Transatlantic Slavery Symposium: Public Memory and Oral History

Join historian Annette Gordon-Reed (author of On Juneteenth and the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Hemingses of Monticello) as she leads a panel discussion about the importance of oral histories in understanding how individuals and communities experienced the forces of history. Andrew Davenport, Public Historian & Manager of the Getting Word African American Oral History Project, will discuss Getting Word's near 28-year history and how descendants are “getting word” to us today about their lives, their families, and their dreams. Justin Reid is the director of Community Initiatives at Virginia Humanities and co-founder of The Lemon Project, which is aimed to address the history of slavery at the College of William & Mary. Alan Rice is Professor of English and American Studies at the University of Central Lancashire and co-director of the Institute for Black Atlantic Research (IBAR) and director of the UCLan Lancashire Research Centre in Migration, Diaspora and Exile (MIDEX). Together they will discuss the importance of learning from the past to grapple with issues that face us today. The Transatlantic Slavery Symposium is a joint venture between Benjamin Franklin House in London, the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, and the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Our aim is to bring together scholars from both sides of the Atlantic to address the lasting impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade through panel discussions on themes ranging from its historical foundations and development in the Revolutionary Atlantic world to current best practices in the museums and heritage sector. We hope that by addressing this complex topic from a historical and contemporary perspective, we can spark further discussions on how to bring stories of enslaved people to the forefront of public history internationally.