Embedded Files
History's Mysteries is now Private i History Detectives!
7/2/21: Just when we thought it couldn't get any better! The final day of the Clotilda to Community NEH program did not disappoint. We had the honor of spending almost an hour with the incredible scholar Dr. Silviane Diouf who shared with us her thorough and thoughtful methodology in creating her book Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America. She showed us some amazing sources!
We heard from a panel of descendants this morning including Ms. Pat Frazier, Mr. Bill Green, and Mr. Jeremy Ellis. Each one talked about their Clotilda ancestors, Lottie Dennison (Ms. Frazier), Ossa and Innie Keeby (Mr. Green), and Pollee and Rose Allen (Mr. Ellis). They also talked about their continued community involvement in multiple organizations working to protect and revitalize Africatown, including the Africatown Descendants Association. One incredibly powerful message we continue to hear is that it is so important the descendants get to control and tell the story and that the story of Africatown and the Clotilda remains focused on the people not the ship.
We are eternally grateful for the organization, thoughtfulness and modeling of the team that provided this Professional Development. We look forward to working further with everyone! Thanks to Dr. Joel Billingsley, Dr. Ryan Noble, Dr. Angelia Bendolph, Ms. Marlena Lewis and the many guests we were privileged to meet this week! Many thanks!
"Africa Town A Story Worth Knowing, A Community Worth Renewing."Watch this video to learn more about the descendants and other community members working to tell the story of Africatown.
Graveyardwalker (Amy Walker), CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Walter Calloway, Alabama, 1936-38. Library of Congress
In talking about oral history today, it reminded me of the rich collection of narratives compiled by the Federal Writers' Project during the Great Depression. If you've never had chance to check out the Library of Congress collection Born in Slavery.
7/1/21: When we first read Barracoon, the narrative of Kossula Cudjo Lewis, we had no idea that there was such a living, breathing and fighting history in Africatown. As we read his narrative, we knew Mr. Lewis provided a human story to help young learners understand a painful and difficult history. We knew it could help us tell the story of freedom and slavery to students. Throughout the last two years, we've come to learn so much about the history of Africatown and the present of Africatown.
Today's session, focused on Africatown, oral history, and trauma sensitive classrooms. It's remarkable how our program directors have constructed a program that is thorough, thoughtful, and enriching. If they offer this NEH Landmarks Program again, we 100% recommend you apply! Wow!
One message that was incredibly clear today was the importance of oral history to the story of Africatown and the story of slavery in general. Dr. Kenja McCray from Atlanta Metropolitan College, and Dr. Christy Harrison Garrison from Southern University, were our engaging speakers.
Oral history plays a large role in West African cultures, like the Yoruba culture of the 110 survivors, but the stories of enslaved people were almost always relegated to oral transfer as most southern state laws forbid enslaved people from learning to read and write. Like all forms of history, oral history has its strengths and weaknesses, but using oral history in the classroom helps to provide a much more rich and full picture of history. In our 3rd Mystery in this series, "How did Kossula Cudjo Lewis and other Africans face the conditions of slavery?" students are asked to look at a textbook excerpt about enslavement after reading excerpts from the narratives of Kossula Cudjo Lewis and Mary Prince. Students are asked how primary sources like the recorded narratives of Mr. Lewis and Ms. Prince help them better understand slavery. Students are asked, "What advice would you give to future historians about why it is important to read, listen to and see the stories of enslaved people in order to understand the conditions of slavery?" Our History's Mysteries students love the idea of giving advice to future historians!
We've learned about several organizations operating in Africatown to preserve, restore, and address existing environmental problems. This morning we heard from Ramsey Sprague, the President Mobile Environmental Justice and Action Coalition (MEJAC). Other organizations include: CHESS, Clotilda Descendants Association, Mobile County Training School Alumnae Association, MOVE Gulf Coast Community Development Corporation
Tomorrow is our last day and we know it will focus on the most important part of this story, the people! We are already trying to figure out how to make road trip and continue our work!
6/30/21: Today's sessions in Clotilda to Community continued to impress. Dr. Andrew Wegmann from Delta State University delivered an intriguing lecture about the legacy of the Middle Passage in creating the African Diaspora. The Middle Passage wasn’t just a movement of people-- it was a cultural, social, and economic legacy that created an “African America”. Africans enslaved via the Middle Passage did not see themselves as African. For example, many of the 110 survivors were Yoruba from the Oyo Empire. The Middle Passage facilitated the forced erasure of so many languages, cultures, and practices, though elements endured, as seen through the 110 and the creation of new African American cultures forged from this legacy. He reminded us of this powerful silent video graphic that shows the Middle Passage in 2 Minutes. If you haven't seen our History Mystery on the Middle Passage, check it out!
