ASHP Podcast

Fritz Umbach and Kojo Dei, John Jay College, CUNY“Teaching America and the Slave Trade in Global Perspective”The Graduate Center, CUNYFebruary 8, 2008While most Americans understand slavery solely through the prism of its existence in the Americas, in fact the “peculiar institution” as practiced in the new world makes up only a small part of the global history of slavery. Historian Fritz Umbach and anthropologist Kojo Dei outline the complex history of slavery within African societies, along with Africa’s extensive and long-lasting slave trade with India and the Islamic middle east. A close examination of the transatlantic slave trade reveals that African rulers were far from the victims of European traders; in fact, they held the upper hand.In Part 1 of this podcast, Professor Dei explains anthropological understandings of slavery in West African societies and Professor Umbach describes the ways that African slave traders exerted dominance over their European trade partners. In Part 2, starting at 29:40, Professor Umbach analyzes the captain’s log from the slave ship Sally for evidence of African strength in the transatlantic slave trade.

Peter H. Wood, Duke University Professor Emeritus“Thomas Day: Nineteenth-Century Free Black Cabinetmaker”The Graduate Center, CUNYNovember 8, 2010How might a southern-born free black also be an abolitionist? ASHP staff member, Donna Thompson Ray, interviews historian Peter H. Wood about the life of cabinetmaker, Thomas Day, and how his experience as a free black characterized nineteenth-century race relations in the South. Wood provides an assessment of Day’s life as a business owner, family man, community member, and agent of social justice. Day is projected through both public and private (hidden) personal narratives. Behind the aesthetically appealing walnut pews, pine wardrobes, and mahogany side chairs was a man of deep social conviction operating in tenuous circumstances.“Thomas Day: Nineteenth-Century Free Black Cabinetmaker” is a Now and Then podcast conversation. The Now and Then podcast series features conversations and interviews with scholars, educators, and ASHP staff members on topics in history.

Premilla Nadasen, Queens College, CUNYWomen and Black Freedom: Rethinking the Civil Rights MovementThe Graduate Center, CUNYApril 22, 2010Historian Premilla Nadasen examines the importance of women in the Black Freedom Movements of the 1960s and 1970s. In Part 1 of this podcast, she outlines how the traditional narrative of the Civil Rights Movement, which tended toward “great men approach” is being expanded in three ways: 1) the timeframe is extended beyond 1955-1968; 2) the geography is expanded to encompass the North; and 3) a broader range of activists are considered including those who promoted armed self-defense and women who focused on gender issues. In Part 2, starting at 25:40, Premilla Nadasen focuses on Johnnie Tillmon and welfare rights activism to illustrate how inclusion of this movement expands the Civil Rights narrative to include gender, economics, and women’s self-determination.

Gregory Downs, City College of New York, CUNY“Power & Slavery: Slave Communities in the Antebellum South”The Graduate Center, CUNYDecember 4, 2008Historian Gregory Downs explores the capacity for individual and social resistance evident in the American system of slavery. In the antebellum South, American slaves worked to build communities through religion, family, political networks, and communities of shared experience. In attempting to partially redefine slavery on their own terms in these ways, they changed the experience of slavery for themselves and also created problems that would change slavery for their masters.In Part 1 of this podcast, Downs describes the worldwide history of non-chattel slavery, how and why slavery came to take its particular form in the early American colonies, and its subsequent geographical and demographic expansion into the nineteenth century. In Part 2, beginning at 34:08, he explains how the enslaved used religious practices, family formation, and shared communication across space to assert their humanity and challenge their status as property.

Carlos Sanabria, Hostos Community College, CUNY“Demographic Revolutions: Hispanic Migration to the United States”Hostos Community College, CUNYApril 24, 2009Why did we come here? And why are we so poor? Historian Carlos Sanabria discusses migration and the situation of the U.S. Hispanic population in the post-World War Two period. He outlines areas of study such as the demographic revolutions which led to the growth, dispersal, and diversity of the Hispanic population in the U.S.; migration stories from locations such as Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Puerto Rico; and the causes, successes, and shortcomings of Hispanic migration among the different groups. Dr. Sanabria is coordinator of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Hostos Community College, City University of New York.

