sunday morning and found him laying dead under that big oak-tree. He had a wife and six or seven children. He lived on one of the plantations in Georgia. We used to go to church on Sundays together. O, how he used to love that hymn, 'How firm a foundation!' He knowed every word of it by heart," said Uncle John. "We used to hear the white people sing it at church."

I asked Uncle John if Silas's master allowed him to attend church, and he said:

"Why, yes, ma'am; he used to let his slaves go to church on Sunday, and he went too; but that did not keep our white people from beating us through the week. They took sacrament in the morning, and we colored people took it in the evening."

"You were never allowed to take the sacrament with your masters?"

"No, ma'am; we been always separated here, and I reckon when we get up yonder in glory they will want to be separated," said Uncle John.

"No; there is no separation in glory. We read in the third chapter of Galatians, twenty-sixth to twenty-eighth verses: 'For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.' Thus you see and hear what the Bible says: 'We are all one.'

"Well," said Uncle John, "how in the world could the whites know the word of God, and so many used to seem to have religion, and yet treat us poor people just like the brutes?"

"I fear that a very few slave-holders had religion, Uncle John. If they had any at all it was not the Bible religion. Nevertheless, I do say there were some good white people who did not brutalize their slaves. But I regret to say that there were very few. They would punish them in many ways. If they did not kill them outright they killed them by brutalizing them. And we know that no murderers can enter that 'rest' prepared for the people of God unless they repent."

"They used to go to church," said Uncle John, "in Georgia, and I have seen them happy, too; but, madam, they would come right back from church and beat us all the week and make us work ourselves nearly to death."

"Uncle John, that was inconsistent with the teaching of the Bible. The Spirit of God is love, peace, joy, and contentment."

"Madam, I have talked so long this evening

I will not say my lessons; but will you please read that hymn I love so much?"

"'How firm a foundation,' Uncle John?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Here it is:

Uncle John said: "O, bless the Lord! how often I heard that hymn sung in Georgia! Silas, poor man, did love it too. Madam, I do believe the angels came for Silas that day he crawled out under that big oak-tree and died there. You remember I told you we lived 'joining plantations, and many times I used to see him on his knees praying and praising God at twelve o'clock in the cotton-field. O, yes; I expect to meet Silas high up in glory!"

"Uncle John, I've often heard and read of Andersonville, Georgia, where so many Union soldiers were imprisoned during the war. I've been informed that blood-hounds were kept to chase the prisoners who escaped the stockade."

"Yes, madam; I know a man near this place now that came from Georgia about four years ago, and he lived somewhere near Andersonville in the time of the war. Madam, that man would make you cry if you could hear him tell how the white people used to make the blood-hounds chase the Yankees at that stockade in Andersonville, Georgia. He told me they had blood-hounds all around Andersonville."

"Uncle John, what is the man's name?"

"He is named Samson Jones. Madam, Samson said they had a big dog-kennel where they kept the dogs to chase the Yankees. They run them all through the woods whenever one escaped from the stockade. He told me he had seen many Yankees bitten almost to death by the blood-hounds. He said they used to get out of the stockade and run just like we poor darkies did, with the dogs right behind them. He said the Yankees died like flies in prison, and that he was one of the colored men that helped to bury them there."

"Brother Samson is from Georgia, and he knows all about the Andersonville stockade. So I suppose that his account of the stockade is certainly true?"

"Yes, madam, I believe he is reliable. He told me the wagons used to run night and day burying the prisoners in the warm season. I tell you, madam, Samson could talk all day to you about what he has seen in that stockade at Andersonville, Georgia. He told me thousands of Yankees were walled up in the stockade made of pine-trees, and they had no shed over them. The hot sun used to almost

parch them. The rain would pour down on them, and they were shut up like cows in a pasture."

"I've said already, Uncle John, I've read of the horrors of Andersonville; but how strange that these things should be in the State of Georgia, where religion abounds, and where the Gospel was preached Sunday after Sunday, within hearing, perhaps, of the stockade, and that thousands of human souls should receive such brutal treatment!"

They were reduced to a level with the brutes, the barren earth for a floor and the sky their only covering overhead! Samson said the white women used to visit the stockade. They had a platform made so they could walk out and look over the stockade down on the prisoners; and one time a white woman said, when she was looking over at them, "I wish God would rain fire and brimstone down on your heads." Samson said he heard her say it to the Yankees. There they were, dumb and helpless, some dead, some dying, and others almost starved to death. And a Christian woman, so called, cried out to them, "I wish God would rain fire and brimstone down

on your heads!" My Lord and my God, we prostrate ourselves before thee and cry, Where are we? In a Christian land? O, that bloody spot, Andersonville! Thy name shall never be erased from the annals of history. The thirteen thousand and seven hundred souls that are now sleeping beneath thy sod, and the hundreds of others that perished in the swamps that surround thee, will rise up in the judgment and condemn thee. Let us thank God and sing:

"Shout, for the foe is destroyed that inclosed thee,
The oppressor is vanquished, and Zion is free!"

Not only the bloody ground at Andersonville will condemn the Christians in these Southern States in the general judgment, but what must we say of the millions of poor, innocent slaves that have been murdered here in this Christian land for two hundred and fifty years! "Their blood be upon you and your children!" "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins."

CHAPTER XII.
SALLIE SMITH'S STORY.

Sallie Smith living in the woods--Death of her mother--The ill-treatment she suffered.

THE subject of this sketch is another faithful sister of Aunt Charlotte's church. She was born in the State of Louisiana, on Bayou Boeuf. As I had the pleasure of meeting her very often, and, seeing she manifested much interest and real devotion for her church, I became much attached to her. So once as she passed I asked her, if it was not unpleasant to her, if she would please spend a while with me and tell the story of her life as a slave.

She readily assented, saying: "Yes, my dear child. There aint a day but what I think how good my blessed Jesus has been to me and all of my people. O, sometimes I think of my old slave-days, and begin to cry for joy when I remember how good the Lord has been to me. Well do I remember when my poor mother died and left me and my little brother. She

called us as she was about to die, and said, 'My dear children. I am going to leave you. The angels is waiting for me. I am almost over. Promise me you will follow me.' I said, 'Mother, is you going to leave us?' and before she could answer she was dead. Madam, I cried night and day; it seemed my mother's death would nearly kill me. We was slaves, and had nobody to care any thing for us. We both had to work hard just like the others on the place. I was about fourteen, and my brother about one year old. The overseer got mad whenever he saw me cry. He told me to hush crying, and said, 'Your mother is dead and in hell, and could not come back here; and if you don't hush I'll beat you half to death.' He was a Catholic, and hated my mother's sort of religion. When he said my mother was in hell that made me cry more; and he beat me and kicked me all 'round in the field. I had to pick one hundred and fifty pounds of cotton every day or get a whipping at night."

"Were you always able to get one hundred and fifty pounds every day?"

"No, my child, I could not. Sometimes I'd pick it, but I could not get it every day.

One night I got up just before day and run away; and I tell you I stayed in the woods one half of my time. Sometimes I'd go so far off from the plantation I could not hear the cows low or the roosters crow."

"Where did you sleep at night, and how did you get something to eat?"

"I slept on logs. I had moss for a pillow; and I tell you, child, I wasn't scared of nothing. I could hear bears, wild-cats, panthers, and every thing. I would come across all kinds of snakes--moccasin, blue runner, and rattlesnakes--and got used to them. One night while I was in the woods a mighty storm came up; the winds blowed, the rain poured down, the hail fell, the trees was torn up by the roots, and broken limbs fell in every direction; but not a hair on my head was injured, but I got as wet as a drowned rat. Next day was a beautiful Sunday, and I dried myself like a buzzard."

"Aunt Sallie, you did not tell me how you got your meals."

"O, child, sometimes I did not get any; but many time I'd find out where the hands on the place were working, and if the overseer was

away I'd get something from them. They would bring me something, too, after they found out where I was, and I'd wait on the edge of the woods every day; and when they would come to hunt for me they called out in a low, piercing sound, 'Sallie, Sallie!' I'd come running, and sometimes I was nearly perished."

"Why, Aunt Sallie, it seems to me it was far better for you to have stayed at home than to wander about in the woods."

"No, I could not stay after my mother died. The overseer was mean to me. He beat me every day, and I had no kin on the plantation but my brother, and he could do nothing for me. I got used to staying in the woods, and felt satisfied there. I had a flint-rock and piece of steel, and I could begin a fire any time I wanted. Sometimes I'd get a chicken and would broil it on the coals and would bake ash-cake.

"I remember one night," said Aunt Sallie, "I went to the quarters and knocked at the door of one old lady that belonged to my marster, and she let me in. I asked her for something to eat, but she said, 'I aint got a piece of bread done, but if you want you can bake

you a corn-cake.' And bless your soul, child, just as I was about to cook my bread the overseer came in and caught me. La, me! I thought I'd faint when he came in the door."

"Well, what did he do with you?"

"He tied me with a rope by both arms and carried me to the smoke-house. When he got in he throwed the rope over the joist of the smoke-house and left me there all night. He just allowed my toes to touch the floor when he tied me up by my wrists. But, my child, the Lord was with me that night! I managed to get my wrists out of the rope and I sat up nodding in the smoke-house all that night. I was afraid to let him see me down, so just as he was about to unlock the door the next day I slipped my hands back in the rope. He thought I had been tied all night; but, bless the Lord! I was just like Paul and Silas when they were in jail. I cried to the Lord and he loosened the rope. Madam, although I did not have religion when I used to live in the woods, yet it seemed I could not keep from praying. I'd think of my mother, how, just before she died, she told me to 'come.' And that word always followed me. I used to lie out in the

woods on the logs, with moss under my head, and pray a many and many a night. I hardly knowed what to say or how to pray, but I remembered how I used to hear my mother praying, on her knees, in the morning before day, long before she died, and I just tried to say what she used to say in her prayers. I heard her say many a time, 'O, Daniel's God, look down from heaven on me, a poor, needy soul!' I would say, 'O, Daniel's God, look down from heaven on me in these woods!' Sometimes it seemed I could see my mother right by my side as I laid on the log asleep. One time I talked with her in my sleep. I asked her, 'Mother, are you well?' And it seemed I could hear her saying, as she beckoned to me, 'Come, O come; will you come?' And I did try to get up in my sleep and start to her, and I rolled off the log. By that time I woke up, and the sun was shining clear and bright and I was there to wander about in the woods?"

