Georgia Historical Society

Dear Colleague,

Welcome to Savannah - a city rich in history, charm, and southern hospitality!  The Georgia Historical Society (GHS) invites you to join us for a week of scholarly study and exchange as we explore two centuries of African-American life and culture in Savannah and Georgia's coastal islands.   GHS's "African-American History & Culture in the Georgia Lowcountry: Savannah & The Coastal Islands, 1750 - 1950" was selected as a National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks of American History and Culture: Workshops for Community College Faculty program for Summer 2010.  GHS will offer two week-long workshop sessions: the first from July 11 - 17, 2010 and the second from July 18 - 24, 2010. 

Workshop Content, Scope, and Approach

GHS's Landmarks workshops are designed to offer a place-based immersion experience that encompasses scholarly and sensory exploration of African-American history, life, and culture in both urban and rural environments.  Through a combination of course readings, scholarly lectures, landmark site visits, community presentations, guided tours, and research at GHS's Library and Archives, you will be engaged in a scholarly dialogue focused on examining the centrality of place in the African-American experience in Georgia's Lowcountry and the larger Atlantic world. 

The streets, squares, and structures of Savannah's Historic Landmark District, including the Telfair's Owens-Thomas House, and the Beach Institute neighborhood, will be used to illustrate the social, economic, cultural, and religious life of African-Americans in an urban setting.  Additional landmark site visits to Ossabaw Island and Sapelo Island, including Sapelo's Hog Hammock community, will focus on the lives and distinct cultures that developed in the plantation island communities of Georgia's Lowcountry. Together these experiences will illuminate the impact of geography, environment, and economies on the sustainability of African-American family life; gender roles; the interaction of place and culture; the creation of early African-American churches; the role of informal slave economies; Reconstruction on the barrier islands; and the enduring influence of the Gullah-Geechee culture in the twentieth century and beyond.

Landmarks We'll Visit

The Rural Experience
The workshop's first landmark is Sapelo Island, a 16,500-acre island located midway on the Georgia coastline on the eastern fringe of McIntosh County.  The story of African-American life and culture on the island begins in the early nineteenth century and encompasses slavery and plantation economies, the establishment of freedmen communities, and endures with the presence of a small, close-knit community of African Americans who trace their lineage to enslaved West Africans.  The plantations of Sapelo Island were the largest producers of Sea Island cotton in antebellum America and the island offers a wonderful opportunity to explore the ways in which geography, environment, and economies shaped the development of African-American culture in the nineteenth century.  This particular landmark affords a glimpse into the rich cultural history and communities of African Americans in Georgia's barrier islands.  Buddy Sullivan, the Director of the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve and an expert on coastal Georgia history, will provide an overview of the history of the island.  In addition, participants will visit Hog Hammock, a historic African-American community established in 1857 and visit with Sapelo Island native Cornelia Walker Bailey, a direct descendent of Bilalie, the most famous and powerful enslaved African to inhabit the island.  Ms. Bailey is author of the cultural memoir God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man and has been deemed the keeper of the islands culture and history and the sage of Sapelo.  This island, like Ossabaw Island, will help contextualize the larger African-American experience in the Atlantic world, the organic nature of African-American folkways and culture, and how both have been sustained into the twentieth century and beyond. 

