James Ingram, a character interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg, describes the early life of Gowan Pamphlet, a colonial tavern slave who, influenced by the Great Awakening, would eventually become a slave preacher. For the second part of this interview, click here.
Note: this podcast is no longer available. To view a transcript of the original podcast, click here.
Colonial Williamsburg historian Lou Powers discusses the holiday season as it existed in the colonial era, as well as touching on calendar systems and class divisions.
The Moravian church founded Schoenbrunn ("beautiful spring") in 1772 as a mission to the Delaware Indians. The settlement grew to include sixty dwellings and more than 300 inhabitants who drew up Ohio's first civil code and built its first Christian church and schoolhouse. Problems associated with the American Revolution prompted Schoenbrunn's closing in 1777. Schoenbrunn's story features a rare meeting of Indian and European cultures and a fascinating perspective on the American Revolution. Today the reconstructed village includes 17 log buildings, gardens, the original mission cemetery, and a museum and visitor center.
The village offers a short film, exhibits, and tours.
According to the Library of Congress Webcasts summary, in this video, "Joseph Kip Kosek, assistant professor at George Washington University, discussed the impact of radical Christian pacifists on American democratic theory and practice, at the Library of Congress. Kosek, the author of Acts of Conscience: Christian Nonviolence and Modern American Democracy and a former fellow of the Library's John W. Kluge Center, talked about his book. According to Kosek, in response to the massive bloodshed that defined the 20th century, American religious radicals developed an effective new form of nonviolent protest, one that combined Christian principles with new uses of mass media. Greatly influenced by the ideas of Mohandas K. Gandhi, these 'acts of conscience' included sit-ins, boycotts, labor strikes and conscientious objection to war. Beginning with World War I and ending with the ascendance of Martin Luther King Jr., Kosek traces the impact of radical Christian pacifists on America."
The California Missions are among the United States's greatest cultural treasures. The 21 Spanish missions along the California coast have become some of the state's most significant cities, including San Francisco and San Diego. Founded in 1998, the California Missions Foundation was established with the objective of preserving and protecting the missions. The Foundation is the only organization dedicated to the long-term preservation and restoration needs of all California missions and their associated historic and cultural resources for public benefit.
The site offers a brief synopsis of all 21 missions supported by the foundation, a brief history of the missions in general, and information about past foundation successes and future preservation efforts.
This site, part of the larger TeacherServe offers an interactive curriculum enrichment service providing teachers with creative lesson plans and access to materials for the secondary school classroom. To help teachers convey the importance of religion in the development of the United States, this site highlights the intersections between American history and religion at key points like the Puritan migration to New England, abolition, and the Civil Rights Movement. The site offers essays on 24 topics grouped into 17th- and 18th- century, 19th- century, and 20th-century categories. Subjects covered include Native American religion in Early America, witchcraft in Salem village, African American religion in the 19th century, the Scopes trial, and the American Jewish experience.
Each of the 2,000-word essays includes background to the topic, tips on guiding student discussion, a bibliography of approximately five related scholarly works, a discussion of historians' debates over the issue, and links to related resources. Teachers can submit questions and comments on teaching about religion in the classroom to the Center and its consulting scholars, and a discussion link posts these questions and answers. The site also offers links to three websites that offer additional advice on teaching about religion in public schools. This is an excellent site for high school history teachers and it also provides a useful framework for college survey courses.
Maurice Jackson discusses Anthony Benezet, the founder of the antislavery movement in America in the mid-1700s. Benezet believed the British ban on slavery should have been extended to the colonies, and worked to convince his Quaker brethren that slave-owning was not consistent with Christian doctrine.
According to the Library of Congress website, "As "colonists" in 19th-century Russia, Mennonites sang German diasporic choral music and borrowed Russian choral music; when war drove many to North America, Mennonites drew on this repertoire and borrowed new repertoires to forge links to a new elite: North American classical choral singing circles. In this webcast, Jonathan Duek, an ethnomusicologist and visiting assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Music, traces this story not as a linear narrative, but as genealogical fragments, beginning with the resonances of particular songs for present-day Mennonite writers, historians, and singers; and then exploring past moments of the production and reception of these songs in Russia and North America."
Julie Roy Jeffrey of Goucher College discusses the effect of the Second Great Awakening on young people and women and the drive to enact social reforms it encouraged.
To view this clip, select "The Second Great Awakening and Antebellum Social Reform" under "Religion and Culture Video."
John Mack Faragher of Yale University discusses the significance of religion to antebellum settlers in Illinois. He looks at the diversity of sects represented and the importance of religion in community-forming.
To view this clip, select "Religion on the Illinois Frontier" under "Religion and Culture Video."