Crafting Freedom Summer
Institute 2007
General Description
of Crafting Freedom Summer Institute 2007
"Crafting Freedom: Thomas Day & Elizabeth Keckly, Black
Artisans, Entrepreneurs and Artists in the Making of America", an
expenses-paid institute on 19th century African American history and
culture, is funded by a
grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to the Apprend Foundation, Inc. This
Institute is an expansion of the
popular and highly rated "Crafting Freedom" workshops offered from 2004 to 2006 to
over 400 teachers. This new and improved eleven-day institute offers 30 K-12 teachers
an opportunity
to study African American history and culture through the lives and
works of 19th century black artisans, entrepreneurs and artists. In addition, several historic sites will be toured in the
Piedmont area of North Carolina: the Union
Tavern, the Burwell School, and Historic Stagville
Plantation. The Union Tavern, in the town of Milton, NC, was the
home and shop of the free black cabinetmaker, Thomas Day
(1801-ca.1860) from 1848 until his death. The
Burwell School in historic Hillsborough, the colonial capital of
North Carolina, was the girlhood home of Elizabeth Keckly (1817-1907),
the most important black woman in the clothing industry during the Civil
War. She was the fashion designer and a confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln. Stagville
Plantation, just North of Durham, was the largest plantation in the
state in the mid-nineteenth century and has rare, intact slave
quarters and slave-built structures.
Read
Crafting Freedom 2006 Participant Reflections
Read CF
'05 Participant Reflections
See images of sites.
Crafting
Freedom on the Radio
Listen to the N.C. Public Radio program
about TDEP and Crafting Freedom on the WUNC audio archives.
(Scroll down to Thomas Day, date 2/6/2006. )
Institute Specifics
|
|
|
Photo right: Suite
bedroom |
 |
How to Apply
Institute Dates :
July 12, 2007 (Thursday) - July 23rd, 2007 (Monday).
Institute Themes, Approach, and
Resources Provided
The "Crafting Freedom" Summer Institute themes are based on recent scholarship on
the participation of enslaved and free black men and women in the
nineteenth-century "market revolution." Thomas Day (1801-ca 1860)
was a celebrated free black Southern cabinetmaker. He had the largest
furniture shop in North Carolina in 1850 and was described in a
January 2004 issue of The New York Times as a "major antebellum figure."
Elizabeth Keckly (1817-1907) was a skilled dressmaker and
fashion designer as well as being a confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln. She was also the author of an important
slave narrative and best seller, Behind the Scenes or,Thirty Years a
Slave, and Four Years in the White House.
Participants ( also called "Crafting Freedom Fellows") will be assigned readings in the Keckly memoir and will
receive free of charge additional resources for study and
classroom use valued at over $75. These include "Exploring the World of Thomas Day",
a CD-ROM (produced by TDEP with major NEH funding) that provides
fifty-six textual primary sources about Thomas Day's life and work. It
won the highest honor, an Award of Excellence from Technology and Learning
Magazine in 2003; a video conversation with the leading scholar on the black
business tradition in America, Dr. Juliet E. K. Walker; and other
media and texts. In addition, participants will receive the “Crafting
Freedom Course Pack” that contains up-to-date scholarship on black artisans, business
people, and artists prior
to the Civil War as well as copies of primary sources for study and
classroom use..
Eligibility
The Institute is designed for full-time teachers including
home-schooling parents, but other K-12 school personnel, such as
librarians and administrators may also be eligible to apply. Substitutes
or part-time personnel are NOT eligible. Applications from public,
private and religiously-affiliated schools receive equal consideration. Applicants must be US citizens, residents of US jurisdictions or foreign
nationals who have been residing in the US or its territories for at
least three years immediately preceding the application deadline. Foreign nationals teaching outside the US are not eligible. Applicants must be teaching in the US or its territorial possessions or
at a foreign school where at least 50% of the students are American
nationals.
Applicants must complete
the online NEH application cover sheet and provide all the information
requested to be considered eligible. Current colleagues or family
members of the Institute Director are not eligible nor are individuals
who have previously studied with institute scholars. You may request
information about as many projects as you like, but you may apply to
ONLY ONE NEH-funded Summer 2007 Seminar or Institute.
