And theyre sifting through primary sources, secondary sources, and thinking critically about that and why their topic was important in history, as related to the annual theme. This year, the theme is triumph and tragedy in history. So we have had conflict and compromise, taking a stand, all kinds of different angles, perspectives for kids to look at, and this year it is triumph and tragedy. So they have been choosing topics that range from indian treaties to world war ii, to helen keller, the partition of india, you name it. They are choosing early fascinating and interesting topics. And then they present findings in different formats. For one of the categories, you see behind me, the exhibit category. There is also a paper category, and dramatic performance, documentary, or website. So history day gives kids an opportunity to be creative in the way in which they present their information. And then they enter at a local level competition, students who win move up to the state level of competition, and then the winners come here to the national event. So about 600,000 kids participate at the first level, that is in every state, d. C. , the territories, and we are growing quickly internationally. And then they come here, and theres about 3000 students here this week competing for the top honors. We recorded some of the performances today. So what are the parameters for performances . What do they have to do . So for the performance category, like any other student category, they first have to do the research. Good, Solid Research into primary and secondary sources. Going into the museums, say it is a civil rights topic, they would find someone to do an interview with. But basically, research, that historical quality, the information and evidence. Everyone has to do that. And then they have to think , about that information, in relationship to the theme, triumph and tragedy in history, and determine why that topic is important, significant in history. What kind of change did it cause . Why should we care about this . And finally, they present their information. They can choose any category. For students who choose performance, i think, really have to want to be up in front of a lot of people. They tend to be little hams, sometimes. But sometimes there are kids who are rather shy, but who can turn into somebody else, really kind of take over the whole room with their presence. But its 10 minutes, and 10 minutes is a long time. It doesnt sound like it, but when you are standing in front of judges, 10 minutes is a long time. On the other hand, it is a short amount of time if you have done massive amounts of research, and you want to tell everybody every single thing you know, and usually thats what they want to do, but they cant. And the reason we have the time limit, or in exhibits the word limit, is to help students be concise, to learn to decide what information should be presented and what can they leave out, to still tell the story, and still provide the evidence and analysis. So, it is hard. [laughter] history is not easy. Im caitlin borden. We will be presenting a performance called, from the tragedy of slavery to the triumphs of freedom, the story of harriet and jacobs. To be a slave girl is a curse, but to have beauty is even worse. Constantly being groped and raped has made it hard to keep the faith. And our work the cotton picks, and the tasks we were given, but our ability to produce more children. The cycle is vicious, and many different ways, the sacrifices you have to make these days. Waiting for the curse, to finally escape this pain. Africanamerican slavery was one of the most tragic stains on American History. Beginning 1619, american slavery more into a culture of rape culture of raping, beating, murdering africanamericans for centuries, until the civil war in 1865. Harriet ann jacobs constantly suffered from Sexual Harassment and lived in fear of what her master would do to her, until she escaped from her plantation. When she escaped, she hid in her grandmothers attic, where she lived in fear for seven years. I was born in a slave family, and for me it was bleak. But i never would have imagined my future would be filled with such misery. I started to feel i couldnt move on. My parents and mistress died, and i was assaulted and abused by my master. At this point, my life is a real disaster. I turn 15, semi master decided to take my purity, whispering things in my ear that no innocent girl should ever have to hear. In 1813, Harriet Ann Jacobs was born to slave parents in edison, north carolina. She was so sheltered as a child, she didnt realize she was a slave until she was six years old, when her mother perished. Now 12 years old, harriet was passed on to her mistresss niece, which gave the father ultimate ownership. When harriet finally turned 15, the doctor started sexual harassing her and commanded she belong to him in every way, shape and form. Harriet, you are ready now. Master, i am not ready, i dont know what you want me to do. [inaudible] after a while, you will start to enjoy it. Cottage is ready, you will be ready. I dont want no cottage and i dont want you. , still being