Descendants of the Last Slave Ship Fight to Preserve Their History | NowThis, This video explores the environmental issues in Africatown and the struggle to revitalize the historic community. It is also available for educators in our 4th Mystery on Africatown
We also had the chance to hear from Scotty Kirkland, an Archivist from the Alabama Department of Archives and History. We had a chance to hear a little more about the history of Mobile and he introduced us to some great primary source sets for educators about Alabama History. We are excitedly working on a new Grade 2 unit about forced migration and Yoruba cultural influences using the story of the 110 survivors of the Clotilda. So amped!
What the Discovery of the Last American Slave Ship Means to Descendants | National Geographic. This video is featured in our unit, but for those of you who haven't taught it, watch it!
6/29/21: Tuesday's sessions were filled with rich information and allowed us to look at this history from so many angles. So many amazing presenters today!
Dr. Benterah C. Morton from the University of South Alabama gave an amazing presentation titled, “Framing Myself as an Multicultural Educator.” It was an interactive and reflective time for educators to look at our own practices and self-assess where we fall on the continuum.
Dr. Nicholas P. Wood spoke in the morning about slavery on the 17th and 18th Century. So many players involved and complicit. Watching how the laws evolved to extend and deepen slavery in the New World is an important dive into primary sources.
Later in the day we heard from Darron Patterson, Clotilda descendant and president of the Clotilda Descendants Association. Listening to him speak was a highlight for me. His passion for the story of the Clotilda to be told and the history of his ancestors to be shared with school children is evidenced in his tireless work to support the community of Africatown. His pride in the institutions and people of Africatown shone through as he spoke. He reminded me of the power of story and personal narrative. We heard stories of elders walking kindergarteners to school, teachers checking in with parents, and lots of modeling of community values. We heard about the vital and self-sufficient community that developed in Africatown and how the descendants continue to pass down stories and artifacts to keep the story of the 110 alive. As I was scanning the internet and looking for more information about our speakers, I came across this great article about how our program coordinators and the Clotilda Descendants Association are creating a digital archive for K-12 classrooms to help educators teach about the history. This is just one small example of the descendants' big plans for the future of Africatown.
Engaging students daily with history requires that we provide opportunities to connect with their own identity. Why does this story matter in 2021? It is when we help students discover the answer to that question that we can begin to engage them in deep, critical thought and discussion. All of these speakers impact how we are thinking about our upcoming Grade 2 unit on forced migration. We are thinking about the deep Yoruban cultural roots and values that the 110 brought with them to America and how they used them to face slavery and build community.
6/28/21: Monday's session at the Clotilda to Community program introduced us to scholar Dr. Natalie Robertson, who spent 20 years of her life researching and telling the history of the 110 people on the Clotilda. Her book, "The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Making of Africatown, USA" is an amazing and comprehensive history of the 110. I already have so many tweaks and additions to make to our Grade 5 unit! Dr. Robertson introduced us to important rubric for Museums and Historic Sites in engaging descendant communities in the interpretation of slavery.
We began to discuss the important work of teaching hard histories. Dr. Angelia Bendolph introduced us to an important framework she used for developing curriculum about the 110 people taken on the Clotilda, Africatown and their descendants. She used the framework of Culture, Humanity and Language. We look forward to hearing more and using this as a lens to review our own curriculum.
We learned about Project 110, a documentary project to tell the story of the Clotilda and Africatown created by our program directors Dr. Joel Lewis Billingsley and Professor Ryan Noble. We saw some amazing clips today. See the trailer above!
We had the chance to meet some incredible educators that we look forward to learning from and with this week. As we began to get to know each other I was struck by a comment one of my fellow participants made. The person she was introducing had a beautiful, traditionally African name and she had taken the time to learn to pronounce it correctly because, “Names are important.” This got me thinking about our Kindergarten Mystery Unit 2, Mystery 1 “Where is the history in a name?”
The time to learn about each person in the room and invite them to share important parts of their identity set the tone for sharing and connecting. When we go back in the fall to our own classrooms, I wonder how we can keep this at the forefront of the work we do? Perhaps we should all take time to explore this lesson and adapt it to our grade level. In learning where our students' names come from we will learn much about their families and cultures as well as what they value. It is a great way to begin connecting. Wow! What a great day!
6/27/21: Over the next week, Laurie and Kelley will be attending the NEH Landmarks program From Clotilda to Community: The History of Mobile, Alabama's Africatown! Many of you have worked with our Grade 5 Unit How did Kossula Cudjo Lewis and other enslaved people experience the Atlantic World? This NEH program will give us a closer look at the history of the Clotilda, Mr. Kossula Cudjo Lewis and the community of Africatown. We'll be blogging everyday this week, so stay tuned! You can find our latest updates here!
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse