Been the director, of the Huntington Library in san marino california. A former professor of history, and at the university of california riverside. She is a Frances Perkins scholar, and received her degree with distinction. Her dissertation, received the prize as the best dissertation of American History at yale. She began her teaching career at Simmons College and has been a fellow and a visiting professor professor at harvard university. In which the ladies of washington help build a city and government, when the first book price from the society for historians of the early american republic, and the northeast Popular Culture American Culture Association Annual book award. Political biography imperfect union, telemedicine and the creation of the american nation, was a finalist for the George Washington book price. In 2012, she published dolly medicine, the problem of National Unity and the queen of america. My fidelity madison. President obama appointed her to a president ial commis
I must apologize that an early i iteration was called away to a memorial this afternoon. But she will be here tomorrow talking about her new book. The new lincoln. I am very pleased today, im Catherine Clinton and teach at the university of texas incentive tokyo and im here to moderate the panel. And also, as all of you im sure are aware, but to interject whenever a enthusiastically have some ideas that we could share. Our two panelists are going to share some of their comments and views with you. Then im going to comment and opened it up to you for your questions. I want to begin today by saying that my friend canvas cooper, was born in guam to a u. S. Navy hospital and his wife, and she attended more than half a dozen schools before her high school graduation. And undergraduate degree in journalism and a logic ray from georgetown university. It was only after her career on capitol hill as an aide to the late congressman Charlie Wilson, some of you may have seen him portrayed by tom h
They created a number of Arts Projects to put writers and artists back to work. It happened in the 1930s that they created the federal writers project and started to collect slave testimony. It was kind of like the 19 thirties was the last opportunity to collect the oral histories of the last generation of African Americans who had experienced slavery firsthand before they passed away. They actually created through that project that only lasted a few years, 1936 to 1939, that project created the largest repository of ex slave testimony that we have within the united states. Winding up with over 2300 interviews that are largely Available Online at the library of congress website. Anyone who is interested can go in and use those. Scholars have used them to dramatically transform the way they right about the history of slavery and emancipation and kind of reconsider. That my book took a slightly different turn by looking at the ex slave project to look at the racial politics of the 1930s.
And also told was a great great great great grandfather. And thats my ancestor. And always remember you are a madison you come from african slaves and the president. What does that mean to you as a child . That sets of clear expectations i was reminded and that also i have slaves said my family and there is a lot to live up to. And your mother carried stories of the lineage told by her father before both were enslaved eight generations going back to the african woman kidnapped from her home country about to the United States this is a tradition tell me about that tradition and the role of the families. The tradition goes back thousands of years, probably before christ. And those that maintain entire cultures and their values forever. But primarily it is a tradition of oral history. So this is carried on for your family and your mother, she told the story there was a slight presentation she gave to organizations in the eighties called the black madisons lecture circuit in the fact she d
Experienced slaevry firsthand before they passed away. They had created through that project that lasted only a few years, 1936 to 1939, that project created the largest repository of exslave testimony we have in the united states, winding up with over 2300 exslave interviews that are now largely Available Online at the library of congress website. Anyone who is interested can go in and use those. Scholars have used them to dramatically transform the way they write about the history of slavery and emancipation and kind of reconsider that. My book took a slightly different turn or different tact by looking at the exslave collection as its known to look at the racial politics of the 1930s and really to see what does it tell us about race and the federal government and attempts to rewrite a National Historical narrative during the kind of moment of economic crisis and kind of a nationwide crisis in terms of the sense of national identity. What are the racial politics at the time . Well, y