Ossabaw Island, six miles from Savannah's coastline, is the workshop's second landmark.  The island possesses something rare: a peerless archeological site, well-preserved plantation records, the founding of a traditional African-American community on the coast, the connections of a barrier island with an urban center like Savannah, and illuminates the role of Northerners in shaping the coast of Georgia.  Accessible only by a special pre-arranged ferry, the 26,000-acre island of salt marsh and maritime forest is a Heritage Preserve cared for by the Ossabaw Island Foundation.  In 1995, Ossabaw was listed on the National Trust's 11 Most Endangered List and in 1996 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.  The island is an excellent place to study the ways in which coastal Georgia was part of the cultural and economic exchange of the larger Atlantic world.  Ossabaw tells an important story about the African-American population of this region and its unique culture; some 205 African Americans (Census of 1860) lived on the barrier island and developed a culture that drew deeply on their African roots.   The landmark focal point revolves around three tabby slave cabins on the north end of the island, described by the state archaeologist as "one of Georgia's most significant archaeological and historical sites." The complex includes the cabins constructed during the 1840s, an associated yard and field system, and rich archaeological deposits relating to African-American life dating to the pre-Revolutionary era. The tabbies have kept their original appearance and yet were lived in as late as the 1980s. The cabins offer the opportunity to tell three different stories - that of the enslaved workers of the colonial and antebellum periods, the freedmen of the second half of the nineteenth century and their struggle to carve out an existence for themselves in Reconstruction America, and the African-Americans of the twentieth century who lived on the island or in small communities on the mainland and came over to work.  Giving this story particular impetus is the fact that several families who live in Pin Point, Georgia (birthplace of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas), five miles away by water, are descended from those who were on the island in the late nineteenth centuries.  The site visit to Ossabaw Island will include a tour of the archaeological site and a co-lecture by Dr. Paul Pressly, Director of the Ossabaw Island Educational Alliance, and Emory Campbell of the Penn Center, the preeminent institution for the study of Gullah culture.

The Urban Experience
The Telfair Museum's Owens-Thomas House and corresponding urban slavery tour will serve as the workshop's third landmark.  Originally built for cotton merchant Richard Richardson between 1816 and 1819, the interpretive house museum includes one of the earliest, intact slave quarters in the South and offers a more inclusive view of nineteenth-century life for the entire household, including African-Americans.  As the starting point for the program on the urban experience of African-Americans in Savannah, this house displays not only the workmanship of African-American laborers, but provides an example of what living conditions would have been like for urban domestic workers in the nineteenth century.  Led by Vaughnette Goode-Walker, Director of Cultural Diversity and Access for the Telfair Museums, a guided walking tour of the neighborhood will provide participants with insights into the lives of the people associated with the house.   The tour will focus primarily on the life of Andrew C. Marshall, who purchased his freedom from the Richardson family and became the minister of a local black congregation. As both an enslaved worker for the Richardsons and as a free man, Marshall belonged to a world far different from that experienced by African-Americans living in rural settings.  Workshop participants will have the opportunity to see the homes, churches, and other structures that would have been integral to the lives of Marshall and his neighbors - both free and enslaved.  

The workshop's fourth landmark, the Beach Institute, will allow continued discussion of the importance of education within the African-American community, particularly in the post-Civil War period.  The Beach Institute was established in 1867 by the Freedmen's Bureau using funds from the American Missionary Association to provide quality education for blacks in Savannah.  Following emancipation, African Americans throughout the South sought educational opportunities they had previously been denied.  The establishment of these schools provided the chance for northern philanthropists like Alfred A. Beach, editor of Scientific American, to become involved in the effort to educate former slaves.  Beach provided the funds to purchase the site of the Savannah school that would bear his name.  Until 1919, Beach Institute served the educational needs of the African-American community as a school and continues today as a center for cultural education on African-American art and history.  Workshop participants will experience the Beach Institute both as a historical site through a tour of the building and discussion of its history as well as through a walking tour of the Beach Institute neighborhood. 