"You have not told me what he did with you when he took you out of the smoke-house that morning."

"Why, he had a big barrel he kept to roll us

in, with nails drove all through it, and he put me in it, and had a man to roll me all over the yard. Madam, I thought he was going to kill me. When the overseer had me taken out of that barrel I could hardly walk. I was sore and bruised all over. That night a poor old woman on our place greased me all over, and I got over with the bruises and went to work."

"Well, I suppose that was an end to your stay in the woods?"

"No, madam, I did not stay more than a month before I ran away again. I tell you, I could not stay there. I had got used to the woods, and the overseer was so brutal to me. The weather was beginning to turn cold, and I made me a moss bed just like a hog, and I kept warm at night. But many times I used to sleep in the chimney-corners on a plantation next to my marster's. I could hear the colored people inside the cabins pray and sing at night."

"Why, it seems you could have gone inside the cabins and stayed with them, Aunt Sallie?"

"Well, yes, I did go in often, but they finally told me I must stop coming. They said the overseer on their place would beat them to

death if he caught me in their cabins. So I stopped going inside. They did not know I was outside of the chimney. I heard them sing many times this hymn:

" 'In the morning when I rise,
In the morning when I rise,
In the morning when I rise,
Give me Jesus, give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus!
You may have all this world;
Give me Jesus!'"

CHAPTER XIII.
IN THE WOODS.

Aunt Sallie's cruel treatment, continued--Her brother Warren runs away and joins her in the woods.

"THE next time I ran away I met my brother, who had run away two or three weeks before the overseer caught me that night. He told me the overseer beat him so much he could not work. Because I ran away he said my brother knew where I was. My brother's name is Warren. Poor Warren! when he met me that morning he was scarred all over. The overseer told him he had to find me or he would almost skin him. So Warren left the place; but I hadn't seen him in two months, I reckon, till I met him that morning. We sat all day long talking over what we had better do. Warren said, 'Sallie, let me tell you what's best for us to do. You know old Uncle Tim says he can houdoo and make the white folks stop doing us so bad, and let us do what he told us. Let us get some of the white

folks' hair and some salt and a piece of old mistress's dress, and make a little bag and sew it up and put it under the steps where all the white folks have to pass over every day. Uncle Tim says it will make the white folks stop treating us so bad. He says when we go to put it under the steps we must say as we throw it, 'Malumbia, Malumbia, peace I want, and peace I must have, in the name of the Lord.'"

"Aunt Sallie, what does Malumbia mean?"

"La, madam, I don't know what it meant. But Warren wanted me to fix the bag and put it under them white folks' steps, but I thought it best to stay in the woods."

"Who is Uncle Tim?"

"He was an old man that stayed around the yard to wait on the white folks and take care of the horses and cow. He first came from Africa. He said he used to eat folks in Africa. He could not talk good like we all could. He came from South Carolina to Louisiana, when my marster bought him. Uncle Tim had religion, and I used to hear him say, when he would be talking to my mother, 'Me lover my Lord like my Lord lover me; me never eater poor soul no more.' I don't even remember when

he came to Louisiana. It was long before I was born; but I heard people say he was right from Africa to this country. We all used to call him 'Uncle Summer-time' and he liked that name. He was a good old man, but he believed in houdoo. O, yes; no doubt they were heathen habits that he learned in his native land. I used to hear him many times, when he would be down on his knees praying, say, 'O, Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-Negroes' God blesses poor Summertime's soul!' and then he would stop still and holler out, 'O, how me loves my Lord like my Lord loves me!' Although I was young I will never forget Uncle Tim Summer-time."

"Aunt Sallie, what did you and your brother decide upon in the woods!"

"O, we wandered about in the woods, I don't know how long. We would pick berries to eat, and would get any thing we came upon. I told Warren about my dream of our mother, and that I saw her come up to me, and that I had been praying every night on my moss bed. I wanted to get him to pray too. I said to him, 'Warren, you know how our poor mother used to pray way before day in the morning,

and how we used to hear her cry and say, "O, Daniel's God, have mercy on me!" And it makes me feel glad every time I pray, Warren; and now let us pray every time before we go to sleep.' Warren said, 'Well, let us pray to Daniel's God just like our poor mother did.' And we did every night before we went to sleep, after wandering all through the woods all day. Me and Warren would pray. We prayed low and easy; we just could hear each other. Warren used to pray, 'O, Daniel's God, have mercy on me and Sallie. Mother said you will take care of us, but we suffer here; nobody to help us. Hear us way up in heaven and look down on us here.' Madam, we did not know hardly what to say, but we had heard mother and other people praying, and we tried to do the best we could. Sometimes we was so hungry we could hardly sleep, and it would be so cold, too, we did not know what to do. We had a big heap of moss, and we made a brush arbor over it to keep the rain off. I took Warren to the same place where I had been going at night in the chimney-corners to keep warm. But, la, madam, one morning we overslept ourselves and the overseer of

that plantation caught us. He carried us home to old mistress. I heard her tell old marster to not to let the overseer hit us a lick. She said, 'Send them to the kitchen and give them a plenty to eat and stop whipping them, and see if you can't do more with them.' Madam, I tell you when I overheard her talking to marster tears came in my eyes. I told Warren. O, how glad we felt that morning I cried for joy.

"After they gave us something to eat they let us rest awhile. Me and Warren went to our house and we talked how mistress looked like she was sorry for us when she saw us just come out of the woods that morning. We hardly ever saw her, for we lived in quarters and the house was away off. I told Warren Daniel's God had heard us praying in the woods, and I said, 'Warren, let us keep on praying and trusting in God.' I said, 'You know the overseer used to beat us whenever he caught us, and roll me in the barrel, tie me up by my waist-band, and punish us all sorts of ways.' But this morning he got us and did not give us a lick, but gave us a good breakfast and sent us out here to rest. Madam, me and

Warren agreed right there not to give up praying night and day. We did follow our mother's rule. We would get up long before time to go to work to pray."

"So, Aunt Sallie, you did not believe in voudous?"

"No, ma'am. The next time I saw Uncle Tim I told him I did not believe in it. I said, 'Uncle Tim, I have been praying ever since my mother died, and you see the overseer don't do me as he used to. I tell you, Uncle Tim, Daniel's God heard me and Warren.' He told us to keep on praying; said, 'Daniel's God is a great God. He will hear his children when they cry.' He was a good old man, but we could not understand him much what he said, and he believed in houdoos."

"Yes, the vice of voudouism which is practiced among the colored people is the result of ignorance and slavery. They will, in the course of time, ignore such doctrine, for they are being educated, and the time will come when such simple and nonsensical teachings will find no place among them."

"Yes, ma'am; I believe they will learn better in the course of time."

"Well, tell me, Aunt Sallie, did you both finally remain at home after you were caught in the chimney-corner?"

"Yes, ma'am; we stayed after that. The overseer stopped doing us bad; but we had to work mighty hard to keep up. We both was blessed to see freedom. My brother is living right now in Springtown, and he comes to see me every Christmas. We both are soldiers for Jesus. He is a deacon in a Baptist church, and I am one of your noisy dry-land Methodists."

CHAPTER XIV.
UNCLE STEPHEN JORDON.

Uncle Stephen sold with a calf--A sheriff's sale in slave-days--He is made to leave his wife and children, and is given another by his master--He does not want the new one.

ONE of the most interesting persons I ever conversed with about his history as a slave was Uncle Stephen Jordon. I had heard so much of his remarkable career as a slave that I made up my mind that the very next time I met him I would get him to give me a sort of a sketch of his life as a slave. So one day, as I sat on my front gallery, when he was about to pass my house, I called him in. Said I:

"Uncle Stephen, I've heard so much of your remarkable experience as a slave that I thought the very next chance I got I would ask you to relate to me the history of your slave-life. Will you not favor me by so doing? I've heard Aunt Charlotte's, Aunt Lorendo's, Uncle

John's, and many others; but I've been told so much about your history that I have long craved to have you recite it yourself."

