Crafting Freedom: Thomas Day and Elizabeth Keckly: Black Artisans, Entrepreneurs, and Artists in the Making of America

FAIN: ES-50149-06

Apprend Foundation (Durham, NC 27713-2219)
Laurel Sneed (Project Director: March 2006 to October 2008)

A two-week institute for thirty school teachers on Thomas Day, Elizabeth Keckly, and other free and enslaved African American artisans and entrepreneurs in the antebellum South.

This grant proposal requests funding for a two week Summer Teacher Institute to support thirty elementary, middle, and secondary humanities teachers in the study of antebellum American history and culture examined through the experiences of free and enslaved artisans, entrepreneurs, and artists. Thomas Day, a free black cabinetmaker, and Elizabeth Keckly, a famous black seamstress and fashion designer of the Civil War era, will be the focus of much of the Institute’s scholarship. They provide rich and rare case histories of the 19th century black artisanal experience.In addition, recent research on other black artisans, entrepreneurs, and artists will further illuminate the three institute themes: "crafting freedom through black business enterprise;" "the politics of crafting freedom;" and "crafting freedom through creative expression."