Visiting Scholars and Speakers 

The workshop has been designed as a dialogue between faculty, visiting scholars, community guides, and workshop participants.  Speakers and course readings have been selected to engage participants in rigorous review and study of African-American history and culture and are intended to inform their understanding of the themes presented in the workshop. Distinguished scholars, museum professionals, and local history experts will share insights with us and help to guide our group dialogue surrounding African-American life and culture in the Georgia Lowcountry.  We will have four of the leading scholars of African-American history in the country as part of our workshop:

Dr. Alexander X. Byrd is an associate professor of history at Rice University and is the author of Captives & Voyagers: Black Migrants Across the Eighteenth-Century British Atlantic World, a history of free and forced transatlantic black migration in the period of the American Revolution. His next major research project is a study of race and urban life in the United States through a history of two city high schools and their respective neighborhoods, for which he was awarded a Collaborative Research Grant from the Humanities Research Center. Dr. Byrd regularly offers a lecture and discussion course on The Atlantic World: Origins to the Age of Revolutions; courses exploring The Origins of Afro-America; and a first-year seminar in the School of Humanities on Brown v. Board of Education. He team teaches with his colleague Edward Cox a survey of Afro American history called Blacks in the Americas. In 2006, Dr. Byrd received the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching. He has held fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Social Science Research Council, the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies at Princeton University, and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Participants will read excerpts from Dr. Byrd's book, and he will address the workshop on the first day to talk about transatlantic black migrations to the Lowcountry in the eighteenth century.

Dr. Erskine Clarke is an expert on religion and slavery in the American South. He is Emeritus Professor of American Religious History at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. Dr. Clarke is the author, most recently, of Dwelling Place: A Plantation Epic. This book was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in history, a National Book Critics Circle Award, and won the prestigious Bancroft Prize in 2006, awarded annually by Columbia University in New York to a work of exceptional merit in American history. This book is a narrative history of four generations of white & black inhabitants on the plantations of prominent Georgia minister Charles Colcock Jones. Covering the years 1805-1869, Dr. Clarke's book explores the vastly different experiences of slave and slaveowner on the plantation, and it will be read by all workshop participants prior to the workshop. Dr. Clarke will address the workshop on the first day in order to place the story of the African-American experience in lowcountry Georgia in a larger context, setting the stage for the more in-depth exploration of various topics the rest of the week.

Dr. Annette Gordon-Reed is professor of law at New York Law School and professor of history at Rutgers University. She is the author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, which received the Pulitzer Prize in history, the National Book Award for non-fiction, and the Frederick Douglass Book Prize, an annual prize awarded by Yale University's Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition for the best book written in English on slavery or abolition. She is also the author of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, which had an acclaimed but stormy reception when it was first published in 1997. She is the co-author of Vernon Can Read!: A Memoir with civil rights leader Vernon Jordan and the editor of Race on Trial: Law and Justice in American History. She is recognized as one of our country's most distinguished presidential scholars. Dr. Gordon-Reed will discuss the experience of African-American women in slavery and freedom.

Dr. Jacqueline Jones is Walter Prescott Webb Chair in History and Ideas and Mastin Gentry White Professor of Southern History at the University of Texas at Austin. A former MacArthur Fellow (1999-2004) and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she specializes in U. S. southern, African-American, labor, and women's history. She is author of several books, including Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War (a finalist for the 2009 Frederick Douglass Book Prize); Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work and the Family from Slavery to the Present, for which she received the prestigious Bancroft Prize; and Soldiers of Light and Love: Northern Teachers and Georgia Blacks, 1865-1873. In addition to the Bancroft Prize, Dr. Jones has also received the Taft Prize in Labor History, the Spruill Prize in Southern Women's History, the Brown Publication Prize in Black Women's History, plus research grants from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Social Science Research Council. Dr. Jones will help us to understand urban slavery and the ways in which the urban South created a unique environment for the creation of African-American life and culture in the 19th and 20th centuries.
 

Each of the ideas presented in scholarly lectures will be further developed by key museum professionals and local historians from within Savannah and the coastal island communities during each Landmark site visit.

Pre-Workshop Preparation

A robust pre-workshop reading list will be assigned, and we ask that you complete all required readings prior to the opening workshop session. These readings are intended to serve as a foundation upon which our presenting scholars, landmark site visits, meaningful group dialogue, and invested research and study will be built as we explore and better understand the complex themes and experiences relating to the life and culture of African-Americans in Georgia's Lowcountry.