"Well, madam," said he, "I assure you that my history has been a wonderful one. I tell you, my dear child, nobody but God knows the trouble we poor black folks had to undergo in slave-time. My first old master was a mighty good man, and my mistress used to love me like her own children. In fact, my old master was my own father; but, of course, the thing was kept a sort of a secret, although every body knew it. My mother was one of the house servants, and I was raised about the white folks' house. Indeed, after I was old enough to be weaned old mistress had me to sleep in a couch with her own children in her own room, until I got to be a great big boy. The children and I used to play together, and after they began to go to school I used to go with them to carry their books and lunch, and they taught me every lesson they learned, so that when I was about fourteen or fifteen years old I could read and write as well as any of them. But I tell you, child, this thing did not last forever. Somehow or other old master

got broke, and his big plantation and all his slaves were seized and sold for debts. This was in the parish of--, in the State of Louisiana. I can never forget the day of that sale. I had never seen an auction sale before, although I had often heard of it. The sale had been widely advertised; and on that day rich planters from all along the coast and some merchants and others from New Orleans, who wanted house servants or other help for their stores, were there in large numbers. As soon as every thing was ready, exactly at twelve o'clock--I remember it as well as if it was yesterday--the drum began to tap and every body followed it to the old sugar-house shed, where the sale was to take place. When every body had gathered, the slaves, numbering about two hundred and fifty head, counting men, women, and children, were all put together on one side; and all the wagons, teams, horses, cows, calves, and other cattle on another; and the buyers were all in front of the auction-block. So soon as every thing was ready the sheriff got on the old sugar-house cane-carrier and began the sale. He first read from a newspaper the decree of the court under which the sale was to

take place; and then he described the property to be sold, including the plantation, wagons, mules, cattle, and all the slaves. After he had sold the plantation, wagons, mules, horses, and cattle he began to sell the slaves. Some were bought by neighboring planters, some by the merchants and others that had come from New Orleans, and others were bought by negro traders to be placed in the market and sold again. My mother was bought by one of the New Orleans merchants; but I was bought by a negro trader. My old mistress was sorry to part with me and a little pet calf she had raised around the big house. So she had us kept until the last to see if she could not keep us; but old master's debts could not be met after every thing else had been sold, so the calf and I had to be sold. The negro trader bought me and the calf together for five hundred and thirty dollars. Next day all of us who had been sold to buyers living in and along the coast toward New Orleans were shipped on a steam-boat going that way. My mother was on that boat. That night we reached New Orleans. Mother was taken to her new owner's house to be a

house servant, and I was taken to the arcade, or negro traders' yard. From that day until peace was declared after the war I never laid my eyes on my dear mother; that was nearly twenty years. I tell you, people were miserable in that old slave-pen. Every day buyers came and examined such slaves as they desired to buy. They used to make them open their mouths so that they could examine their teeth; and they used to strip them naked, from head to foot, to see whether they were perfectly sound. And this they did to women as well as men. I tell you, my dear child, it used to seem to me so brutal to see poor women treated in that way by brutal and heartless men. I declare, child, I can't understand it, although I've been right in it. When they would put them naked that way they used to switch them on the legs to make them jump around so that buyers could see how supple they were."

"I declare, Uncle Stephen, your story makes me shudder."

"It was so, just as I tell you; but I did not stay long in the negro traders' yard. I was sold soon after that to a man that lived only a

few miles from the old place where I was raised and sold from when mother and I was separated. My new master was a mighty mean man, and would not allow any of his slaves to go anywhere. He notified all the 'poor 'Cadien patrollers' to whip his slaves whenever they caught any of them off the place."

"Who were these 'Cadien patrollers, Uncle Stephen?"

"Why, child, they were the meanest things in creation; they were poor, low down white folks, that descended from a French and Spanish mixture. They had no slaves themselves, and so they just took pleasure in patrolling the public roads so as to get to whip somebody else's slaves that happened to be out without a pass."

"I had often heard that before; but I just asked you to see whether what I had heard of them was true."

"It is just so, child. They were a poor, ignorant set that was just as mean as they were poor and ignorant. The only advantage they had over the negroes was that they were white, that's all. Well, as I was going to tell you, master would not allow his slaves to go

off the place. In order to keep them on the place he used to give them wives right on the place. He would not allow his slaves to take wives that did not belong to his plantation. Whenever he thought one of his men needed a wife or one of his women needed a husband he would choose them and put them together. If he did not own them he would go and buy a wife or a husband for those that he thought were old enough and needed them. He would never allow the men to be single after they were eighteen, nor the women after they were fifteen. I remember one day, when he had returned from town with about twenty-five heads of slaves, he called out all those who had no wives or husbands on the place. Said he, 'Well, boys, I've gotten a fine set of girls for you, and I am going to put you all together; likewise you, girls, I've got these fine boys, and I am going to put you all together, so that there will be no reason for any of you to have wives and husbands off the place. That old practice has got to stop;' so then he gave each one his wife or husband; he chose them out himself."

"Did he give you one, too, Uncle Stephen?"

"Why, yes, child, he gave me mine, too."

"What did you say?"

"Well, what could I say, but take her and go along? But I tell you, child, there was great sorrow on the place that day. Many of us had wives or husbands on neighboring plantations; I myself had my wife on another plantation. The woman my master gave me had a husband on another plantation. Every thing was mixed up. My other wife had two children for me, but the woman master gave me had no children. We were put in the same cabin, but both of us cried, me for my old wife and she for her old husband. As I could read and write I used to write out passes for myself, so I could go and see my old wife; and I wrote passes for the other men on the place, so they could go and see their wives that lived off the place."

CHAPTER XV.
COUNTERFEIT FREE PAPERS.

The overseer searches Uncle Stephen's cabin and finds his counterfeit free papers--His master about to kill him, but finally determines to sell him-- Uncle Stephen's new master--His break for freedom and capture--His sentence to be hanged, and his freedom finally.

"UNCLE STEPHEN, what did you do with the wife your master gave you?"

"Well, we stayed in the same cabin together, not as husband and wife, but as son and mother, she was so much older than I; and I used to write out passes and slip them to her husband that lived on a neighboring plantation, so he could come and see her. But I tell you, child, things got to be so tight that I could not get to see my wife as often as I wanted; so I made up my mind to run away. There was an old free negro that lived near our place; I got him to let me see his free papers. I tell you, child, I took those free papers and copied every word of them. 'Now,' said I, 'I shall run away, and if I am caught I

shall show these counterfeit free papers and get off all right.' Sure enough, I took those papers and stowed them away in a secret place in my cabin, together with my mother's picture and my own picture, which was taken when we belonged to Mr. Jordon, my first old master, together with some old passes, books, and papers. But one day, I don't know why, he suspected me. One of our slaves ran away, and the overseer was hunting for him. The overseer hunted every-where for him. While hunting for that runaway he went and searched my cabin; finally he found my papers. When I found out that the overseer had found my papers and turned them over to my master I just made up my mind that I certainly would be killed. I tell you, child, the very thought makes my blood chill even now. It seemed like the news had gone out like wild-fire through the quarters that passes, free papers, and books had been found in 'poor Stephen's house,' and that old master was going to kill him. I had no sooner reached the big gate where I had gone to put up my mules in the stable than I heard the overseer cry out:

" 'Ah, Stephen! your master is waiting for

you at the big house; never mind about your mules, but go right out to the house, where he will make an eternal settlement with you.'

" 'There now,' said I, 'I am gone.' As I stepped on the porch of the big house I saw old master sitting in his dining-room with a table before him. On the table were all of my letters, old passes, free papers, newspapers, books, and other papers, and by the side of these old master had a fearful-looking dagger and two army revolvers.

" 'Ah,' said he, 'you are the one that gives passes to my niggers and makes free papers for those who run away.' And he swore at me.

"I tried to answer, but he was in such a rage he would hear nothing. I thought he would kill me every minute. Finally he said:

"'Who taught you how to write? I did not know you were educated. Here you are, better educated than any white man around here. An educated nigger is a dangerous thing, and the best place for him is six feet under the ground, buried face foremost. Ah, sir, your end is come, and you will not have use for papers, books, and pens any longer.'

"I tell you, madam, I just made up my mind that my time had come and I would surely die. At last old master quieted a little, and I said:

" 'Master, I was raised in the house, and Master Jordon's children taught me how to read and write. But,' said I, 'I never wrote a free paper for any body in my life. True, I wrote those counterfeit free papers and put the name Sam in it, calling myself by that false name so that I might run away, because I could not get to see my old wife and children that live on Mr. François's place, but, master, I declare I never wrote free papers for any body in my life.'

"Of course I had written out the passes for the other slaves, but, although I knew it was a sin, to save myself I had to say that I just wrote the passes for pastime. How that man did not kill me I can't imagine, excepting that God would not let him. So he says to me:

"'Your old master, Jordon, is to blame for this crime, and he ought to pay for it. That's the reason he is broke and don't own a dollar to-day; but you can't stay here to spoil all my niggers; you can't stay here another week.'

"I tell you, child, you can't imagine how

glad I was to get off so easy. I remained on that place only two days after that, and then a Mr. Valsin, that kept a big store, bought me to work in his store.

"Mr. Valsin, my new master, seemed to be ever so well pleased with me. His store was in a thick settlement about fifteen miles up the Mississippi River above my last master's plantation. I did all the work around the store, and, as I was good at figuring and could read and write, he had me to weigh out things and to wait on many of the customers whenever he needed me. I liked him very well, and I took great interest in his business. Mr. Valsin had a fair-sized plantation in connection with his store, and owned about fifty head of slaves. Generally he was a good man, but when angry he was of a very violent temper. That is where I was living about the time that the late civil war began and when New Orleans fell into the hands of the Union soldiers. But being about twenty miles from where my wife was living, and not being able to see or hear from her for several years, I finally had to give up the hope of ever seeing her again, and so I took up with another woman that lived on our place. About

the time that General Butler captured New Orleans slaves were running into the Union line from all around our neighborhood. So one day Mr. Valsin says to me,

" 'Well, Stephen, I suppose you will do like-some of the other niggers, and run away from me.'

" 'No , indeed,' said I, 'I shall never leave you. Those Yankees are too bad, I hear.'

" 'That's so,' he said; 'you will do much better to stay with me and run off with us to Texas before they get here.'

