| FT-53203-05 | Research Programs: Summer Stipends | Eric Scott Gardner | The Rhetoric of Slavery and Freedom in the Antebellum St. Louis Freedom Suits | 5/1/2005 - 6/30/2005 | $5,000.00 | Eric | Scott | Gardner | | | | Saginaw Valley State University | University Center | MI | 48710-0001 | USA | 2005 | American Studies | Summer Stipends | Research Programs | 5000 | 0 | 5000 | 0 |
The St. Louis Circuit Court Archives has identified close to 300 "freedom suits"--suits by St. Louis slaves seeking their freedom. This rich, un-tapped collection offers not only a new picture of urban slavery in a Western border state, but also of the lives and voices of individual enslaved people heretofore unheard of. This project will use the suits to better understand *how* different individuals talked about slavery and race. Specifically, as the first step toward a book on the rhetoric of slavery and freedom, the stipend will allow the applicant to transcribe representative case files; research biographical, cultural, and other contextual information on cases; articulate a typology for the rhetoric in the suits; and begin to share this work with the public. |