|
"African-Americans and Abolition: Sources and Stories" will be on display in the main lobby of Thomas Cooper Library Feb. 6-March 31.
The exhibit is free and open to the public during regular library hours.
From its inception in Pennsylvania in the late eighteenth century, the American abolitionist movement attempted to include the voices and experiences of African-Americans. Former slaves, both free and fugitive, were sought as speakers to authentically describe conditions in the South and rally support for abolition. Free blacks in the North formed "colored anti-slavery societies" in many cities and participated in larger state and national gatherings of abolitionists. The first African-American newspapers were founded with close ties to abolition groups, and other print sources such as narratives and memoirs were published to convert nineteenth century public opinion.
The Thomas Cooper Library exhibit documents African-American contributions to the abolitionist movement, both formal and implicit, and draws upon original source documents from Rare Books and Special Collections. Items from the Augusta Baker Collection of African-American Children's Literature and Folklore show how this part of American history has recently been retold in books for children and young adult audiences as well. Highlights include two significant new library acquisitions: a first edition of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), and a contemporary London edition of one of the earliest American abolitionist tracts, Anthony Benezet's A Caution to Great Britain and Her Colonies..., printed in 1767.
For more information about this exhibit, contact Jeffrey Makala at 7-0296 or makalaj@gwm.sc.edu.
2/06
|
Items from the exhibit