"Of course I liked Mr. Valsin well enough, but I rather be free than be with him, or be the slave of any body else. So his word about going to Texas rather sunk deep into me, because I was praying for the Yankees to come up our way just as soon as possible. I dreaded going to Texas, because I feared that I would never get free. The same thought was in the mind of every one of the slaves on our place. So two nights before we were to leave for Texas all the slaves on our place had a secret meeting at midnight, when we decided to leave to meet the Yankees. Sure enough, about one o'clock that night every one of us took through

the woods to make for the Union line. The moon was shining like day. After we had traveled till about four o'clock in the morning, the way through the woods being rather rough, we took the public road next to the river. We suddenly came where the levee made a short and sudden bend. The water in the river was up to the bank, and on the other side was a very high fence. In that yard were several bad dogs. While here, all at once before us we heard about a dozen men on horseback. They came right on us, and cried out, 'Halt! halt!' Several jumped the fence and made for the woods, while the dogs almost devoured them; but twenty-five of us were captured by this band. We hoped that they were advanced guards of Union soldiers, but instead of that they proved to be 'Cadien patrollers watching out for runaways. I tell you, child, we were in a bad fix. We were all handcuffed, two by two, and a chain was passed between us linking all the handcuffs, and we were marched back to our master. Mr. Valsin was so mad he wanted to kill us all. He then charged me with planning for all who had previously run away. Some mercy was to be shown to the

others, but I was the educated one; I was the one that had planned all this devilment, as he called it, and I was to be killed as an example for all the rest. For this I was sent away out to New Iberia, where I was placed in jail preparatory to my execution. Then the Yankees were coming so fast they decided to send me to Opelousas jail, where I was finally to suffer death for conspiring and assisting slaves to escape. While in this jail I waited every day for the time when I was to be hung until I was pronounced dead. The scaffold was built just outside the jail, and next day at twelve o'clock I was to die on that scaffold. But that very night, by some means or other that I've never been fully able to understand, I was bought by a man that lived in Texas. He, with the jailer, woke me up and took me out, and I was that very night shipped off to Texas, where I remained until the war was over and peace was declared. My Texas master, Mr. Maxwell, treated me very kindly, and when the war was over he told me that I was my own free man, and could go or stay just as I thought best. As he was a very clever kind of a man I contracted with him and worked

for him one year, after which I returned to the city of New Orleans, where I was reunited to my mother and my present wife, whom I married at Mr. Valsin's. My other wife had married, as I had also done during the long years of our enforced and hopeless separation. The children I had with her are now grown and have entered upon the active duties of life. Since that I have accumulated property and have done some good, I hope, in the world, and am now enjoying a happy and contented old age.

"But I tell you, child, I was fortunate to find my mother, my wife, and my children. So many who were separated by slavery were never reunited again in this world, and will never meet again until they enter the eternal world."

"That's very true," said I; "but, Uncle Stephen, haven't you heard of that wonderful column in the South-western Christian Advocate called the 'Lost Friends' Column?' By means of an advertisement in that column I have heard of friends and relatives that long had been separated being brought together. Why, I suppose my husband could tell you of several hundreds of such cases. One told me

the other day of her relatives whom she had left in West Virginia years before the war; another of her relatives in South Carolina, whom they had found by advertising in that column. So I have heard of others, whose relatives had been left in Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and, in fact, in every Southern and other States, that thus have been restored to each other. I tell you, these reunions must be seasons of great joy. I don't suppose there's any thing like it except the glorious reunion in our Father's house when life and its cares are all over!"

CHAPTER XVI.
UNCLE CEPHAS'S STORY.

Lizzie Beaufort would rather die than live a wicked life--Her brother Cato runs away, hides in the swamps, and finally makes his way to freedom by the aid of the Underground Railroad--Cato becomes a soldier, senator, and congressman--How Uncle Cephas learned to read, bought himself, and became a rich and honored citizen.

MY interest in, and conversations with, Aunt Charlotte, Aunt Sallie, Uncle John Goodwin, Uncle Stephen, and the other characters represented in this story led me to interview many other people that could give me any additional facts and incidents about the colored people, in freedom as well as in slavery.

Uncle Cephas, who used to live in Tennessee before the war, and who came to Louisiana at the close of the late war of the rebellion, told me many things which I am sure would interest any one. He told me a very pathetic story of a colored girl, eighteen years old, whose master had bought her in South Carolina and brought her to Tennessee. Her name was

Lizzie Beaufort. She was a most beautiful girl. She had large black eyes, long black hair, a beautiful oval-shaped face, and was of a fine oily brunette complexion. She might have easily passed for a Cuban; but she was the slave of her own father, who had sold her to this Tennessee planter. Her Tennessee master had bought her to be his kept woman, but Lizzie declared that she would rather die a thousand deaths than live such a life. She was willing to work her hands off, and do any thing that was required of her, but she just told her master that he would have her to kill, but that she never would submit to be made the instrument of his hateful lust. It was of no use. He coaxed, he pleaded, he threatened, and he beat her, but Lizzie stood as firmly as a rock against all his advances.

When he saw that he could not persuade her by any means he determined to sell her. She was sold to a negro trader, who brought her out to Mississippi.

Uncle Cephas told me also the story of Lizzie's brother, Cato, who made his way from the rice-fields of South Carolina to Canada about ten years before the war.

Uncle Cephas got the facts from Lizzie's own lips.

He said: "Lizzie told me all about it herself. Cato ran away and was gone over two months before they knew what had become of him. It took him all that time dodging in the swamps until he could make his way through the free States into Canada. But after he got to Canada he wrote back to a friendly white man that lived in the neighborhood, who told Lizzie and her mother all about it. The white man was from the North, and was very friendly to us colored people, but he had to be mighty careful about showing it, because all the white people suspicioned him, because they said he was a Northern man. He was the one that helped Cato to make his escape. It was good that he was not found out, for they certainly would have killed him. He bargained with a ship-master to take Cato from Charleston to Boston. Cato was packed in a box and shipped for a box of cabbage. He was packed in the box with cabbage-leaves all around him, to make the box appear as a box of cabbage sure enough. The white man was an agent of what was then known as the Underground

Railroad. He notified the Underground Railroad people in Boston of the time when Cato would reach Boston, so that they might get him and run him off into Canada before he should be captured, if discovered, under the Fugitive Slave Act, which was then in force all over this country.

"The Lord was with Cato, however, and he reached Canada in safety. He fell in among good people there, and was soon doing well. He soon got a good education and plenty of property. When the war broke out he came back to Boston, joined the Union army, and came South and fought in some of the hardest battles of the war. A cousin of mine, who used to know Lizzie in Tennessee, met her near Vicksburg two years ago, and she told him that Cato was then living there, and was one of the greatest leaders of his race in Mississippi. He had been sheriff of his county, had been a senator, and had served his State in Congress and in several other stations of honor and trust."

"But," said I, "Uncle Cephas, you speak very properly for one that was a slave. You must have got an education notwithstanding

the law against negroes being permitted to learn how to read and write."

"Ah, my child," said he, "my life has been an eventful one. It is true that slaves were not permitted to learn how to read; but I was determined to learn if it was any way possible to do so. You see I was not born free, but my master and his wife died when I was only five years old. They were old people, and had no children; so they left me and all my relatives free in their will. Notwithstanding that, however, the will was contested in court and found defective, and we were all sold to satisfy claims against the estate. Mother was sold to a man that lived in Alabama, brother Jerry to one that lived in North Carolina, and sister Rachel to a negro trader that sold her to a family in Florida. I was sold to judge S--, in Tennessee. He was one of the most heartless men that ever lived. I can't begin to tell you of his meanness. I suppose if I had lived with him till the emancipation I would never have amounted to any thing, but, as the Lord would have it, he got broke by his senseless extravagance and was sold out at sheriff sale, and in that sale I was bought by Parson Winslow,

a very kind-hearted old Methodist preacher. Parson told me that he did not buy me because he needed any slaves, but because he thought I had too good a turn to be made a dog of by such a heartless master. Parson Winslow knew me well, because whenever he came on his circuit in our neighborhood and stopped at our house I had to take care of his horse for him. After I had stayed with him about ten years one day he said to me: 'Cephas, I see you are a mighty smart boy, and seem to be making extra dimes by doing odd jobs around. I want to encourage your manly disposition. I want to fix it so you can buy yourself, your wife, and your children. What do you say to that?'

"Why, madam, that word went through me like lightning. I had saved some money for that very purpose, but never dared propose the matter to the parson. (We never called him any thing but parson. He wouldn't let us call him any thing else.) So as soon as he made the proposition I gladly accepted the offer.

" 'But,' said I, 'parson, I'll never be able to pay you for myself, my wife, and my children. How can I?' 'Well,' said he, 'pay me twenty-five

dollars a month for your time, and whatever you make over that shall be yours.' I had a very good trade; I was a blacksmith and machinist, and I could get two dollars and a half a day for every working-day in the year. I told Dinah, my wife, all about it, and she was perfectly delighted. From that on I worked and Dinah worked. We both worked, and I tell you, madam, before many more years passed over my head I had bought myself, Dinah, and our two children.

"All the years I was at the parson's I was never without a book or paper about me. His children used to teach me on the sly when they came to see Dinah. Dinah was the cook, and a mighty good one she was, too. After I was free I just made good for lost time and learned all I could, so that when the war came on I was a pretty good scholar. I was not satisfied to see myself fret and make no efforts to help others of my race. Having such a good trade and a plenty of work I made plenty of money and saved it. Dinah, too, was a very smart woman. So by her help and the help of our two boys we could always lay our hands on several hundred dollars in hard cash.

With that I bought poor slaves, I can scarcely tell you how many. I would buy them and then give them time to pay me. When they worked and paid me what I paid for them I would give them their free papers. Let's see, I did that for Jim Sanders, who was a very smart man, and who after the war became Secretary of State in his adopted State; for Frank Shorter, who became a member of Congress, and a number of others. These, however, were exceptionally brilliant men, and lost no time in pushing themselves right to the front. Jim, I believe, is still a senator, and has been in one branch or another of the Legislature of his State for the last twenty years. Of course I can't help from calling them Jim and Frank, I know them so well. Jim lives in Louisiana, and Frank lives in South Carolina. In fact, every one I helped in that way proved to be of the best metal. Nearly all of them were active in the reconstruction of their States, were in the constitutional conventions, the legislatures, etc.; and but for the suppression of negro majorities in the South I suppose many of them would still be felt as great political agencies in this country. Several of

them, however, like myself, are growing old, and are leading a quiet home-life; and then others of them have died and gone the way of all the earth. I never cared about politics myself, however. I never thought our salvation depended so much upon politics. Education, property, and character, to my mind, have ever been the trinity of power to which I have looked and do look for our complete redemption in this country. No earthly power can undermine and destroy the progress of a people thus intrenched. With that principle in me, I have ever tried to regulate my practice accordingly. I educated both of my sons and gave them each a good trade. One of them, however, is now a physician in Texas, and the other is pastor of one of the largest churches in Washington, D. C. He graduated with high honors at one of the best theological schools in this country, and is to-day a recognized authority in Greek, Hebrew, and the Shemitic languages. They are both good boys, and Dinah and I are proud of them. I like to recall and talk over such matters; they stir up all the enthusiasm of my younger days."