sexually harassed, harriet met a black man, and fell in love. When the doctor found out, harriets circumstances became worse. Harriet, you will never escape from my grasp. You are mine. And if i see you with him, i will shoot him dead after all the things i have done for you, you ungrateful wench . Be gone. I cant believe master just hit me. Hes never done this before. He keeps harassing me, hour after hour, day after day, year after year, he wont stop. Many restless so nights when i have been thinking about what he could do to me next. Sometimes i just want to end it al. [sobbing] i mustnt lose hope, there is mr. Sawyer, he could be my ticket to freedom. Within a few months of meeting mr. Sawyer, harriet discovered her plan had worked and she became pregnant with her first child. Her grandmother was so appalled by her decision, she banished harriet from ever coming back to her house. I have nowhere to go, and im not going back to masters house. I need to tell my grandmother about all the things he has been doing to me, and maybe she would understand and help me. Grandmother, please open the door. How dare you come here . You betrayed me. I know you are upset, but there is something i must tell you. All the lessons you and mother taught me about being a good woman, and respecting myself, that goes away when i am there. Ever since i turned 15, the doctor has tried to make sexual advances toward me, thinks he can do whatever he want. I thought if i got pregnant by another man, he would lose interest and finally sell me, but that just made every thing so much worse. Hes abusive. Grandmother, please forgive me. I will do anything to obtain your forgiveness. On behalf of my dead mother. My child, my child i , understand now. Come here. After two years, having her second child with mr. Sawyer, harriet was forced to work as a plantation slave instead of a house slave. She decided this was enough and began to plot her escape. She stayed with a nearby friend until it wasnt safe, and then hid in a swamp until her grandmothers attic was ready for her to hide in. Grandmother, is the attic ready . [inaudible] my child, i will lead you there. Remember, it will be hard not seeing your children and living in a confined space. I will miss them very much, but i want to leave that poor life of mine, and most of all get away. Now much older, harriet found many hobbies when living in the attic, such as reading, writing and sewing, but this did not make conditions any better. , it isng in this box like the nightmare of being a slave, it is hard to move, and i cannot stand up fully, but at least i can rest assured they will never find me. But i do want to see my childrens smiling faces. I want to teach them their wrongs from their rights. I want to tell them they are more than a piece of property, and they dont belong to anyone. But i cant, because i could risk their safety, and that would be the last thing i would want to do. During the day, i suffer from scorching heat, bugs and beetles that because my body to burn and during the night i , suffer from cold, howling winds. Living in this attic it is , suffocating. The only thing that comforted me were my childrens wandering voices that came and go. Still living in the attic, harriet suffered from the cold weather and lost strength in her legs, and in 1842 she had an epiphany. I have been in this stressful box for about seven years. I do believe it is 1842. I believe this is the day i shall escape. I arrived in philadelphia, where the land is dry. A new place where i shall not cry. I got news that my daughter was in new york, but when i visited her she was busy with work. , when finally we got a chance to speak deep down, i knew she looked exactly like me. I started to see her every week, but i had to realize she wasnt mine to keep, because i was still a fugitive, you see . But i couldnt lose my positivity. After her, i left to find joseph. Leaving my children left me broken. But i was set on getting my freedom. Yes, that was my motive. I started focusing only on my writing. Frederick douglass took it to his liking. I was invited to work at the northstar, and from that point i went very far. I eventually gained my freedom, and my children, and published my book about all my pain and suffering. At last, i am free, and no longer scared of the future coming to me. Harriet ann jacobs was a n, towering woman in that time, and an astonishing example of a brave and fearless woman, doing what she believed in and claiming her freedom. This is why she decided to display her tragedies and triumphs by writing her and this had a big impact on many abolitionists. Harriet ann jacobs used her freedom to work with many abolitionists like Susan B Anthony and Harriet Beecher stowe, to talk about how women were sexually violated and mistreated in the slavery era. Harriet and jacobs used her freedom to encourage other freed slaves to educate themselves, to open schools and orphanages in savannah, georgia. Today, 82 of the Human Trafficking community are females, and 40 of those females are africanamerican. This is similar to slavery, girls are being put in a situation where they have to