They are going into archives and into museums, into libraries and sifting through primary sources, secondary sources and thinking critically about that why their opic was important in history. We have had conflict and compromise, taking a stand. All kinds of different angles and things for kids to look at. This year it is triumph and tragedy. They have been choosing topics tra range from indian treaties helen keller,i to partition of india. You name it. They are choosing really fascinating and interesting topics and then they present their findings in different formats. So of course one of the categories you see right behind me and that is the exhibit category. And then there is also paper categories and there is dramatic performance, documentary or website. So history 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 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. Thats at every state. D. C. , the territories and we are growing quickly and internationally. Then they come here and there is about 3,000 students here this week competing for the top honor. We recorded some of the performances today. What are the parameters for performance. What do they have to do . For performance category, like any other student in any other category, they first have to do their research. Good solid research. Primary and secondary sources. Going into the museum. Lets say it is a civil rights topic they are maybe going to find someone to do an interview with. Basically the research that historical quality, the information and the evidence. Everyone has to do that. Then they have to think about that information, triumph, tragedy and history and determine why that topic has always been significant in history. What kind of change did it cause . Why should we care about this . D finally they present their information so they can choose any category and the student who hoose performance, i think really have to want to be up in front of a lot of people. They tend to be a little ham sometimes and sometimes it is kids that are rather shy and can turn into somebody else and really take over the whole room with their presence. But it is 10 minutes and 10 inutes is a long time. Doesnt sound like it. When youre standing in front of judge, 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. But they cant. The reason that we have the time limit or like an exhibit or word limit is to help students be concise. To learn how to decide what information should be presented and what can they leave out and still tell the story and still provide the evidence and the analysis . It is hard. History is not easy. Hi, my name is kira warren. I am jada hendrickson. I am caitlin gordon. We will be presenting a performance called from the tragedy of slavery to the triumph of freedom the story of Harriet Ann Jacobs. To be a slave girl is a curse, but to have beauty is even worse. Constantly beaten, bruised, and raped. This made it hard to keep the faith and our work wasnt in the cotton we picked or the tasks we were given, but in our breeding ability to produce more children. The cycle was vicious in many different ways. Along with the sacrifices, we had to each day, we were literally bound by chains to waiting to finally escape this pain. Africanamerican slavery was one of the most tragic stains on american history. Beginning in 1619, america went into a culture of torturing, raping, beating, and murdering African Americans for centuries until the civil war in 1865. Harriet ann jacobs was a victim of these tragedies. She constantly suffered from Sexual Harassment and lived in fear of what her master would do to her. She escaped from a plantation. When she escaped she hid in her grandmothers attic, where she she lived in fear for 7 years. I was born in a slave family. To me, it was filled with glee, but i never would have imagined my future would be filled with such misery. I lost what i had and it was gone. I started to feel like i couldnt move on. My parents and mistress died and i was sold to an abusive master. At this point, my life was a real disaster. Nine years later, i finally turned 15, but my master decided to try and take my purity. He came up to me and whispered foul things in my ear that no innocent young girl should ever have to hear. In 1813, Harriet Ann Jacobs was born to enslaved parents, delila and Daniel Jacobs in north carolina. She was so sheltered as a child that she didnt realize she was a slave until she was six years old, when her mother perished. Soon after, harriets mothers mistress took care of her until the mistress died also. Now 12 years old, harriet was then passed on to her mistress niece, which gave the father, dr. Flynn, ultimate ownership. When harriet finally turned 15, dr. Flynn started sexually harassing her and commanded that she belonged to him in every way, shape, and form. Harriet, your body is ready for me now to have you. No, master, im not ready. I dont know what you want me to do. I own every part of your body and i will do with it as i please. Besides, after a while, you will start to enjoy it. I am building a cottage so we wont be disturbed. Once the cottage is ready, you will be ready. No, master, i dont want no cottage. I dont want you. While still being sexually harassed by dr. Flynn, harriet met a black man and fell in love. When dr. Flynn found out, harriets circumstances became worse. Harriet, you will never get away from my grasp. You are mine and if i see him on my property, i will shoot him dead. After all i have done for you, you ungrateful wench, be one. I cant believe master just hit me. He has never done this before. He keeps harassing me hour after hour, day after day, year after year. He harasses me and is hunting for my innocence and he wont stop. There have been so many restless nights when i have been thinking about what he can do to me next and sometimes i just want to end it all. I mustnt lose hope. There is mr. Sawyer and he has been very compassionate towards me. He could be my ticket to freedom. Within a few months of meeting with mr. Sawyer, harriet discovered her plan had worked and she became pregnant with their first child. Her grandmother never tolerated this behavior and was so appalled by harriets decisions, she then 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 confess to grandmother and tell her about all of the things he has been doing to me. Maybe she will understand and help me. [knocking] grandmother, grandmother please open the door, please. What, child . How dare you come here after you betrayed me . I know you are upset, but there is something that i must tell you. All of the lessons you and mother taught me about being a good woman and respecting myself goes away when i am there. Ever since i turned 15, dr. Flynn has tried to make sexual advances toward me. He thinks he can have me whenever he wants. I thought if i got pregnant by another man he would lose interest in me and would finally sell me. But that just made everything so much worse. Please forgive me. I would do anything to obtain your forgiveness. Please forgive me on behalf of my dead mother. My child, poor child. I understand now. I will help you and your children. After two years and having her second child with mr. Sawyer, harriet was forced to work at the plantation instead of a house lady. She decided this was enough and began to plot her escape. She stayed with a nearby friend until it was unsafe for her to stay there anymore. She hid in a swamp until her grandmothers attic was ready for her to hide in. Grandmother, grandmother. Is the attic ready for me yet . Yes, we added a trapdoor so we