Well before arrival, you will receive a reading list with selected texts and course packet that will prepare you for the week. Participants will be asked to read Erskine Clarke's Dwelling Place: A Plantation Epic, Jacqueline Jones' Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War, Annette Gordon-Reed's The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, and Cornelia Walker Bailey's God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man: A Saltwater Geechee Talks About Life on Sapelo Island, Georgia, prior to arrival.  These books will provide a framework for experiential study of African-American life and culture in Georgia's Lowcountry. Workshop participants do not need to purchase these books; we'll send them out to you two months before the workshop begins.

The workshop will begin Sunday afternoon with a gathering at Hodgson Hall, the Georgia Historical Society's headquarters at our Savannah campus, that will include registration, welcome, introductions, and an overview of workshop activities and participant expectations.  A reception will be hosted that evening for participants to mingle with colleagues, relax, and enjoy the hospitality and charms of Savannah.  For a complete day-by-day, schedule, please click on the "Workshop Schedule" link on our website.
 

Eligibility and Application Procedures

GHS's Landmarks workshops are designed to address broad themes of race and slavery in American history; however the workshop content will help to facilitate classroom discussions not only on general topics such as American slavery, antebellum American history, early American and nineteenth-century economies, religion, art, and music, but will also help faculty to understand and share with students more site-specific subjects such as the impact of geography, environment, time and place on the development of community values and cultures.  As such, we are seeking to promote a cross-disciplinary learning environment and welcome full-time and part-time faculty from American community colleges in history, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, religion, English, political science, government, architectural history, and a variety of other humanities- related disciplines to apply. Adjunct faculty and part-time lecturers are eligible to participate as well and are encouraged to apply. Other community college staff, including librarians and administrators, are eligible to compete, provided they can advance the teaching and/or research goals of the workshop.

An applicant need not have an advanced degree in order to qualify.  Candidates for degrees are only eligible to apply if they are employed by an institution other than the one at which they are degree candidates and if their participation is intended to enhance their teaching of American undergraduates.  Degree candidates cannot use their participation in an NEH Landmarks project to meet a degree requirement, including work on masters' theses or doctoral dissertations.  Applicants must be United States citizens, residents of U.S. jurisdictions, or foreign nationals who have been resident in the United States or its territories for at least the three years immediately preceding the application deadline.  Foreign nationals teaching abroad are not eligible to apply. Individuals may not apply to study with a director of a Landmarks project who is a current colleague or a family member. Individuals may not apply to participate in a workshop given by the same director on the same topic in which they have previously participated; in other words, you should not attend the same workshop twice.

New this year: An individual may apply to up to three NEH summer projects (Landmarks workshops, seminars, or institutes) in any one year, but may participate in only one. Please note that eligibility criteria differ significantly between the Landmarks Workshops and the Seminars and Institutes programs.

Applicants must complete the NEH application cover sheet and provide all of the information and application components requested to be considered eligible.  Perhaps the most important part of the completed application is an essay of one to two double-spaced pages.  This essay should include information about your professional background and interest in the subject of the Workshop; your special perspectives, skills, or experiences that would contribute to the Workshop; and how the experience would enhance your teaching, research, or professional service.  Additionally, a letter of recommendation from your department/division chair or alternate professional reference (such as a colleague or dissertation advisor) is required. 

Completed application must be postmarked no later than March 2, 2010 and mailed to:

Georgia Historical Society
501 Whitaker Street
Savannah, GA 31401
Attn: Landmarks of American History Workshop

Participant Expectations

GHS's Landmarks of American History workshop will unquestionably demand a great deal of each individual participant.  To fulfill the workshop goals and ensure a dynamic professional development experience for all attendees we expect 100 percent commitment and involvement from each participant.  A robust pre-workshop reading schedule will be assigned, and we ask that all required readings be completed prior to the opening workshop session.  These readings are intended to serve as a foundation upon which our presenting scholars, landmark site visits, meaningful group dialogue, and invested research and study will be built as we explore and better understand the complex themes and experiences relating to the life and culture of African-Americans in Georgia's Lowcountry.
 

