On the Road to Freedom

FAIN: BC-50402-07

Rhode Island Council for the Humanities (Providence, RI 02903-3308)
Maitrayee Bhattacharyya (Project Director: May 2007 to July 2007)
Mary-Kim Arnold (Project Director: July 2007 to September 2009)

This commemoration of the bicentennial of the abolition of slavery will employ widely attended lectures, live and rebroadcast panel discussions, a documentary film series of Rhode Island Public Broadcasting, targeted speakers bureau presentations for community organizations, and grants.

R.I. Council for the Humanities seeks funds for thematic public humanities programs ranging in format and location. On January 1st 1808, legislation went into effect to prohibit the Atlantic slave trade in the U.S. In observance of the bicentennial of this historic event and how involved R.I. was in the trade, we propose programs to examine the slave trade over time, increase understanding of how inequities of human relations come to be and to change, and make related scholarship accessible.