could bring you through. Remember, it will be hard not seeing your children and being in that confined space. I know, grandmother. I will miss them very much but i will do anything to leave that behind and most of all, get away from mr. Flynn. Not much older, harriet found many hobbies to do while living in the attic, such as reading, writing, and sewing. This did not make the conditions any better. Living in this box is not like nightmares of being a slave. It is hard to move and i cannot stand up fully, but at least i can rest assured that they will never find me. I do want to see my childrens smiling faces. I want to teach them wrong from right. I want to tell them they are more than a piece of property and they dont belong to anyone but i cant because that could risk their safety and that would be the last thing i would want to do. During the day, i suffer from scorching heat and bugs with needles that cause my body to burn. During the night, i suffer from cold, howling winds. Living in this attic makes me feel as though as i was suffocating. I suffered for air more than light and the only thing that comforted me were my childrens voices that come in. While still living in the attic, harriet started to suffer from the conditions of the weather and lost strength and her legs. In 1842, she had an epiphany. I have been in this box for seven years. I do believe it is 1842 and today is the day i shall escape. I arrived in philadelphia with the land and for a new life i shall not cry. I got news my daughter was in new york. When i went to see her, she was busy with work. Finally, when we got a chance to speak, i could only look at her physique because deep down i knew she looked exactly like e. I started to go see her every week but i had to know that she was not mine to keep because i was still a fugitive but i could ot lose my positivity. After her, i left to find joseph. Leaving my children left me broken but i was set on getting my freedom as that was my motive. I started to focus only on my writing. Frederick douglass took it to his liking and he invited me to work at the northstar. From this point, i went very far. I eventually gained my freedom and my children and publish my book about my pain and suffering. At last, i am free and no longer scared of the future. Harriet ann jacobs was very profound africanamerican slave during that time. She was an astonishing example of a brave, and powerful woman. She proved this by fighting for what she believed in and fighting for her freedom. This is also why she decided to display as a triumph by writing her autobiography. This had an effect on many abolitionists. Harriet ann jacbos used her reedom to work with many abolitionists, such as Susan B Anthony and Harriet Beecher stowe to tell the story about how women were sexually violated and mistreated during the slavery era. Harriet ann jacobs used her freedom to educate themselves. Harriet ann jacobs used her freedom to open up schools and orphanages. 82 of the Human Trafficking community are females. 40 are africanamericans. This is similar to slavery, as young girls are being put in a situation where they have to give their bodies away or they get abused or even worse, killed. This shows how the use of africanamerican has evolved since slavery. Thank you for viewing our performance. [applause] how did you come up with the idea for your performance . It was a trip to the Atlanta History Center where we found a unique story about harriet jacobs, a slave who was getting sexually abused who hid in her randmothers attic for seven years where there were bugs and roaches. She could not see her children, which was heartbreaking. Those are your children, and you cant see them. Once we found out we were going to do the topic, we found an autobiography written by her and that gave us insight and help us write a script because it put us in her position so that we could feel all of the emotions she was feeling at that time. Do you learn stories like this at school . Not at all. That is why it was so fascinating because we had never heard it before. She is so unique. Learning how to read and write from age 6 and just taking that and becoming completely knowledgeable. We were reading some of the letters between her and the erson who edited her books and in the letter it was talking about how Harriet Ann Jacobs was so well written and spoken that the book did not need much editing, considering that she was a slave and taking literal knowledge and building on top of it is just amazing. It is an inspiring story for young women like us to know because it 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 . Because many people dont really know about the tragic things that happened in slavery and they dont know the truth about 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 about the background. We wanted to share that with people to know. We wanted to make it as realistic as possible because there is no reason to sugarcoat the horrifying effects of slavery. It needs to be told and that is why it was essential to our script. At the time, people heard about slavery through a male perspective and didnt hear about it through a female perspective and her branching out and saying this information really horrified a lot of people, because she could get away and others couldnt, which led to tragic events. Do any of you have plans for the future to be historians . After this project, i am thinking about it. It is so fun to go back in time and explore the unknown. Finally, why should people your age know stories like this . Number one, you need to know about your history. If you dont, you are bound to repeat it. Number two, she was amazing. She was pretty much one of the kickstarters for a bunch of other abolitionists who freed slaves to write books themselves and tell about everything that happened. She helped in savannah. She worked with Frederick Douglass for a little bit and then she whats that word encouraged free slaves to educate themselves as well. It is so disappointing that more people dont know about her story. I feel like it should be told how she overcame everything she was going through. Most people dont know about stories like this so we wanted to share and empower young women like us. Also, when something bad happens now, people are quick to give up. She was shot down so many times and had to give her body to a random man at the age of 15 years old, just to get away from the sexual abuse she was receiving. It was amazing how she didnt give up. She could have submitted to him but she didnt and she left. She was like, i am not doing this. And also stories like this also are important because they lead to todays tragic events about sexual trafficking. We also had a young lady who went to our school we knew and she went missing and now she is suspected of being kidnapped for sexual trafficking. The story really hit home for s. The house will be in order. For 40 years, cspan has provided unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and Public Policy events from washington dc and around the country, so you can make up your own mind. Created by cable in 1979, cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan. Your unfiltered view of overnment. Next on the presidency, a discussion about congressional oversight of president ial misconduct. University of texas austin professor jeremi suri and Catherine Brownell talk about impeachment, including the current proceedings against trump. This event was hosted as part of the congressional erie Briefings Program for members of congress and their staff. Ok. Thank you for attending