The Crisis of Race from the History and Legacy of Slavery in New England
A Workshop for Middle and High School Educators
The Tracing Center on Histories and Legacies of Slavery, in collaboration with Royall House and Slave Quarters and the Deerfield Teachers’ Center
Massachusetts Educators – join us for special workshops on the role of the North in slavery. Aligned with the state’s Curriculum Frameworks, the workshops cover content knowledge about New England’s complicity in slavery and the slave trade, as well as tools for how to effectively and sensitively teach the subject matter to students of all backgrounds. Massachusetts teachers may earn Professional Development Points.
“The Tracing Center’s workshop gave me a much more personal connection to the slavery. For the first time I really felt emotionally attached. I had no idea how profound slavery’s impact was in our state.”
Teacher, North Kingstown, RI
The workshops will focus on two primary ways of teaching of slavery that can be improved:
- More comprehensive history content
- Improve teaching with cultural competence and sensitivity to psychological and ethical/civic significance of the material
A comprehensive and conscientious teaching of slavery matters to our modern crisis of race for the following reasons:
- Healthier racial relations in schools
- Better development of students as future citizens and leaders for on-going crisis of racial disparities and racial disconnection/distrust, and for cause of anti-slavery
The workshops are conveniently located in the Boston-metro area (Medford) and in central Massachusetts (Deerfield) to be accessible to all Massachusetts teachers. Both workshops will cover the same content information, but include a visit to a different local historic site. You may attend the one nearest you, or choose the other to explore new resources. The workshops are offered free of charge, lunch included.
Royall House and Slave Quarters, Medford. This is the only extant slave quarters in the northern United States. Belinda, one of the enslaved Africans held by the Royalls, successfully petitioned the Massachusetts Legislature for a pension in 1783 for her time enslaved to Isaac Royall, a Loyalist who fled Massachusetts during the Revolution.
Ebenezer Wells House, Deerfield. Lucy Terry, stolen out of Africa as a child, was eventually purchased by Ebenezer Wells of Deerfield, Massachusetts. She and another slave, Caesar, lived and worked in Wells’ house. A gifted story teller and a poet, Lucy Terry gained her freedom shortly after her 1756 marriage to Abijah Prince, a free black man living in Deerfield.
Register Now – Workshops are FREE.
August 15-16, 2011: Medford, Royall House and Slave Quarters
August 18-19, 2011: Deerfield, Deerfield Teachers’ Center
To register, please fill out the following form:
Send questions to Kristin Gallas at .
This program is funded in part by Mass Humanities, in collaboration with the Deerfield Teachers’ Center and Royall House and Slave Quarters.
