Slavery in the Colonial North

FAIN: BH-272387-20

Historic Hudson Valley (Tarrytown, NY 10591-1203)
Elizabeth L. Bradley (Project Director: February 2020 to present)
Margaret Hughes (Co Project Director: July 2020 to December 2021)

Two one-week workshops for 72 K-12 educators on the history of slavery in the colonial north.

In recent years, public humanities practitioners have focused on re-evaluating how slavery in America is presented at historic sites, incorporating the point of view of enslaved individuals, and recognizing the longevity of slavery’s existence in America. Still, the narrative of slavery is rooted in the antebellum South, omitting its connection to the legal, economic, and political development of colonial America and the New Nation period. For over 20 years, Historic Hudson Valley has told the story of slavery in colonial America, on site at our historic site Philipsburg Manor and, in 2019, with the interactive documentary People Not Property: Stories of Slavery in the Colonial North. In 2017 and 2019, HHV hosted NEH summer Institutes to explore this topic with K-12 teachers. Now HHV seeks a Landmarks grant for summer 2021. The workshop would be grounded at Philipsburg Manor and extended to nearby historic sites to consider how these locations expand our knowledge of American slavery.