Selection Criteria
There are 30 openings
for Crafting Freedom Fellows. A selection committee will read and
evaluate all complete application packets. NEH programs
do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex,
disability, or age. Special consideration is given to the Application
Essay and to the likelihood that an applicant will benefit
professionally and personally from the Institute experience. This
is determined by the review committee on several factors which should be
addressed in the application essay:
▪ effectiveness and commitment as a teacher/educator
▪ intellectual interests, both generally and as they
relate to African-American history and culture
▪ special perspectives, skills or experiences that you
have that would contribute to the Crafting Freedom Institute
▪ commitment to participate fully in the formal and
informal collegial life of Crafting Freedom
▪ the likelihood that the institute will enhance the
applicant's teaching, especially in regard to any of the following:
teaching with primary sources, i.e. historic documents,
artifacts, and historic places; improving teaching of African American
history/culture year-round; or discussing historical or contemporary issues of race,
culture and ethnicity with your students. Note: Often one of the
reasons teachers have for wanting to participate in the institute is
their lack or their students' lack of knowledge and exposure to black
history and culture. If this is a motivation for your participation,
please explain.
When choices must be made
among equally qualified candidates, several additional factors are
considered. Preference is given to applicants who have not
previously participated in an NEH seminar or institute, or who
significantly contribute to the diversity of the institute.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Applicants may wish
to enhance their chances of being accepted by submitting the application
essay early. If submitted by February 1st, 2007 we will provide written
feedback designed to enhance your essay's quality and competitiveness.
Description of Accommodations
Crafting
Freedom Fellows will be housed at a popular chain hotel on the
outskirts of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the home of the University of
North Carolina, the nation’s first state-supported university. Crafting
Freedom hosts will make all arrangements for participants directly with
the hotel. The hotel rate and services have been especially negotiated
for the Crafting Freedom Institute. The cost of the hotel room (
single or double) as well as the cost of eight catered meals, including
major snacks; fees for tours; all ground van transportation; and
instructional materials will be pre-payed out of the stipend allowance.
(see Compensation below) The hotel is 20 minutes from the Raleigh-Durham
International Airport. Participants will have the option to be housed in
a shared double room that has a bedroom with two queen beds and a bath
or a single room with one queen bed. You may request in advance to have
another participant as a room-mate or the workshop registrar will match
room-mates based on a number of features like smoking/non-smoking; age;
preferred bed-time; etc.
Participants will arrive at the Raleigh-Durham Airport and call a
telephone number – to be mailed out in June - for van transportation to
the hotel. A map for drivers will be mailed out in June also. Do not
follow MAPQUEST as you will get lost, but follow hotel directions.Costs of
hotel, all breakfasts, several catered meals, coach travel, tours to
sites, materials and ground transportation including airport
transportation are subtracted from each participant's expenses allowance
(See below). Most meals will be "on your own"; however, stipend checks
should reimburse most out-of-pocket meals. There
are several restaurants and fast food chains within walking distance of
the hotel and a nearby free city bus that goes into the town of Chapel
Hill which has scores of restaurants and other amenities. The hotel will
provide heavy hors d’oeuvres at a managers’ reception the first night of
the Institute including pizza. Participants are encouraged to bring any
special medicines, conveniences, toiletries, and other necessities as
there is not a drug store within walking distance of the hotel; however,
there’s a chain grocery store about two blocks away which offers some
over the counter medicines as well as a full array of food offerings for
those with special dietary needs. There is a large outdoor pool and
small fitness center at the hotel as well as a pleasant, shaded outdoor
area with picnic tables. The Institute can accommodate vegetarians but
regrettably cannot accommodate individuals with food allergies or other
special dietary requirements. With the exception of one Carolina Pork
Barbecue luncheon, most catered meals will offer non pork options.
Compensation for Room, Board, and Travel
$1800
is allocated to each participant as an expenses stipend or
allowance. Crafting Freedom fellows will receive an Expenses Stipend and
Lodging Form in the mail which explains how expenses will be deducted
from the $1800 stipend for a single and double room. Participants are
given a check for half of their stipend remainder upon arrival at the
institute and half at the end of the Institute. It is expected that
approximately $800 will be deducted from the stipend of participants
choosing a shared double leaving approximately $1,000.00 for travel and
other living expenses. Approximately $1150 will be deducted from the
$1800 stipend for participants choosing a single leaving approximately
$650.00 for travel and other living expenses for those who elect a
single accommodation
Tenure and Conditions of Award
Institute participants are required to attend all scheduled meetings and to engage in all
institute activities. Participants who, for any reason, do not attend all
of the required project sessions will receive a pro-rata portion of their
expense allowance (stipend.) This will be deducted from the second
stipend check. Participants will provide NEH with an
assessment of their institute experience, especially in terms of its
value to their personal and professional development. Participants will
also be asked by institute leaders to provide a confidential written
"reflection" of their institute experience. Personal or interpretive
essays as well as other written contributions will also be required.
