Freedom Stories
To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and to celebrate Furman's formal partnership with the Upcountry History Museum, we are putting on a series of lecture and conference events from September 2012 through January 2013.
These will be complemented by a
Freedom Stories website of community-contributed videos, stories, and artifacts, focused the transition to freedom in the Civil War and related eras.
The opening event will be a lecture on emancipation by Clemson historian and Furman graduate Vernon Burton on 26 September in Younts Auditorium. There will be a mini-conference at the Upcountry History Museum on 28 October on the topic of abolition and the transition to freedom, along with a workshop on collecting family stories. A second mini-conference on 18 November will consider the ongoing legacies and complexities of emancipation, coupled with presentations and posters by community members and students. The capstone event, on 22 January at Younts Auditorium, will feature historian and University of Richmond President Edward L. Ayers, speaking on his project
Visualizing Emancipation.
For information please contact Dr. Lloyd Benson, Furman University Department of History 864-294-3492,
Lloyd.Benson@Furman.edu