Blocks of time have been set aside for group discussion and for you to conduct research in GHS's Library and Archives. All workshop participants will be expected to present a short reaction paper on the last day of the workshop and to discuss how they will implement the ideas and themes of the workshop in the classroom. Research time in the GHS Library & Archives will be available on Monday evening, and on Wednesday and Friday afternoons.

While lectures and research will be conducted indoors, the workshops' urban walking tours and island excursions will take place in the heat of Savannah's summer.  You can reasonably expect warm days, potentially rainy afternoons, and flying insects of various kinds both in town and when we visit the islands. You'll want to dress accordingly for both environments. Even in summer, however, Savannah remains one of the most visited tourist attractions in the country, and the city is overflowing with charm, great food, beautiful architecture, and unique historic sites and cultural attractions. We think you'll find it a wonderful place to visit, and we invite you to take advantage of all that it has to offer.    

Workshop Institution and Staff

Chartered by the Georgia General Assembly in 1839, the Georgia Historical Society (GHS) is the state's oldest cultural organization and first and only statewide historical society.  GHS is an educational and research institution created to preserve and interpret the history of Georgia and the state's role in American history by operating a library and archive in Savannah, by presenting a variety of educational programs across the state, and by authoring publications on Georgia and American history for scholars and students across the nation.  Headquartered in Savannah with offices in Atlanta, the Society has 6,000 individual members and nearly 200 affiliate chapters.

GHS Library and Archives

The Georgia Historical Society is a major research center and houses the world's oldest collection of material related to Georgia history.  The Society's collection includes four million manuscripts, 100,000 photographs, 30,000 architectural drawings, 15,000 rare and non-rare books, and thousands of maps, portraits and artifacts, representing the collective memory of the state of Georgia and relating the stories of the state's diverse people.

Publications and Scholarship

GHS is the world's oldest publisher of Georgia history.  Since 1840, when it published its first book, the Society has led the way in interpreting Georgia's history through the printed word.  In addition to books, GHS has published The Georgia Historical Quarterly, the award-winning journal of record for Georgia and southern history, since 1917.  The Society also publishes Georgia History Today, a quarterly member magazine that examines the ongoing presence of the past.

Project Staff

Stan Deaton, Project Director, is Senior Historian at the Georgia Historical Society and will serve as principal faculty for the program.  He is also the Managing Editor and Book Review Editor of The Georgia Historical Quarterly, the Society's scholarly journal. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Florida.

W. Todd Groce will serve as faculty for the program. He serves as President and CEO of the Georgia Historical Society  and is the author and editor of several books on the Civil War era.  He holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
  

Christy Crisp is GHS Director of Programs and will serve as project manager, assisting with implementation of the programs. 

Charlie Snyder is GHS Program Coordinator, will assist with all logistical aspects of the workshops. He will be your main point of contact at the Georgia Historical Society through the application process and in the months leading up to the workshop itself.

Academic Resources

In addition to lectures, site visits, and the required and suggested readings from books written on our themes of study, you will be given the opportunity to conduct research in GHS's extensive library and archives collection.  The GHS library currently provides access to paper-based and electronic catalogs, collection finding aids, serial publications, books, microfilm, and archival material.  Technologies in place in the reading room include three public-access microfilm reader/printers, one public-access microfiche reader, two public-access computer terminals, one staff-only computer terminal, and one staff-only photocopier.  Normal business hours for GHS's Reading Room are Tuesday - Friday from Noon to 5 p.m. and the first and third Saturdays of each month from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Our library will be opened at special times for use by workshop participants, and GHS staff archivists and historians will be available to assist you in your research.

Participants are encouraged to bring laptop computers with them as public access computers are limited.  Although personal computers are welcomed in lecture sessions, they are discouraged for on-site visits. Use your discretion here. We will make necessary accommodations to safely store personal computers at Hodgson Hall before leaving for a site visit. 