It would have done you good to have heard

Uncle Cephas tell his story. Although he is now an old man, he is yet so vigorous and pressed in the business of his blacksmith shop, which he still runs with hired workmen, that I could no longer detain him, and had to bid him good-bye, with the request that he call again. He is one of our most substantial citizens, and is assessed at thirty-five thousand dollars, most of which is in lands and city property well and desirably located.

CHAPTER XVII.
A COLORED SOLDIER.

Colonel Douglass Wilson on the war--Color-bearer Planchiancio and Captain Caillioux--Joel Brinkley, a Yankee school-teacher, caned nearly to death.

AFTER my conversation with Uncle Cephas in the last chapter I did not get to see any one particularly for a month or more who could add materially to my story any thing that might interest you; but during the succeeding summer, after this last conversation, I met Colonel Douglass Wilson, a colored man of considerable prominence, not only in Louisiana, but in the nation. He and his family and my husband, daughter, and I were spending a vacation at Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, a very popular watering-place on the Mississippi Sound. He and my husband were very great friends, and used to visit each other during our stay there. One day I said to him:

"Colonel, from what I have heard you say and learned of you generally, as a public man,

you must have a rich experience touching occurrences before, during, and since the war among our people. I have made the matter one of deep study, and I know your story would delight almost any one. Don't keep all the good things to yourself; tell us about them sometime."

"Yes," said he, "my experience is a rich and varied one, and I am so constantly telling it every-where and on every occasion that I fear sometimes that people will say that I have a hobby."

"I assure you," said I, "you will never hear that from me, because I believe we should not only treasure these things, but should transmit them to our children's children. That's what the Lord commanded Israel to do in reference to their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, and I verily believe that the same is his will concerning us and our bondage and deliverance in this country. After thirty-three centuries the Jews are more faithful in the observance of the facts connected with their bondage and deliverance than we are in those touching ours, although our deliverance took place scarcely a quarter of a century ago."

"You are right, Mrs. Albert," replied the colonel, "and that is my principal reason for so heartily concurring with those of our leading colored men who are doing all in their power to induce all of our people in this country to unite every year in the observance of January 1 as National Emancipation Day. There can be no doubt that that is the day every true American should celebrate as National Emancipation Day, as that was the day on which Mr. Lincoln's ever-memorable proclamation of freedom was issued--January 1, 1863."

"Colonel, let me ask you, were you ever a slave?"

"A slave? Why, yes; I was a slave until Mr. Lincoln's proclamation of freedom. It found me, however, on the battle-field at Port Hudson, La., where the colored troops fought so nobly as to extort from their chief officers such praises as were showered upon few soldiers at any time or place. I was there in the hottest of the fight when Captain Caillioux, that valiant negro, fell, one whose praises can never be too loudly proclaimed. If ever patriotic heroism deserved to be honored in stately marble or in brass that of Captain CaIllioux

deserves to be, and the American people will have never redeemed their gratitude to genuine patriotism until that debt is paid. I was there, yes, ma'am, when, with one arm dangling in his sleeve, the brave captain waved his comrades on to the bloody conflict with the other. I was there, too, and heard the lion-hearted color-bearer, Planchiancio, when he received the regimental colors from his superior officer, and, grasping them with a firm and manly hand, assured him that he would 'return with those colors from the sweeping, bloody fray with honor, or report to God the reason why.' The recital of these things fires all the military ardor in my soul. From that day to the close of the war 'Remember Port Hudson' was the talismanic watchword that ever inspired our regiment to the highest degree of heroism. But Port Hudson was only one of a hundred battle-fields whereon the colored soldier demonstrated his valor. There were Fort Pillow, Fort Wagner, Chickamauga, Fort Blakely, Fort Donelson, Lake Providence, Pulaski, Waterproof, Appomattox, and a hundred others. The verdict was that 'the colored troops fought nobly.'

"O, yes, I was a slave, but I became, a soldier, too, and fought for freedom and the Union, and I am proud of it. But I want to tell you that this last war exploded many false notions in the minds of our Southern people, and in some of our Northern neighbors, too. They used to say, 'The negro doesn't care to be set free, and but for Northern meddlers you would never hear any complaints from him.' Then they said, 'If you free him he will die out;' but I tell you he is the liveliest corpse this nation has ever handled. He is multiplying faster than any people in this country. When it was proposed to make a soldier out of him, why, they said, 'He can't fight.' But what was the universal verdict at the close of every battle? Why, he fought like a demon. After the war they said, 'O, he can't learn!' But what mean these laurels that he is getting at Yale, Cornell, Dartmouth, and other colleges over white competitors? Whether he wanted freedom or not is beautifully illustrated in a story that came under my observation.

"Among thousands of contrabands, as they were called, that flocked into the Union lines, as the Yankees captured various sections in

the South, were a very aged man and his wife. The slaves were escaping from the old plantations in every direction. So one morning a planter out near Vicksburg, Miss., went out into his negro quarters, and, addressing this aged patriarch, now bent under the weight of over threescore and ten years, said, 'Uncle Si, I don't suppose you are going off to those hateful Yankees, too, are you?' 'O no, marster,' he said, 'I'se gwine to stay right here with you.' Next morning the planter visited the quarters again, when he found that every one of his slaves, not excepting even Uncle Si and his wife, Aunt Cindy, had gone to the Yankees during the night. Searching out in the woods for them, he finally came upon Uncle Si, just inside the Union line. Aunt Cindy was stretched out on the bare ground, dead, and Uncle Si was bending over her, weeping. She had died from the exposure and hardship incident upon the making of their escape. Addressing Uncle Si, the planter said, 'Uncle Si, why on earth did you so cruelly bring Aunt Cindy here for, through all of such hardship, thereby causing her death?' Lifting up his eyes and looking his master full in the face, he

answered, 'I couldn't help it, marster; but then, you see, she died free.'"

"Colonel, tell me something about the Kuklux. Did you know any thing about them? They were said to be very bad and numerous in Georgia and South Carolina."

"That's true; at that time they were very bad and numerous in both Georgia and South Carolina, but they were equally bad in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and, in fact, throughout the South. They were known in some places as the White Camelias, the White Cohort, and other such names, but after all they were nothing more nor less than the Confederate army that had surrendered at Appomattox that was really continuing a sort of guerrilla warfare against Union men and the poor freedmen. This was what made the task of reconstruction such a difficult one throughout the South. The Kuklux were determined that the colored people, if now free, should not enjoy their freedom, but should remain in a condition of peonage. To accomplish their purpose they heaped all sorts of indignities upon the northern white missionary preachers and teachers that followed the march of the Union lines to

organize our people in church relations and to establish schools among them. Not only were they socially ostracized, but they were maltreated, whipped, mobbed, and massacred by wholesale.

"I remember, just now, the case of Mr. Joel Brinkley, who was taken out of his schoolhouse, right before his scholars, in broad day-time, and caned half to death by a mob of nearly a hundred of those hyenas. After that they gave him five hours in which to leave the town of Springdale, where he was teaching. After he started off they thought they ought to have killed him, so they started off after him to catch him, and they followed him for ten days, trying to catch him. He had to hide in the swamps, sleep in the cane-rows and ditches and under negro cabins to save his life. A reward of five hundred dollars was offered for his apprehension and delivery into their hands, but the Lord was with him, and he finally reached New Orleans in safety, where he could continue in the same line of work with a little more security. I have often heard him tell of how kindly the colored people treated him when he was then fleeing for his life.

They were the only friends he could trust. They would hide him under their cabins and in their hay-lofts, and feed him there until it was safe for him to journey on farther. From them, too, he could learn of the whereabouts of the human hounds that were pursuing him for his life. Mr. Brinkley, however, was fortunate to have gotten away with his life, notwithstanding the fact that he thereby contracted terrible constitutional troubles, from which he suffered many years. Hundreds of others were killed outright, their churches or school-houses burnt down, and their families driven away. They were equally murdered, however, some instantly, while others, like Mr. Brinkley, died a slower death."

CHAPTER XVIII.
NEGRO GOVERNMENT.

Kuklux--Reign of terror--Black laws--Reconstruction--Colored men in constitutional conventions and State legislatures--Lieutenant-Governor Dunn--Honest Antoine Dubuclet--Negro problem--What the race has accomplished since the war--Emigration and colonization.

"IF the Kuklux treated the missionaries in that manner you must not imagine that they left the colored people and their children unharmed. Thousands of colored men and women throughout the South were in like manner whipped and shot down like dogs, in the fields and in their cabins. The recital of some of the experiences of those days is enough to chill your blood and raise your hair on ends. The horrors of those days can scarcely be imagined by those who know nothing about it. Why, madam, you ought to have been down here in 1868. That was the year in which Grant and Colfax ran for President and Vice-President, against Seymour and Blair. A perfect reign of terror existed all over the

South; and the colored people who attempted to vote were shot down like dogs every-where. There was such a reign of terrorism in many States of the South that the Congress of the United States refused to count the bloody electoral votes of several of the Southern States. Two years before that, in July, 1866, there was a constitutional convention in New Orleans, to frame a constitution whereby the State of Louisiana might be reconstructed and re-admitted into the Union. On the 30th day of that month, I believe it was, a fearful riot was instituted by those fire-eaters, and the result was that the streets of New Orleans were flooded with negro blood. Hundreds of them were killed without any knowledge of the murderous intentions of their enemies. They lay dead on every street and in the gutter, and were taken out and buried in trenches by the cart-load in all the cemeteries. The children at school were also the object of the same murderous spirit. When we sent our children to school in the morning we had no idea that we should see them return home alive in the evening.