Barbara Winslow, Brooklyn College“Women’s History, Women’s Activism: The Shirley Chisholm Center at the CUNY Graduate Center”The Graduate Center, CUNYNovember 14, 2008Historian and educator Barbara Winslow (Brooklyn College) discusses the life and times of Shirley Chisholm, the legendary African-American activist, Congresswoman, and presidential candidate. Winslow places Chisholm’s legacy in the context of the feminist movement and the struggle for civil rights, putting special emphasis on the Brooklyn-born politician’s local roots.This talk was given as part of A Catalyst for Change, an exhibit celebrating Chisholm’s trailblazing political career, sponsored by the Brooklyn College Women’s Studies Program and the Shirley Chisholm Center for Research on Women.

Nancy Hewitt, Rutgers University“Many Paths to Progressive Reform: New Perspectives on the Progressive Era”The Graduate Center, CUNYMarch 27, 2007Early twentieth-century progressivism was a constellation of efforts undertaken by a wide range of people whose perspectives on reform were rooted in their race, class, region, and religion. In this talk to New York City teachers, Nancy Hewitt weaves together the “big P” progressivism of major reform campaigns, which are well represented in most history textbooks, with stories of the “little p” progressivism of workers, immigrants, women, and African Americans.In the first part of this podcast, Hewitt describes some major progressive reform campaigns and highlights the role of Atlanta, Georgia, female activists in conservation and civic reform, known as municipal housekeeping. In the second part, starting at 22:48, she continues her discussion of municipal housekeeping by focusing on northern cities and also offers several examples of reform efforts involving both middle-class and working-class women.Images used in this presentation: Download full presentation here: [[{"fid":"3831","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default"},"type":"media","link_text":"HewittProgEra.pptx","attributes":{"class":"file media-element file-default"}}]]

Christian G. Appy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst“The Vietnam War: What Are We Fighting For?”The Paley Center for MediaMay 14, 2008Christian G. Appy (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), historian and author of Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides, shares the historical insights gleaned from his investigation of the Vietnam War from American and Vietnamese perspectives. His extensive research, which involved hundreds of oral history interviews with American veterans as well as Vietnamese civilians and soldiers from both sides of the conflict, adds an important dimension to the staggering human cost of the war. In this lecture to New York City teachers, he relates some of the stories he heard in the course of his research, and provides evidence for his conclusion that the outcome of the war was determined largely by the political will of the Vietnamese people.

Roscoe C. Brown, Jr., The Graduate Center, CUNY“They Said It Couldn’t Be Done, But the Tuskegee Airmen Did It”The Graduate Center, CUNYFebruary 27, 2009Educator Roscoe C. Brown, Jr. shares his personal history of race in the United States as seen through the perspective of World War II. Dr. Brown describes incidents of discrimination and social injustice that propelled him into a life of activist politics. Brown recounts his upbringing in black middle-class Washington in the 1920s and 30s, and his involvement in anti-lynching campaigns and demonstrations in the years leading up to World War II. Locating his experience in the context of the struggle to attain equality for African Americans in the military, he describes the lasting accomplishments of the Tuskegee Airmen- “America’s first African-American military flying unit”-for which Brown served as commander of the 100th Fighter Squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group.

Jeanie Attie, Long Island University“The Problem of Freedom in the U.S. Civil War”The Graduate Center, CUNYOctober 13, 2006Historian Jeanie Attie examines the significance of slavery to the people who fought in and lived during the American Civil War. The enslaved, as constant observers of the lives of free men, clearly understood the value of freedom. Free whites in the antebellum South had a stake in preserving a state of “un-freedom” within their society because “un-freedom” ultimately defined their own state of freedom. White northern Republicans viewed the future of the nation, and their own freedom, as bound by whether new territories entered the Union as free or slave states. In this podcast Attie discusses the issues central to the sectional conflict that led to civil war and provides a close reading of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address for New York City social studies teachers.