Slavery in Alabama:
Public Amnesia and Historical Memory
Led by Timothy R. Buckner, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History,
Troy University

Photo courtesy the Alabama Department of Archives and History

Sponsored in part by The Alabama Department of Archives and History

For generations, Southerners have made the effort to remove the protection of slavery as a primary cause of the Civil War; going so far as to deny the evidence presented in ordinances of secession as well as state constitutions and the Confederate Constitution itself. The veneration of the Civil War as the romantic "Lost Cause" has influenced how school boards have selected texts, how teachers have chosen to teach, and most importantly, how students have come to understand the history of their country, region, and state.

This historical blind spot is not just the creation of a national obsession with the Civil War. Scholars and the public alike have welcomed discussions about race in Alabama, but for the most part only by focusing on the Civil Rights Movement. No one denies the importance of that struggle, but the brightness of the light shined upon the mid-twentieth century has left the efforts of enslaved men and women in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in relative darkness.

The purpose of this institute is to provide teachers in the state of Alabama with a deeper understanding of the simultaneous development of freedom and un-freedom and importance of the enslaved as well as history of the state, region, and nation. The ultimate goal is for us to move away from modern political assumptions and get ourselves and our students to think historically about how the influence of slavery has shaped America.

Prospective Agenda:

Institute Sessions/Presentations will include an overview of slavery in a broad world-wide context, as well as the effect of the transatlantic slave trade on the formation of the American colonies, the contradictions inherent in founding a nation of liberty wherein twenty percent of its population lived as slaves, and the implications that this had for the history of Alabama. Guest Scholars will discuss Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the development of slavery in the south, the master/slave relationship, slavery in urban/industrial settings, slavery and its influence in politics, African slavery among Native Americans, slavery and the Civil War, the portrayal of slaves and slavery in literature, and slavery in Alabama.

Click here for APPLICATION GUIDELINES

Click here for this institutes's APPLICATION FORM in Microsoft Word format.

Click here for this institutes's APPLICATION FORM in PDF format.

Location : Alabama Department of Archives and History, Auburn University Montgomery, and Rosa Parks Museum and Library (Troy University Montgomery)

Dates : June 28-July 3

Times : Program begins Sunday at 2:00pm and concludes Friday at 12:00 pm. Evening sessions will end at 9:00pm.

Format : Residential seminar. Lodging and all meals

Meals : breakfast, lunch and dinner provided daily

Lodging : Auburn University Montgomery - high-security apartment with four bedrooms (one per teacher), two private bathrooms, joint kitchen, living/study areas.

Presenting scholars (tentative listing - subject to change)

• Martha Jane Brazy, PhD, Associate Professor of History, U South Alabama
• Ed Bridges, PhD, Director, Alabama Department of Archives & History (ADAH)
• Harriet Amos Doss, PhD, Associate Professor of History, UAB
• Susan Dubose, Education Specialist, ADAH
• Chaunda A. McDavis, PhD, Assistant Professor of English, Auburn Montgomery
• Mary Ann Neeley, MA, Independent Scholar, Montgomery
• Kenneth Noe, PhD, Draughon Professor of Southern History, Auburn U
• Georgette Norman, Executive Director, Rosa Parks Museum & Library, Troy U Montgomery
• Debbie Pendleton, Assistant Director for Public Services, ADAH
• Kevin Roberts, PhD, Headmaster & President, Pope John Paul II Academy, Lafayette, LA
• Christine E. Sears, PhD, Assistant Professor of History, UAH
• Bryant Shaw, PhD, Professor of History and Chair, History Dept., Troy U
• Frazine Taylor, Reference Archivist, ADAH

Session Topics

• The challenges of teaching slavery in Alabama
• Slavery in Africa
• Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
• Alabama and the Illegal Slave Trade
• Slavery and the Atlantic World
• The development of slavery in the South
• The master/slave relationship
• Slavery and Old South Politics
• Slavery in the City
• Slavery and the Civil War
• Slavery and Native Americans
• ADAH Primary Sources Workshops
• Slavery and Literature "roundtable"
• Slavery, the Civil Rights Movement and the Unfinished Civil War
• Slavery and Alabama's Political and Economic Development

Program Activities

• Walking tour of historically relevant sites in downtown Montgomery
• Dinner in Old Town Alabama
• Films: African-American Lives, parts 1-4, Amistad, Glory

Resource Materials to be provided prior to the Institute

• David Blight, A Slave No More
• Steven Deyle, Carry Me Back: The Domestic Slave Trade in American Life
• Sylvianne Diouf, Dreams of Africa in Alabama
• Henry Louis Gates, The Classic Slave Narratives
• Marcus Rediker, Slave Ship
• Randall Willians, Weren't No Good Times: Personal Account of Slavery in Alabama
• Amistad movie DVD

CEUs: 66 contact hrs
Includes two-day follow-up, residential workshop, held Monday and Tuesday, September 28 and 29, 2009. Substitute teacher reimbursement will be provided. Additional program information will follow shortly. 

Session Topics, Resource Materials and Activities are subject to change.

For all questions concerning this program, contact
Thomas E. Bryant: tbryant@ahf.net, (205) 558-3997

"Slavery in Alabama" is co-sponsored by:

The Alabama Department of Archives and History

Additional program support is provided by:

Old Alabama Town

The Rosa Parks Museum and Library at Troy University Montgomery

ALEX (Alabama Learning Exchange

ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide)