Professor John Wood Sweet "uses the dramatic story of Venture Smith, an enslaved African in New England who earned his freedom, to anchor an analysis of the colonial dynamics that brought together — and kept apart — a series of disparate regions and peoples in the increasingly global early modern world."

"A panel discussion featuring Elizabeth Alexander, Natasha Trethewey, and Caryl Phillips."

Professor Diane Mutti-Burke "explores the diversity found within Southern plantations by illuminating how region and the size of slaveholding altered slavery. This lecture is part of the Gilder Lehrman Center Brown Bag Lunch Series."

Scholar Robert Bonner "examines a multi-faceted 'proslavery Americanism' that sought to nationalize Southern slaveholding within the late antebellum U.S. before providing a platform for the Confederate departure of the early 1860s. This lecture is part of the Gilder Lehrman Center Brown Bag Lunch Series."

Author Edward Ball explores Southern memory and interpretation of slavery, as part of the Gilder Lehrman Brown Bag Lunch Series.

University of Pittsburgh professor Marcus Rediker will discuss his book "The Slave Ship: A Human History," which explores life and relationships, for and between both crew and slaves, on slave ships traveling between Africa and the Americas.

This seminar explores the history of the American antislavery movement, from its institutional and ideological origins in the post-Revolutionary era to the eve of the Civil War. A particular focus of the course will be the historical reality and mythology of the Underground Railroad, understood through the lives, strategies, writings, and fate of black abolitionists.

"The seminar will explore the lived experience of ordinary Americans during the colonial period of history. Topics will include: family and household, community organization, making a living, religious belief and practice, witchcraft and magic, and shared patterns of human psychology. Material culture will also receive considerable emphasis: domestic architecture, furnishings, the natural environment. Mornings will be devoted to lectures and discussion; afternoons to field trips and library work."