Nearby Participants
North Carolina, South
Carolina, and Virginia participants are encouraged to apply and
are encouraged to stay at the Institute hotel, regardless of their
proximity to the hotel. The hotel offers a setting where participants live
close to each other and have access to common areas for
informal discussions and study. Easy-to-walk to, affordable
restaurants provide a variety of places for sharing evening meals
with visiting scholars and fellow participants. Local participants as well as out of
town participants benefit from the residential aspect of this experience
by living together as a "learning community" in a
comfortable,
retreat-like environment.
The Team or "Pair" Approach
Applicants sometimes
apply with a colleague from their school or school district. If
you apply with a colleague, it's important to explain in your
application essay how being part of a twosome will enhance
dissemination of what you learn when you return to your school or
district. Other benefits the pair approach offers should also be
explained in each application essay. We have observed that pairs from the same
school or school district have been very successful at disseminating newfound knowledge and instructional techniques when they
return home. An interdisciplinary pair of teachers, for example, can
find wonderful ways of integrating this subject matter across the
curriculum.
We have also observed cases in which pairs stayed to themselves and did
not interact much with others in the learning community. In sum, while
there can be benefits from two individuals applying from the same school
or district, these need to be made very clear in the application essays
of each applicant. Because each application is reviewed individually,
we cannot guarantee that both
members of a pair from the same school or district will be accepted.
Prior to accepting to
attend, please review all the terms of residence and attendance,
reading and writing requirements, and participation in the work of the
project discussed in detail on this page.
Credit
Teachers frequently ask
whether in-service or graduate credit can be earned through
participation in a workshops. NEH does not provide or arrange
for such credits. However, at the end of the workshop, each participant
will receive a certificate verifying the number of successfully
completed contact hours of professional development in the institute.
This certificate can be presented to certifying agencies in your school
district for CEU credit.
Cultural and Recreational Amenities
of the Area
During the Institute
there will be a day set aside for free time to explore cultural and
recreational options. Please feel free to come a day or two
earlier or stay a day or two later, if you wish to see more of the area.
You will be responsible for paying for any extra days at the hotel from
your own funds and any additional travel your personal activities
require.
The Research Triangle
Area encompasses three cities: Raleigh, the
state capital; Durham, home of Duke
University and North Carolina Central;
and Chapel Hill, the home of the University
of North Carolina The place in the center of it all is the Research
Triangle Park (RTP) and the hotel is located in Durham adjacent to the RTP. RTP
is a major research and business area that dies on week-ends. There is a
generous offering of lectures, concerts, museums, recreation, and night
life in the Research Triangle area. However, the only times in the
schedule to participate in some of these offerings are on the two
Saturday nights that occur during the Institute or on the one "free" day
in the schedule provided for independent study and exploration. There is limited van
service at the hotel and nearby public transportation has limited
week-end schedules. Taxi service or car rental will be the most
dependable forms of transportation for those wishing to take
advantage of cultural and recreational amenities before, during or after
the Institute.
Presentation Topics ( subject to modification)
- "Creative Artisans, Entrepreneurs
and Artists: Keckly and Day"
- "Uncovering the Hidden History of
Thomas Day: The Union Tavern National Historic Landmark"
- Uncovering Enslaved and Free Blacks
Using Genealogy Records
- "Crafting Freedom: Black Artisanship &
Enterprise in the Making of America"
- "Sally Thomas, a Virtually Free
Enslaved Entrepreneur"
- "Free Frank: A Black Entrepreneur on
the American Frontier"
- "'With All Necessary Care and
Attention': Understanding the Furniture of Thomas Day"
- "I Ain't Been No Ways Tired: My Life
as a Seamstress and Fashion Designer"
- "Black Artisans of Charleston"
- "Troublesome Property: Nat Turner and
an Alternative Path to Freedom"
- "Lifting the Veil: African American
Artists & Artisans in the Antebellum Period"
Readings (The following
is a sample of some of the readings that are used in the Institute):
Fleischner, Jennifer Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Fleischner, Broadway
Books, NY, 2003.
Holland, Juanita M., ed.,
The International Review of African American Art: 19th Century African American Craft
Arts of the South. Vol. 12. No. 3. Hampton: Hampton University
Museum, 1995.
Jacobs, Harriet A.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself.
Edited by Jean F.Yellin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1987.
Paquette, Michael. "An Inquiry Into Business and Labor Practices in an
Antebellum Cabinetshop." Journal
of North Carolina Association of Historians. Vol. 6. (Fall 2002) 1-15.
Prown, Jonathan. "A Cultural Analysis of Furniture-making in Petersburg,
Virginia, 1760-1820." Journal of
Early Southern Decorative Arts.
Vol. XVIII, No. 1, May 1992. 1-173.
Rogers, Patricia Dane. "Carved in History. Thomas Day: A Success in an
Unlikely Time and Place." The Washington
Post (Home Section), February 13,1997. 10, 11, 20-21.
Vlach, John Michael. The Afro-American Tradition in the Decorative
Arts. Athens, GA: Universit of Georgia Press, 1990.
Wood, Peter H. "Black
Builders of the Early South." Southern Exposure Magazine, Vol.
VIII. No. 1. (Spring 1990). 3-8.
Wood, Peter H. Strange
New Land: African Americans 1617-1776. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Primary Source Activities (
subject to modification)
-
"Using Slave Narratives
to Teach"
-
"How Historians
Interpret
Primary Source Material"
-
"Teaching with
Furniture as a Primary Source"
-
"Using Runaway
Slave and Artisan Ads in the Classroom"
-
"Using New Media to
Teach The Process of Historical Research"
Faculty, Visiting Lecturers, Master Teachers, and Artisan/Performing
Artist Presenters
(Subject to change in 2007 depending on availability )
Faculty & Visiting Lecturers
Dr. Reginald
Hildebrand is a professor in the Department of Afro-American history
and culture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He will
give a lecture on the role of religion in the life of enslaved and free
African Americans in the antebellum period.
Dr. Juanita Holland is an independent cultural historian who
focuses on nineteenth-century African American art and culture. She will
present a lecture on African American artists of the 19th century and
how they crafted freedom for themselves and their families.
Dr. Joseph Jordan
is director of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for African-American
history and culture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He will host a panel concerned with using documentary films on
black history topics in the classroom.
Katherine Malone-France is former director of the Burwell School
historic site and was instrumental in making Elizabeth Keckly the most
prominent figure treated at the site. She will give a lecture on Keckly's life with
an emphasis on her girlhood
years at the Burwell School.
Patricia Phillips Marshall is curator of furnishings and
decorative arts at the North Carolina Museum of History. She is an
expert on Thomas Day and his furniture and is currently co-authoring the
first major book on him and his work.
Dr. Percy Murray, is an historian at North Carolina Central
University and is also the Director of Graduate Studies there. He will
lead a discussion group.
Michael Paquette,
is an independent scholar and a traditional furniture maker. He has
extensively researched the operation of Thomas Day's furniture shop in
Milton and has published several articles on this topic. He will present
a lecture on Thomas Day's shop and his activities as both a Master
cabinetmaker and a business man.
Dr. Bernard E. Powers, Jr. is a professor of history at the
University of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina where he also
directs the M.A. program. Dr. Powers is a author of Black
Charlestonians: A Social History 1822-1855 and is an expert on the
Charleston black community.
Dr. Loren Schweninger
is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at
Greensboro.
Dr. Schweninger has written and
co-authored many books on African American history. His most recent work,
In Search of the Promised Land, A Slave Family in the Old South ,
was co-authored with pre-eminent historian, Dr. John Hope Franklin. This
book focuses on the life of a black entrepreneur and business woman,
Sally Thomas. Dr. Schweninger will talk about Sally Thomas in his
lecture.
Laurel Sneed is
director of the "Crafting Freedom" workshops and is also an independent
scholar who led the research effort that discovered Thomas Day's family
of origin, including identifying his mother, father and brother in 1995.
She has continued to conduct research on Day's family and will lecture
on Thomas Day's early life and the free black social context within
which he and Keckly lived and worked as craftspeople and entrepreneurs.
Dr. John M. Vlach, professor of American studies and anthropology
and director of the folk life program at George Washington University,
is author or editor of eight books and has found time to serve as a
major scholar advisor to TDEP since its inception. He will present at Stagville Plantation
where he will
talk about the work of enslaved artisans.
Dr. Juliet E. K. Walker is founder and director of the Center for
Black Business History, Entrepreneurship, and Technology at the
University of Texas—Austin. She is also a professor in the history
department there, and has written numerous books on African American
history, including The History of Black Business in America. She will
provide the keynote address, contextualizing the major themes of
"Crafting Freedom." A video conversation with Dr. Walker
entitled: "The Economic Life of African American in the Age of Slavery"
will be provided all participants.
Dr. Michele Ware is Assistant Director of the Institute.
She is an associate professor of English at North
Carolina Central University, concentrates on the nineteenth-century
American short story. She will make a presentation on interpreting and
teaching with slave narratives like Keckly's She will also lead
discussion groups and assist during tours.