Description of Housing

The Georgia Historical Society is located in the heart of Savannah's Historic Landmark District.  The history, charm, and beauty of Savannah lure over 6.35 million visitors throughout each year.  As such, there is an abundance of housing options-from intimate Bed & Breakfast inns to larger hotel chains-but be forewarned that demand for rooms in the Historic District is at a peak in the summer months.  It is the responsibility of each participant to arrange for their preferred housing.  However, as we seek to build and strengthen the sense of our scholarly community we encourage participants to stay in pre-arranged program housing.

For housing, we have reserved a block of affordable studio suites at the Residence Inn by Marriott (pictured above, and in three pictures on left) in Savannah's Downtown Historic District. These will be available at a reduced rate, at $95/night plus tax.  The facility is within a reasonable walk of GHS (10-12 minutes) or participants may choose to ride a convenient and free bus service in the historic downtown area.  These studio suites at the Residence Inn feature separate living, working, eating and sleeping areas with fully equipped kitchens and complimentary WiFi Internet access.  Additionally, each room at this rate includes the following amenities: complimentary hot breakfast daily, complimentary evening reception (wine, beer, light hors d'oeuvres), complimentary grocery delivery (leave a list of groceries at the front desk and they will be delivered to your room), access to on-site fitness facility, outdoor heated pool, cleaning services, coin-operated laundry facilities, access to same-day dry cleaning service, a lobby bar open seven days a week, a 24-hour business center with computers with Internet access, fax, copy, and print services, in-room work space, 32" LCD flat panel HDTVs (with premium cable, including HBO, CNN, and ESPN), two phones with voicemail and data ports, AM/FM/MP3 clock radio, in-room hairdryer, iron, and ironing board, and complimentary weekday USA Today, A number of restaurants at all price points are available within walking distance of the hotel. Visit their website at www.residenceinnsavannahdowntown.com for full details.  Participants interested in staying at the Residence Inn will book directly with the hotel. For those wishing to bring family members with them, please note that family members may not participate in formal seminar sessions.

Participant Stipend

Each workshop participant will receive a $1,200 stipend to assist with housing, meals, and incidental expenses.  Please note, the participant is solely responsible for costs incurred while attending the program and participant stipends are not to be considered as reimbursements of participant expenses. Please note also that there are no longer travel supplements separate from the stipend in this program. Stipends will be paid at the close of each residential workshop session; participants are required to attend 100% of the program to receive the full stipend.  Those that do not attend all workshop sessions, including opening and closing sessions, will have their stipend prorated based on a daily rate formula.  Participant stipends are taxable income.

Cultural and Recreational Resources

Savannah is truly a national treasure!  The site of the founding of Britain's thirteenth and final colony and one of the nation's first planned cities, Savannah and its rich history are matched only by its unsurpassable beauty and charm.  Boasting eight nationally recognized historic districts and thirty-five nationally recognized historic structures (eight of which are historic landmarks), Savannah's sites and storytelling locals invite visitors to enjoy the city's friendly, relaxing southern style.  In addition to stunning squares, historic sites, and local haunts (as Savannah has been deemed one of the most haunted cities in America), Savannah is home to countless artists and inspired chefs who delight the senses in galleries and restaurants throughout the city.  Please visit  www.savcvb.com for more information.

Please remember that your completed application should be postmarked no later than March 2, 2010. Successful applicants will be notified of their selection by April 1, 2010, and will have until April 5, 2010 to accept or decline the offer.

Thank you for your interest. Please do not hesitate to contact us at csnyder@georgiahistory.com or 912-651-2125 if you have any questions or need additional information. I look forward to receiving your application and to seeing you in Savannah!

Sincerely,

Stan Deaton, Ph.D.

Project Director

Director's Letter  -  Readings  -  Landmarks  -  Visiting Scholars

Application  -  Participant Guidelines