give their bodies away or get abused, or even worse killed. , the abuse of africanamerican women has evolved since slavery. Thank you for viewing our performance. [cheers and applause] so how did you come up with the idea for your performance . Well, it was a trip to the atlantas history center, where we found this unique experience of harriet and jacobs, a slave sexually abused. She ran away and hid in her grandmothers attic for seven years in the dark, with cold, heat, rats, bugs, roaches, and she couldnt even see her children, either, which is very heartbreaking. You know, those are your children, and you cant see them, cant let them know anything. And once we found out we were doing this topic, we found an autobiography written by her, and that really gave us insight on her life and helped us to write a script, because it put us in her position, so we could really feel all the emotion she was going through at that time. Do you learn stories like this in school . No. Not at all. That is why this was a fascinating story to us, because we had never heard one like it before. And she is so unique. Learning to read and write from the age of six, and just taking that and becoming completely knowledgeable. Like, we were reading the letters between her and the person who edited her book, ms. Marie childs, i think. And amy post. And pretty much the letter was talking about how Harriet Ann Jacobs was so well written and spoken, the book really didnt need much editing. Considering she was a slave, and taking such little knowledge and then building on top of that, it is amazing. She is such an inspiring story for young women like us to know. It really shows how you can overcome a terrible situation. Parts of it are very graphic, about how she was abused. Why did you decide to put that into your performance . Why was that important . That was important, because many people dont know about the tragic things that happened in slavery. They dont really know about the truth of what happened. They only know about how people were being slaves to grow crops for other people, and that was mostly it. They didnt know the background, so we wanted to share it with people. We wanted to make it as realistic as possible. There is no reason to sugarcoat the horrifying truth of slavery. It needs to be told, and that is why it was essential to our story and our script. Also, at the time, people heard about slavery through a male perspective. They didnt really hear about it from a females perspective, and her branching out, saying all this information, it really horrified a lot of people, because she could get away, others couldnt, which led to tragic, tragic events. So do any of you have plans for the future to be historians . What do you after this project, you know, i am thinking about it. Its so fun to go back in time and explore the unknown. And then, finally, why should know storiesge like this . Well, because number one, you need to know about your history. If you dont, youre bound to repeat it. And number two, like, she was amazing. She was pretty much one of the kickstarters for a lot of other abolitionists and freed slaves to write books themselves about everything that happened. She helped with the Freedmens Bureau in savannah. She worked with Frederick Douglass for a little bit. She, whats that word, encouraged free slaves to educate themselves as well. It is so disappointing that more people dont know about her story. Because i feel like it should be told, how she overcame everything she was going through. And most people dont really know about stories like this. So we just kind of wanted to share it, and also to empower young women like us. And also, it is like, when something bad happens now, people are so quick to give up. Her, she was shot down so many times. Sent to a plantation. Had to give up her body to a random man at the age of 15 years old, just to get away from the sexual abuse she was receiving. And its just amazing how she didnt give up. She could have just submitted to him, but she didnt. She left. She was like, i am not doing this. I feel stories like this are also important, because they kind of lead to todays tragic events about sexual trafficking. We also had a young lady that went to our school that we knew. Her name was taisha bass, and she went missing, and is now suspected of having been kidnapped for sexual trafficking, so this story really hit home for us. This weekend on American History tv, today at 6 00 p. M. Eastern hear the story of the civil war told and 56 minutes by gary adel men of the American Battlefield trust. Sunday at 6 00 p. M. , american artefacts takes you to the Virginia Museum of history for an exhibit on africanAmerican History from reconstruction through civil rights. Explore our nations caught. The book never the washingtons relentless pursuit of their run away slave ona judge where she accounts the life of a slave who escaped and initiated a manhunt ordered by the first president. She remained an escaped funaltive until her death in New Hampshire in 1848. This was recorded at George Washingtons mount vernon in 2017
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