Dr. Peter Wood, professor of history at Duke University, is a
renowned scholar in colonial African American history. He has been a
major advisor and board member of TDEP since its inception in 1993. He
will provide a lecture on the various ways enslaved people crafted
freedom, using the political activities of Nat Turner as an example of a
revolutionary's attempt to achieve freedom through slave
rebellion.
Master Teachers & Workshop Coordinators
(Subject to change in 2007 depending on
presenter availability and session attended )
Beverly McNeill, a veteran, award-winning teacher of twenty-nine
years, currently teaches fourth grade in an inner-city school in Durham,
North Carolina. She serves as the Board Chair for Apprend Foundation as
well as serving on the board of Stagville
Plantation, where she frequently gives workshops and leads tours. She
will serve as a staff member, institute coordinator, and organizer of the
Teacher Resources fair.
Lewis Nelson is a Social Studies coordinator at the middle grade
levels for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI.) He has
studied African American history with TDEP for four years and has
developed exciting strategies and approaches for integrating this
history into his teaching. He will be a presenter at the Teachers' Resources Fair.
Charles D. Sneed is a
social studies teacher at Hillside High School in Durham, NC.
Along with Laurel Sneed, he co-founded the Thomas Day Education Project
and has studied African-American history with Thomas Day Education Project
since its inception. He served as Assistant Director on
Crafting Freedom Workshops (2004-2006).
Dr. Sarah Russell
is history instructor at the North Carolina School of Math and Science,
a state supported high school for outstanding math and science
students. She received her doctorate at the University of Maryland
under the direction of Dr. Ira Berlin. Her dissertation concerned
African American communities in Louisiana. Dr. Russell's students at the
NCSMS have assisted TDEP with numerous research projects. She will make
a presentation on using runaway-slave ads.
Artisan &
Performing Artist Presenters
(Subject to change in 2007
depending on presenter availability )
Jerome Bias is a
traditional cabinetmaker (furniture-maker) based in Mebane, NC who
still produces hand-crafted furniture using the same centuries-old
cabinetry techniques as his ancestors. He will demonstrate traditional
joinery and other techniques of fine cabinetry at the NC Museum of
History.
Ken Grady is an
actor, museum educator, and announcer at WNCU, the public broadcasting
"jazz station" at North Carolina Central University in Durham. He has
been very involved with the African American Cultural Complex in Raleigh
for many years where he wears many hats. He became involved in Crafting
Freedom in 2004 and will serve as a historic "re-enactor" during the
institute.
Rhonda Hatton is a
divinity student at Duke University. She received her undergraduate
degree from North Carolina Central University in Drama and has
worked in a broad range of capacities at the Thomas Day Education
Project including administrative assistant and assistant producer.
She will serve as
an re-enactor at the Crafting Freedom Institute.
Nellie"Chubbs" Miles,
a native of Person County, NC is a traditional seamstress who will
lead a seminar on the African-American seamstress tradition in her
family and community. She is also an educator who offers in-school
consultancies and workshops as a traditional artist/artisan. She will demonstrate traditional sewing
techniques learned from her grandmother and discuss life on a tobacco
farm in the 1940's and 1950's.
Mike Wiley is a nationally known actor and performer who will
present an engaging interpretation of the "Narrative of Henry Box
Brown." Brown was an enslaved tobacco factory worker who escaped from
slavery by having himself shipped from Richmond to Philadelphia in a
shipping box.
Past Participant Quotes
To read reflections
from Crafting Freedom '06 Click Here.
To read reflections
from Crafting Freedom '05 Click
Here.
To read Quotes from
Crafting Freedom '04 See below.
"Like Thomas Day whose handmade chairs were not just utilitarian but
were also skillfully put together with beauty and care, the organizers
of this program did not just put on a workshop; they nurtured it,
filling it with passion, thoughtfulness, and sophistication. This love
of their craft was demonstrated throughout."
"It was such a deep and rich experience that I'm still processing it…I
think the humanities may be the key to teaching history -- allowing
students to respond to works of art or primary source narratives as a
way of getting a grasp on history."
"I am most excited by the substantial background information on the
history of slavery in this country. I had little knowledge and could not
help teachers or students undertake learning in a meaningful way. I was
uncomfortable with this history, as are many teachers, but the immersion
in substance has given me the confidence to incorporate it in the
curriculum in a way that will not make African American students feel
demeaned or white students feel guilty."
"I really felt that every minute was extremely well programmed and
worthwhile. We were treated like royalty in a way--there was so much
respect shown to us as educators."
"This was a very valuable program. It combined theory with biography,
activities with field trips - a good model of what should happen in the
classroom."
"What a fabulous opportunity! The more I learned the more I realized
that I needed to learn. I now realize that there is so much new
information on this subject I did not have or was even aware of."
