This workshop will investigate "four crucial periods of African-American history -- slavery, emancipation, reconstruction, and segregation -- through the lens of the experiences of African Americans in the District of Columbia." Specific topics will include "The Landscape of Urban Enslavement," "Resistance to Slavery in the Nation’s Capital," "Emancipation and Civil War Washington, "Institutions of Reconstruction: The Freedman’s Bureau and the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company," "Frederick Douglass and the Politics of Reconstruction, "Community, Activism, and Desegregation: 1900-1954," to be explored through visits to historic landmarks, lectures, teaching resource sessions, and curriculum project development.

This workshop will investigate "four crucial periods of African-American history -- slavery, emancipation, reconstruction, and segregation -- through the lens of the experiences of African Americans in the District of Columbia." Specific topics will include "The Landscape of Urban Enslavement," "Resistance to Slavery in the Nation’s Capital," "Emancipation and Civil War Washington, "Institutions of Reconstruction: The Freedman’s Bureau and the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company," "Frederick Douglass and the Politics of Reconstruction, "Community, Activism, and Desegregation: 1900-1954," to be explored through visits to historic landmarks, lectures, teaching resource sessions, and curriculum project development.

This seminar will consider two different American Revolutions. One was the struggle for American self-determination. The second was the ongoing struggle for liberty and equality enunciated in the Declaration of Independence. Participants will consider the ideological, economic, social, and political causes of the War for Independence. They will also consider the war as a political, military, and social struggle. This course will discuss critical steps made during and after the war for liberty and equality: the abolition of slavery in the North, enhancement of women's roles, and enfranchisement of unpropertied white men. Since New York figured as a critical field of conflict in both American Revolutions, the seminar will take advantage of its location in New York to visit some of the most important Revolutionary sites.