The George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center is pleased to announce that Richard Blackett will deliver the 12th annual Brose Lectures on March 15, 16, and 17. The series of lectures, “Taking a New Look at the Underground Railroad,” will examine communities on both sides of the divide between Slave and Free states and discuss the wide array of efforts by individuals in those communities to assist or obstruct the Underground Railroad. Most histories of this topic focus on the slaves who escaped and the northerners who offered them safe haven during their journey to freedom. Professor Blackett will expand this view to include the stories of “moles” who remained in the South and “subversives” who periodically traveled to the South to entice slaves to escape. Similarly, he will discuss the motivations not only of northern supporters of the Underground Railroad but northern opponents, too. Professor Blackett’s lectures will move past the romance and myth of the Underground Railroad and reveal its complexity and breadth to show how it not only affected the lives of individual slaves, but also created political havoc that ultimately led to slavery’s demise.

Richard Blackett is the Andrew Jackson Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. He is a historian of the abolitionist movement in the US and particularly its transatlantic connections and the roles African Americans played in the movement to abolish slavery. He is the author of several books, including Building an Antislavery Wall: Black Americans in the Atlantic Abolitionist Movement, 1830-1860 (Louisiana State University Press, 1983); Beating Against the Barriers: Biographical Essays in Nineteenth-Century Afro-American History (Louisiana State University Press, 1986); Thomas Morris Chester: Black Civil war Correspondent (Da Capo Press, 1989); and Divided Hearts: Britain and the American Civil War (Louisiana State University Press, 2001. He is also the editor of Running A thousand Miles for Freedom: The Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery (Louisiana State University Press, 1999). At present he is working on a study of the ways communities on both sides of the divide organized to support or resist enforcement of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, and the ways slaves influenced the politics of slavery through the act of escaping.

 

Dates, Times, and Locations of Lectures:

"Making Their Way to Freedom", Thursday, March 15, 2012, 7:00 pm, The Nittany Lion Inn, Assembly Room

"The Workings of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law", Friday, March 16, 2012, 7:00 pm, The Nittany Lion Inn, Assemby Room

"Taking Leave: Fugitive Slaves and the Politics of Freedom", Saturday, March 17, 2012, 4:00 pm, The Nittany Lion Inn, Ballroom DE

 

About the Series:

The Steven and Janice Brose Distinguished Lecture Series in the Era of The Civil War is supported by an endowment established by the Broses in 1998.  In 2001 the Brose’s added to the endowment, their additional contribution allowing a distinguished lecturer to deliver three related lectures over three days. The series generates books published by the University of North Carolina Press. Past lecturers include James Horton, Carol Reardon, Nina Silber, Thomas C. Holt, Gary Gallagher, Mark Noll, Mark Neely, Michael Holt, Drew Faust, and Eric Foner.