"Big white boys and half-grown men used to

pelt them with stones and run them down with open knives, both to and from school. Sometimes they came home bruised, stabbed, beaten half to death, and sometimes quite dead. My own son himself was often thus beaten. He has on his forehead to-day a scar over his right eye which sadly tells the story of his trying experience in those days in his efforts to get an education. I was wounded in the war, trying to get my freedom, and he over the eye, trying to get an education. So we both call our scars marks of honor. In addition to these means to keep the negro in the same servile condition[.] I was about to forget to tell you of the 'black laws,' which were adopted in nearly all of the Southern States under President Andrew Johnson's plan of reconstruction. They adopted laws with reference to contracts, to the movement of negro laborers, etc., such as would have made the condition of the freed negro worse than when he had a master before the war. But, in the words of General Garfield upon the death of President Lincoln, 'God reigns, and the government at Washington still lives.' It did live, and, notwithstanding Andrew Johnson, it lived under the divine

supervision which would not and did not allow the Southern States to reconstruct upon any such dishonorable, unjust plan to the two hundred thousand negro soldiers who offered their lives upon the altar for the perpetuation of the Union and the freedom of their country. And the whole matter was repudiated by Congress, and the States were reconstructed upon the plan of equal rights to every citizen, of whatever race or previous condition. It was then declared that, whereas the stars on our national flag had been the property of only the white race and the stripes for only the colored, now the stars should forever be the common property of both, and that the stripes should only be given to those that deserved them.

"Under this new plan of reconstruction many colored men entered the constitutional conventions of every Southern State; and in the subsequent organization of the new State governments colored men took their seats in both branches of the State governments, in both Houses of Congress, and in all the several branches of the municipal, parochial, State, and national governments. It is true that many of them were not prepared for such

a radical and instantaneous transition. But I tell you, madam, it was simply wonderful to see how well they did. And although in the midst of prejudice and partisan clamor a great deal of the most withering criticisms have been spent upon the ignorance, venality, and corruption of the negro carpet-bag reconstruction governments inaugurated by our people, I believe time will yet vindicate them, and their achievements will stand out in the coming years as one of the marvels of the ages. Who of all the officers of any State government can compare with the unassuming, dignified, and manly Oscar J. Dunn, Louisiana's first negro lieutenant-governor, or with Antoine Dubuclet, her honest and clean-handed treasurer for twelve years? His successor, E. A. Burke, a white man, representing the virtue and intelligence of our 'higher civilization,' is to-day a fugitive from the State for having robbed that same treasury of nearly a million dollars. Alabama has had her Vincent, Tennessee her Polk, Mississippi her Hemingway, Kentucky, Maryland, and nearly every one of the Southern States have had their absconding State treasurers, with hundreds of thousands of dollars of the people's

money unaccounted for, since the overthrow of the negro governments of the South. Such is the contrast that I like to offer to those people who are constantly denouncing the negro governments of reconstruction times in the South.

"If our people did so well when only a few years removed from the house of bondage, wherein they were not permitted to learn to read and write under penalty of death or something next to it, what may we not expect of them with the advances they have since made and are making?"

"I declare, colonel, I would not miss this interview I have had with you for a great deal. I was so young when the war broke out that I had no personal knowledge of many of the things that you have told me, and I assure you that you have interested me with their recital. I understand that you occupied several very important positions in State affairs during the period of 'negro supremacy,' as the white people call it, and I know you must have made some valuable observations growing out of the downfall of those governments and the condition and tendencies of things since. Tell me

just what you think of our future in this country, anyway. Tell me whether we are progressing or retrograding, and whether you think it is necessary for us to emigrate to Africa or to be colonized somewhere, or what?"

"Well, madam, I must confess that some of your questions are extremely hard to answer. Indeed, some of them are to-day puzzling some of the profoundest philosophers and thinkers in this country; and I doubt very much whether I could assume to answer them dogmatically. One thing, however, I can tell you without fear of successful contradiction, and that is that no people similarly situated have ever made the progress in every department of life that our people have made, since the world began. Why, just think of it! Twenty-seven years ago we did not own a foot of land, not a cottage in this wilderness, not a house, not a church, not a school-house, not even a name. We had no marriage-tie, not a legal family-- nothing but the public highways, closely guarded by black laws and vagrancy laws, upon which to stand. But to-day we have two millions of our children in school, we have about eighteen thousand colored professors

and teachers, twenty thousand young men and women in schools of higher grade, two hundred newspapers, over two million members in the Methodist and Baptist Churches alone, and we own over three hundred million dollars' worth of property in this Southern country. Over a million and a half of our people can now read and write. We are crowding the bar, the pulpit, and all the trades, and every avenue of civilized life, and doing credit to the age in which we live.

"I tell you, madam, I am not much disturbed about our future. True, I cannot and do not pretend to be able to solve the negro problem, as it is called, because I do not know that there is really such a problem. To my mind it is all a matter of condition and national and constitutional authority. Get the conditions right, and my faith is that the natural functions, security to 'life, liberty, and happiness,' will follow. My advice to my people is: 'Save your earnings, get homes, educate your children, build up character, obey the laws of your country, serve God, protest against injustice like manly and reasonable men, exercise every constitutional right every time you may lawfully and peacefully do so, and leave results

with God, and every thing will come out right sooner or later.' I have no faith in any general emigration or colonization scheme for our people. The thing is impracticable and undesirable. This is the most beautiful and desirable country that the sun shines upon, and I am not in favor of leaving it for any place but heaven, and that when my heavenly Father calls, and not before. Of course, in localities where inhumanities are visited upon our people to such an extent that they cannot live there in peace and security I would advise them to remove to more agreeable sections of the country; but never would I advise them to leave the United States. Another thing: I do not think we ought to ever want to get into any territory to ourselves, with the white people all to one side of us or around us. That's the way they got the Indians, you remember, and we know too well what became of them.

"My plan is for us to stay right in this country with the white people, and to be so scattered in and among them that they can't hurt one of us without hurting some of their own number. That's my plan, and that is one of my reasons why I am in the Methodist Episcopal

Church. God's plan seems to be to pattern this country after heaven. He is bringing here all nations, kindreds, and tongues of people and mixing them into one homogeneous whole; and I do not believe we should seek to frustrate his plan by any vain attempts to colonize ourselves in any corner to ourselves."

With this the colonel left, expressing himself delighted with his visit, as I am sure I was.

CHAPTER XIX.
THE COLORED DELEGATES.

The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1888--Negro delegates--Reception tendered them by Mrs. General Grant--Presentation of a Bible to Mrs. Grant--Dr. Minor's great presentation address.

THE following year, during the month of May, I visited the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which was then in session in the city of New York. It was the most representative body I had ever met in my life. There were representatives there from every State and Territory in the United States, from all parts of North and South America, and from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the isles of the sea.

In that assembly were also fifty-three colored delegates, sandwiched promiscuously everywhere like so much black pepper in a vessel of salt. They took part in all the deliberations of the Conference, and were received everywhere with the utmost cordiality. Some of them acted as secretaries of the general body;

others were secretaries of committees, while they were represented on all the great committees, special and standing, of that body. They were an excellent body of men, and represented their constituencies with becoming dignity and character. I really felt proud of them. But I want to tell you of an incident which took place while I was there, and to which I was permitted to be a witness.

Mrs. General U.S. Grant prepared and extended a grand reception, in her palatial mansion, to the colored delegates in the Conference. Among her invited guests, besides the delegates and such of their families and friends as accompanied them, were General John Eaton, ex-United States Commissioner of Education; United States Senator Leland Stanford, the millionaire senator from California, and wife; Bishop and Mrs. John F. Hurst, Bishop and Mrs. John P. Newman, and other distinguished guests. Then there were also present her son, Colonel Fred. D. Grant, now United States Minister to Austria, and wife, and several of her grandchildren. The ladies here mentioned received with the Grant family. The delegates manifested their appreciation

by purchasing a beautiful Bagster Bible, which was presented to Mrs. Grant as a token of their esteem. The gentleman selected to make the presentation address was introduced to Mrs. Grant and proceeded to deliver his address, to the delight of all present.

But who do you suppose he was? Why, bless you! it proved to be no other than the Rev. Dr. Daniel Minor, the son of Uncle Jacob Turner, one of Uncle Cephas's fellow-servants, who was willed free by his master, but who was sold in Tennessee at the same time that Uncle Cephas was sold. Dr. Minor was sold from his father when he was only six years old; so he was raised by his master, who gave him the name of Dan Minor. But I tell you, his speech was a real masterpiece of polished eloquence, and was delivered with such marked effect as to charm, subdue, and bring forth tears from many that stood and heard it. I know you would have been glad to have been there and to have heard it; so I shall try to repeat it for you. Said he:

"Mrs. General Grant, the colored delegates to the General Conference of the Methodist

Episcopal Church, now in session in this city, in the name of the quarter of a million members which they represent, come to pay their respects to you, and to assure you of their grateful devotion and fidelity to the cherished memory of your deceased husband, and of their high appreciation of yourself and of all who were near and dear to him. We honor the illustrious names of all the great and good men and women who were instrumental in our liberation and enfranchisement in this country; but no name in American history--yes, I can safely say that no name outside of the sacred Scripture--is so dear to us as that of General Ulysses S. Grant. His name is enshrined in our memory. Lincoln's pen declared us free, but Grant's sword sundered our fetters. Israel praised God for 'the sword of the Lord and of Gideon;' we praise God for the sword of the Lord and of Grant. As a soldier he freed us; as President he protected us in our rights; and as an honored private citizen he befriended us. While he belted the earth on his foreign tour, receiving the homage of monarch and of princes, our liveliest interest and appreciation followed him to the ends of the earth. When

he returned to his native land our arms and hearts were exultantly opened wide for his reception. Our admiration and joy knew no bound, and all the powers behind the throne could not resist us in our efforts to have him honored with the presidency for a third term. If his friends failed in their attempt, we have the proud satisfaction of knowing that our race never faltered in his support. . . . When General Grant visited my native State, on his return from the Orientals, I had the distinguished honor and pleasure of delivering to him an address of welcome in behalf of the colored ministers of our city, in the course of which I called his attention to an incident which had recently taken place in Florida; and I take pleasure in repeating it now to you. At a certain hotel there many of our people called to see and pay their respects to him. The proprietor of the hotel in question was offensively affected by their presence, and sought to drive them away. Did General Grant tamely submit to the harsh and inhuman treatment about to be visited upon us? No; said he, 'Let them come in, for where I am, there they may come also; if not at this, then at some other

hotel.' This, to us, is one of the most precious treasures that we have inherited from him.

"During the long, weary months of his terrible affliction many sympathizing hearts with tearful eyes watched the daily bulletins giving account of his wonderful struggles between life and death. The nations had their fingers on his pulse. They counted his breathing, watched his temperature, dwelt upon every change in his diet, appetite, strength, and treatment. When the summons came, and he that had never lost a battle went down beneath the conquering hand of death, leaving your heart and home in desolation, a cry of lamentation went up throughout the land. Messages of sympathy and condolence poured in upon you from the palaces of the rich and the hovels of the poor, from every State in this country and from many of the crowned heads of other lands; but we can assure you that no hearts were more deeply wounded, no eyes wept more bitterly, and no mourners were more genuine than those of the people we represent. They, of all the people, next to yourself and immediate family, sustained the greatest loss and experienced the greatest pain.

"Our only comfort came from the knowledge that, through the blessed Gospel which we preach, he had conquered death, and from the knowledge that he had been spared to complete his great book which would make his dear family comfortable. With no mass of wealth at our command, we have not been able to embody our devotion to him in marble or in brass; but, purer and more precious and enduring than the purest marble or the costliest brass, he has, by his own deeds, established in our heart of hearts a throne of power which all the flames and floods of all the succeeding ages can never destroy or impair.

"And now, as a token of our love and eternal devotion to his sacred memory, and of our alliance to his family, we beg you to accept this token, this Holy Book, which General Grant called the sheet-anchor of our liberties; this Holy Book, which teaches us our relation to God as our Father, man as our brother, and which fits us for holy living and prepares us for happy dying. Accept it as the pledge of our devotion to his memory, to yourself, and to all your dear ones."

Now, wasn't that a grand speech? And

then to think that such a man was once a poor, downtrodden slave! I tell you, there must be hope for a race that can produce such men in such a short length of time and with such limited opportunities.

Bishop Newman then responded, in behalf of the family, in a very excellent address, which all greatly enjoyed. The delegates and other invited guests were then ushered into the capacious and brilliantly lighted dining-room, where all the choicest delicacies of the season were served them by the distinguished ladies that assisted Mrs. Grant in the offices of the occasion. The many valuable and rare treasures and mementoes presented to the general by princes and potentates of foreign lands were then shown the visitors. An hour or more was spent in the most pleasant recital of reminiscences of the general's attitude toward the colored people, during and since the war, by General Eaton, Bishop Newman, and others; and the delightful and memorable affair passed into history. I need not tell you that I enjoyed the occasion. Who would not?

CHAPTER XX.
A TOUCHING INCIDENT.

The Cotton Centennial Exposition of 1884--Dr. Lee's great speech--Aunt Jane Lee finds her long-lost son--The reunion.

I CANNOT close my story until I tell you of a very touching incident which I can never forget, which took place about four years before that which I have just related. I know you will enjoy it, and therefore I don't feel that it is necessary for me to make any further apology for going back to recall it. The incident took place during the great Cotton Centennial Exposition which was held in New Orleans in 1884. It was one of the finest and most extensive ever witnessed in any country. On one of the many special days that were observed there I had the pleasure of listening to many very eloquent and gifted orators, and among them was a young colored man who was said to have been a slave, and who was to speak as the representative of his race. The programme was a

long and tedious one, and the people grew tired and restless; but of the sixty thousand people that had gathered nearly all remained to the last in order to get a chance to hear the colored man that would dare attempt to interest such a concourse of people after so many able orators had almost nauseated them with the choicest flower of classical oratory. At the appointed time, however, he made his appearance and was introduced. Although there were nearly sixty thousand people present when he uttered his first sentence you could almost have heard a pin drop, so intent was every one to hear what he would say. To say that he acquitted himself creditably but feebly expresses the fact. He did so well that not only the local press, but the press of the whole country, echoed his praise to the very skies. Indeed, he surprised the nation. Describing the occasion in Harper's Magazine, that matchless writer, Charles Dudley Warner, said:

"The colored citizens took their full share of the parade and the honors. Their societies marched with the others, and the races mingled on the grounds in unconscious equality of privileges. Speeches were made glorifying

the State and its history, by able speakers, the governor among them; but it was the testimony of Democrats of undoubted Southern orthodoxy that the honors of the day were carried off by a colored clergyman, an educated man, who united eloquence with excellent good sense, and who spoke as a citizen of Louisiana, proud of his native State, dwelling with richness of allusion upon its history. It was a perfectly manly speech in the assertion of the rights and the position of his race, and it breathed throughout a spirit of good-will and amity in a common hope of progress. It was warmly applauded and accepted, so far as I heard, as a matter of course."

This colored man, I learned, was the Rev. Dr. Coleman Lee, pastor of a prominent church in Louisiana. I was so delighted with his speech, and felt so proud of him, that I forced my way through the crowd to shake his hand and to thank him, in the name of the race, for the honor he had reflected upon himself and his race. After congratulating him I said:

"Your name is Dr. Lee?"

"Yes," said he; "my father was a white man, and he would not let me be called by his

name. So mother gave me her name, which was Lee, and so I have kept it right along."

"Are you a native of this State?" said I.

"O, yes," said he; "I am a native of this State, and was born right on Bayou Terre Bonne."

Said I, "Is your mother living?"

Said he, "The Lord only knows. She was sold from me when I was only four or five years old. She was sold and taken to Texas somewhere. I have advertised for her and inquired for her every-where, but have never been able to hear a word of her."

"Pray tell me, sir, what was her name?" said I.

Said he, "Her name was Jane Lee, who originally was sold to Louisiana from Virginia."

"Well, well!" thought I; and just as I was about to tell him about Aunt Charlotte, and what she told me of Aunt Jane Lee, there came a woman apparently about fifty or sixty years of age, who, upon hearing him, rushed wildly, and, throwing her arms around his neck, cried out, amid tears of great joy,

"My long-lost son, my long-lost son! my son, my son!"

Every body turned around to see what was

the matter, only to unite in praise to God for the wonderful reunion that he had thus vouchsafed to this long-separated mother and son. I almost felt that I was one of the family, too, for Aunt Charlotte had told me so many things about Aunt Jane Lee; and now that I was permitted to form her acquaintance under such circumstances I could not restrain my tears nor my joy. I then took them to my house, which was only a few squares away, where I listened to them as they recited to each other the wonderful story of their lives during the years of their separation.

After spending nearly half the night with me and my family and friends who had gathered to witness this affecting scene we all united in singing, "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow," after which Dr. Lee led in prayer, and the company separated, and Dr. Lee and his mother left, with the promise that they would soon write. Dr. Lee was well situated in life. He had managed to work his way through college, had amassed a considerable amount of property, had married a very excellent wife, a former school-mate, and had one daughter; and now he was going to complete

his family circle by the addition of his long-lost mother, who was going to accompany him to his comfortable and cultured home in Baton Rouge.

But when will all this scattered race be reunited that was thus most cruelly separated by our inhuman system of slavery? Never, till they gather before the throne of God, when all nations, great and small, shall then be called to their final account. Let us all thank God and rejoice that the unearthly institution has been swept away forever in a sea of blood never to rise again.

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Octavia V. Rogers Albert (Octavia Victoria Rogers), 1853-1889? The House of Bondage, or, Charlotte Brooks and Other Slaves, Original and Life Like, As They Appeared in Their Old Plantation and City Slave Life; Together with Pen-Pictures of the Peculiar Institution, with Sights and Insights into Their New Relations as Freedmen, Freemen, and Citizens.

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The House of Bondage, or, Charlotte Brooks and Other Slaves, Original and Life Like, As They Appeared in Their Old Plantation and City Slave Life; Together with Pen-Pictures of the Peculiar Institution,with Sights and Insights into Their New Relations as Freedmen, Freemen, and Citizens. By Octavia V. Rogers Albert (Octavia Victoria Rogers), 1853-1889?

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Creating the American South ArcGIS from Dr. Roane's lecture

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Creating the American South ArcGIS from Dr. Roane's lecture

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https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/34e0e42dc461499f85b369b43f9e44f6

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The American South expanded with a speed and to a size few could have imagined in 1790. Three migrations created the South over the next seventy years: tens of thousands of indigenous peoples driven from ancestral lands, millions of white farmers filling an enormous expanse, and millions of enslaved people moved to raw, new plantations.

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If you are interested in more art history, this is a list of my favorite texts and where most of my curriculum comes from.

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Amplifier Art - free & downloadable art

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Artwork Category: Black Lives Matter - Amplifier

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Interactive Map- Walking Tour of Durham, NC Civil Rights Legacy

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Interactive Map- Walking Tour of Durham, NC Civil Rights Legacy

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Civil Rights Legacy of Durham - Google My Maps

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Hebru Brantley - Chicago born contemporary Black artist 

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Hebru Brantley - Chicago born contemporary Black artist 

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Hebru Brantley creates narrative-driven work revolving around his conceptualized iconic characters which are utilized to address complex ideas around nostalgia, the mental psyche, power, and hope. The color palettes, pop-art motifs, and characters themselves create accessibility around Brantley's layered and multifaceted beliefs. Majorly influenced by the South Side of Chicago's Afro Cobra movement in the 1960s and 70s, Brantley uses the lineage of mural and graffiti work as a frame to explore his inquiries. Brantley applies a plethora of mediums from oil, acrylic, watercolor and spray paint to non-traditional mediums such as coffee and tea. Brantley's work challenges the traditional view of the hero or protagonist and his work insists on a contemporary and distinct narrative that shapes and impacts the viewer's gaze.

Recognized internationally, Hebru Brantley has exhibited in Chicago, Hong Kong, London, San Francisco, Atlanta, Miami, Seattle, Los Angeles and New York including Art Basel Switzerland, Art Basel Miami, Scope NYC, and Frieze London. Brantley has been recognized in publications including the Chicago Tribune, Forbes, WWD, HypeBeast, Complex Magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the New York Post.

Collectors of his work include LeBron James, Jay-Z and Beyonce, Lenny Kravitz, George Lucas, and Rahm Emanuel, among others. Brantley has collaborated with brands like Nike, Hublot, and Adidas.

In October 2019, Brantley opened an experiential fine art installation fueled by the narrative of his characters FLYBOY and LIL MAMA. The 6,000-square-foot installation in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood hosted over 23,000 ticketed guests and offered them limited-edition merchandise. Brantley currently resides in Los Angeles where he is expanding into content creation including the adaptation of the FLYBOY Universe through his media company, Angry Hero.

Brantley earned a B.A. in Film from Clark Atlanta University and has a background in Design and Media Illustration.

2019 No ID I Rotofugi Resigner Toy Store and Gallery I Chicago, IL

2019 Stance I Casterline Goodman Gallery I Aspen, CO

2019 The Great Debate I Gallery Des Baines I Tokyo, Japan

2018 Then There Were Two I Gallery Des Baines I Geneva, Switzerland

2018 Lord Of The Flys I Avenue Des Arts HK I Hong Kong, China

2017 Eat Crap King I Vertical Gallery I Chicago, IL

2016 Theories Of The Lowend I Solo Exhibition I Miami Art Basel

2016 I Wish I Knew (What It Felt Like To Be Free) | August Wilson Center | Pittsburgh, PA

2015 Memoirs Of The Minimum Wage | Vertical Gallery | Chicago, IL

2014 And All I Got Was Sunshine | Frank Pages Galerie | Geneva, Switzerland

2014 Parade Day Rain | Chicago Cultural Center | Chicago, IL.

2014 Everyone's Everything | Mead Carney Gallery | London, EN

2013 What The Traveler Saw | White Walls Gallery | San Francisco, CA

2013 Downtown 88 | Ultra Gallery | Chicago, IL.

2013 Hebru Brantley | Toys For Boys Miami | Miami, FL

2013 Penny Candy | Loews Atlanta Hotel | Atlanta, GA

2012 Brothers Of The Robbing Hood | Ultra Gallery | Chicago, IL

2012 Trapped In What I Made Believe | Kasia Kay Art Projects | Chicago, IL

2012 artMRKT San Francisco | Tim Yarger Fine Art | Los Angeles, CA

2011 Yesterday's Losers | Ultra Gallery | Chicago, IL

2011 Afro-Futurism: Impossible View | Zhou B. Gallery | Chicago, IL

2010 Common Ground | Elephant Room Gallery | Chicago, IL

2010 Wait A Cotton Pick'n Minute | Lyons Wier Gallery | New York, NY

2010 Six Degrees From Center | C33 Gallery | Chicago, IL

2010 SELF | 33 Collective | Chicago, IL

2010 Whup Yo Kids | Silver Room Gallery | Chicago, IL

2010 Lions Disguised as Lambs | Punctuation Gallery | Seattle, WA

2009 Fade Resistant | Three Peas Art Lounge | Chicago, IL

2009 Zhou B. Gallery/ 33 Collective | Chicago, IL

2008 A Place To Lay My Head | Artistic Genius | Chicago, IL

2007 Next Black Masters | Hennessy Collection | New York, NY

2007 Scion Group Show | Heaven Gallery | Chicago, IL

2007 Pod Majersky Collection | Chicago IL

2007 Nevermore | Leaders1354 | Chicago, IL

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Hebru Brantley creates narrative driven work revolving around his conceptualized iconic characters. Brantley utilizes these iconic characters to address complex ideas around nostalgia, the mental psyche, power and hope. The color palettes, pop-art motifs and characters themselves create accessibility around Brantley's layered and multifaceted ideas.

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Unpacking White Privilege in Academia and Leadership

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Unpacking White Privilege in Academia and Leadership

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Supporting presentation outline by Renee Wells

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Virtual Poetry Workshop with Dasan Ahanu, Piedmont Poet Laureate

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Virtual Poetry Workshop with Dasan Ahanu, Piedmont Poet Laureate

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https://fb.me/e/HCj2ZKnOK?mibextid=RQdjqZ

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NCRA Storied Lives
Author’s Chair Poetry Workshop with Dasan Ahanu
February 7, 2023 @ 7pm

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Is Black History month curriculum encouraging "Performative Activism" in place of authentic enlightenment

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Is Black History month curriculum encouraging "Performative Activism" in place of authentic enlightenment

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Representing culture v. reinforcing prejudice 

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Representing culture v. reinforcing prejudice 

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Across the United States, people have begun marking Black History Month, honouring and remembering the important African Americans throughout history.
Some tributes have gone down better than others, though.

For example, when a New York middle school served their students chicken and waffles with a side of watermelon for lunch, it didn't go down too well with students. You can see how they reacted below:

Aramark, who provide food services for Nyack Middle School, have been called out for serving the racially insensitive meal on the first day of Black History Month (1 February).

Principal David Johnson told WABC that Aramark are to blame for the controversial meal choice, after they supposedly changed the hot lunch menu without informing the school.

Officials have confirmed that the original menu for 1 February was a Philly cheesesteak with broccoli and fresh fruit.

The meal has been described as 'inexcusably insensitive'. Credit: Brent Hofacker / Alamy Stock Photo

Speaking to CBS News about the meal choice, Wilbur Aldridge from the Nyack NAACP explained: "If they had served chicken and waffles by itself, I don't know that we would be having this conversation.

"But the moment you add in the watermelon, that changed the whole complexion, literally."

Meanwhile, student Honore Santiago stated that it was the watermelon that made her raise her eyebrows too.

"They were asking people if they want watermelon and I remember being confused because it's not in season," she said.

As soon as she got home from school, Honore told her mother about her lunch, and both were outraged.

The middle school student admitted that she 'didn't think the company was capable of making us feel bad... especially the kids my colour'.

The chicken and waffles were served with a side of watermelon. Credit: PIFood / Alamy Stock Photo

Principal Johnson issued a statement on the 'inexcusably insensitive' menu change.

He said: "We are extremely disappointed by this regrettable situation and apologise to the entire Nyack community for the cultural insensitivity displayed by our food service provider.

"I am disappointed that Aramark would serve items that differed from the published monthly menu.

"Especially items that reinforce negative stereotypes concerning the African-American Community."

Meanwhile, Aramark has issued their own apology for the insensitive meal choice, stating: "While our menu was not intended as a cultural meal, we acknowledge that the timing was inappropriate, and our team should have been more thoughtful in its service."

This isn't the first time Aramark has slipped up during Black History Month, either.

Aramark has since issued an apology. Credit: Robert K. Chin - Storefronts / Alamy Stock Photo

Back in 2018, the company landed themselves in hot water when they served another racially insensitive meal at New York University during Black History Month.

That time, the meal consisted of Kool-Aid, watermelon-flavoured water, barbecued ribs, cornbread, and collard greens.

After the incident, Aramark issued an apology and staff members involved were let go.

Honore commented: "I thought they learned from their last mistake but I guess not."

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School apologizes after serving watermelon, waffles and fried chicken during Black History Month

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Across the United States, people have begun marking Black History Month, honouring and remembering the important African Americans throughout history. Some tributes have gone down better than others, though. For example, when a New York middle school served their students chicken and waffles with a side of watermelon for lunch, it didn't go down too well with students.

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Questions posed from Rosa Parks common read 

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Questions posed from Rosa Parks common read 

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What makes 1957 (or any year) a watershed moment in the movement?
What does tired mean for Rosa Parks?
What makes a leader?
Why does the face of the movement matter? Should it?
How was the movement preparing Rosa Parka for her moment?
How do moments build a movement?
Why and how did Rosa Parks go from rebel girl to Mother Parks?
How do respectability politics shape the movement?
What defines each of the 3 reconstructions?
Who are the real leaders of the civil rights movement?
Why are young people essential to the movement?
How do practicality and aspiration/ideals clash in a movement?
What makes a rebel?
Who did Rosa Parks stand on the shoulders of?
Who stands on her shoulders?

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https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.83.163

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Recommended by Dr. Jim Harper during common read circle
*available for streaming on peacock

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Watch The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks Streaming Online | Peacock

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The story of Rosa Parks’ radical politics and dedication to activism told through interviews, powerful archival footage and her own words.

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Sokol - There Goes My Everything Webinar

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Sokol - There Goes My Everything Webinar

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There Goes My Everything: White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights