Of our programming season for the Academic Year of 2019 and 2020. My name is jason steinhauer. Im director of the Lepage Center at villanova, a relatively new center created in 2016. It opened its doors in 2017. Our mission is to bring history to bear on contemporary issues. That is what we do all yearround. Some of the issues we have examined in the past have been the issue of fake news and historical perspective, stuff on endless war. Last year we did a series on democracy and the history of democracy and credit participation. Democratic process evasion. This year is revisionist history. We will talk about that over six events and through the lens of various topics revising early america. Before i go further i want to make you aware it is being filmed both by the university and by cspans American History tv. This event will be on cspans Video Library and a couple of weeks. We are not going live, dont worry. For the benefit of the cspan viewers in the future, we are glad you were with us here and we hope you will stay in touch with us and learn more about us moving forward. Begin thei might conversation, both with our panelists on stage and other panelist joining us midway through a conversation and with you the audience. I might begin with an informal audience poll. Our theme for the year is revisionist history. It struck me thinking about this event it might be worth getting a sense of what you all think revisionist history is. Im curious. When you hear the term revisionist history, who thinks that term has negative connotations . A few people. Term hasves the positive connotations . Who believes the term is meaningless and is completely irrelevant . [laughter] a few people. Excellent. It is interesting because our centers mission is to bring history to bare on contemporary issues. Its interesting because if you look at contemporary culture, you will find references to revisionist history in many places. I thought i would share a couple of them for our conversation. Conway named kellyanne anyone heard of her . She had a quote where she said mr. Comey has a revisionist view of history. She was using it with a negative connotation. Blogger named Diane Anderson recently its a complicated story but on the anniversary of 9 11, she tweeted out some examples of hate crimes that happened in the United States after 9 11. , want to knowt why i tweeted what i did about hate crimes . This is the revisionist history. This that she was referring to is talking about a talking unitedat after 9 11 United States with total unified. Thisis interesting is that term of revisionist history can sometimes be a shorthand for a version of events that i dont like or i dont agree with, or maybe a connotation that i have the right version of the facts and someone else is revising. Sometimes it can apply the story is closed. The case is closed in a particular issue. We know with certainty what happened and someone else is coming in and revising it. Suggest for like to our series this year, and i hope you are with us for all six events, is we probe this question. What is revisionist history . Maybe we can even reclaim revisionism from its designation as a four letter word in certain circles. But we would like to suggest is that history and historical scholarship by its nature relies on revision. There are new sources from which we can mine historical data. New scholars bring new ideas. There are new events. There are always new things we can learn about the past. There always new ways to think about the past and relate the past to the present. I think we will grapple with some of these questions throughout the series. Throughout the series you will meet scholars Whose Research and ares have revised understandings of some key moments, key topics, and have offered fresh perspectives and done interesting things to help us figure out what happened and why it matters for us today. Tonight you will meet three of those scholars, and a fourth one who will be called up about midway through the program. I will introduce them briefly. When you walked in on the screen hopefully you saw the full bios and the head shots. Our custom here is not to print out hundreds of paper programs that end up in the recycling bin and go through reams of paper and lots of ink. We invite you to use your phones, which are on silent, to look up online more information about the scholars we have. They are exceptional scholars, exceptional human beings as well. Annato me is on lucia. Wolfe. Meade from the museum of the macon revolution. American revolution. I would like to start with you. How many of you are aware of the 1619 . Ersary of the that is where we will start our conversation. People familiar with the New York Times project on 1619 . This has been an interesting cultural moment thinking about 1619, the 400th anniversary. The question of where it American History begin. Who are the principal actors . I wanted to maybe start with you and actually, what do we know about what happened in 1619 . About is theow first arrival of enslaved africans in the colony of virginia. This is not the first africans to arrive in the region that is presentday United States. We know there were africans, people of african dissent byving living in virginia 1619. Just a few much before the arrival of these first documented groups. We know they were black people, people of african dissent living in virginia. Know thatn to that we 1526 we had enslaved africans who went to the region that is presently south carolina. In 1616, the on british colony of bermuda. Athad enslaved africans english colonies in the caribbean as well. How can i say that . If we expand what we understand as the United States, there were africans either enslaved and those who are not enslaved who arrived, for example, in the americas much earlier than at least one century earlier either in the region that is presently caribbean and florida. There were africans who ofticipated in the conquest what is presentday latin america. We have the case that is well who came with the spanish and is a man who participated in the conquest of mexico, then moved to the caribbean. He also ended up in florida. That wea marker historians select facts. We select sources as well. Selection we need landmarks. Momentcame a symbolic that allows us to commemorate in the present the presence of enslaved africans and the birth of slavery then in north america. Indeed, slavery and the slave trade were going on for more than a century at that moment. Another element i think is important for us to have in mind is the United States, what became the United States already inthat time was not working isolation of what was happening in the rest of the atlantic world. Africans brought to virginia in 1619 were captured in West Central Africa. We believe they came from the region that is the kingdom of ndongu, presentday angola. They were on a portuguese slave ship. Ie talking to a person come from brazil originally. A country colonized by the portuguese. Brazil is the country that imported a large number of enslaved africans. Brazil in theory has nothing to do with United States, but those first africans that came to 1619 were originally transported by the portuguese. Bitingip was attacked was privateer by an english privateer. These stories are all connected. I think this is what 1619 can tell us. It is the birth of the u. S. History is the birth perhaps of the history of slavery in the United States. This history is not happening in isolation and is not disconnected to what was going on in africa, but was going on in the caribbean, and brazil and in europe as well. I think one of the interesting revisions to understanding early america that has sort of been part of the historiography is the notion of the internet connect this interconnectedness and vast expansiveness of the International Slave trade. Maybe you could talk about how have historians been able to recreate and retrace the extent of the slave trade. Maybe you have numbers or statistics about how widespread it was. Efforts in order to quantify how many people were in West Central Africa from the time of the slave tried, where they left, where they arrived, having survived the passage, how many died after disembarking. I would say one of the important achievements historians did, and something each one of you can accept going to the internet is the Transatlantic Slave Trade database. Acceptthe address is slavevoyag. It is online and you can have the numbers and all the voyages. They are estimated as well. This experience you are referring to in 1619 and this experience of enslavement and the legacy of that cannot be , butrized to this number the arrival of these enslaved in 1619 isd 6 documented in the slave database. It is something accessible to all of us. Nearly 12 million enslaved africans were embarked ina mille embarking africa during the mid atlantic slave trade, and effectively arrived alive in the americas. We know that brazil for example thehe country that imported largest number of enslaved africans, nearly 5 million, and 5 million is more than seven times the number that were brought to this country during the slave trade. The majority of those who are brought to the americas, they were brought to the caribbean, latin america, and United States. Slavelking about the project, it is a project that was born in the early 1990s during that period that it was just to the recent and of the cold war, and it was part of it happened in the context of commemoration like this year is 2019 because my 1992, when you had the anniversary then, the arrival of columbus in the americas and 1492, and 1992, there was this need of perhaps telling the history of the atlantic slave trade and something that was crucial to construct what the americas were. Presentthis need in the to then choose this date in order to be able to engage with this past, a past that sometimes we do not know very well, but whose legacies are very present. Of coping with this past is sometimes, taking the opportunity for those that are there and embrace them to tell the story that perhaps can explain the inequalities that we andl see in the present, especially in this case, the racial inequalities and then racism is something that is born atlantic slave trade and slavery is an institution that existed for many centuries in different societies including the native american societies, africa as well, but slave racism as we know today is something that emerged with the atlantic slave trade, but those targeted were not necessarily people of african descent. I think the understanding that is very important for us. Really quick before i bring karen into the conversation, part of what gets revised through scholarship is also the language. Versus note of slave slave, and why the story does revise that language. The issue of revising the language is an issue of respect with people who are descendents these atrocities, and are still among us. Another element is to also not treat those who are victims of the atlantic slave trade as the mere objects or evict dems. People of african dissent african dissent, they resisted, they did wonderful things as well, and to use certain terms as a slave, perhaps, reduces this individuals to the mention of camaraderie and using certain terms such as enslaved can perhaps put more emphasis than on the process that led to these people who were born free like all of us and who at some point at their lives, ended up being in a situation that they were caught as prisoners of war and war deported else were deported elsewhere. Just changing the language is not something that is enough, but i think that leads us to think about the past and think also about the present and the alternatives that these individuals were able to construct during the period they were alive. Jason thank you. Karen, i wanted to bring you into the conversation that. Did anybody see the Philadelphia Inquirer over the weekend . The sunday addition where are toelists were, and im going ask you this question flippantly, but do we have an east coast bias when we think about early america . Are we leaving out of that continent of experiences . Karen that is more than a softball. Gosh, jason, yes, we do. [laughter] karen thank you so much. It is great to be here and want to fall to be on this panel, and also i want to Say Something about revisionist history and then i will swing at that volleyball. The point about revisionism is that it is a recognition of how powerful history is and how powerfully it works in our lives all the time. That is literally when we decide to make a decision to go to the Grocery Store, we do that on the basis of our own historical experience that the Grocery Store will be there and likely have things that we want to purchase. It is also working on the biggest decisions we make about our lives and futures. History is extraordinarily powerful and how we narrate the past is powerful. When we do not like the way that someone has narrated the past, or we wish to narrated differently, there is a contest. There is a conflict over that, and i think the idea of revisionism recognizes how powerful history is an ana touched on that and a variety of her comments. One of our colleagues and the , he likes to say, everyone likes revisionist medicine. And we do. Y, like medicine, actually evolves with information, perspective with discovery, history is not just sitting in a Kitchen Cabinet waiting for us to open that cabin and see what is there. Methodologies,ng theories, and new materials to bear on our analogies of what existed in the past. Anyway. It is true that absolutely, when we think about early america, the strongest, longest, dominant narrative of early america is an east coast one. Most, i will not say all of you had exactly my experience growing up in the u. S. , but many children growing up in the u. S. Have the experience of learning about American History that began either in ridging yet, if you are from virginia, either in virginia, or in massachusetts , but a very powerful east coast story. People here in the great commonwealth up in savannah like to talk about the importance of philadelphia to the early american story, but the reason why we do that is a focused heavily on english colonization. We focus on english colonization because it was the english colonies, not all the english colonies because jamaica did not rebel and join the United States, but it is the english colonies in mainland north america that revolted and formed the United States, and to us, that seems like a ton of foundational american story, so we look to those english colonies entered that tradition of lawn governance that frames the United States, and we see that as the key originating moment. East coast bias, and my argument, but the intensive of executive and intensive scholarship by historians all around the world to see that the american story is more than that beginning in english colonies. If we think about what forms america now, it is not all rooted in a beginning and plymouth, people in north dakota have an early american past, also. And that counts, too. That counts in washington states, and those early american pasts are just as foundational. That may seem counterintuitive because you think, what is it that happen in the pacific northwest, 17th century that forms what happens with us today. How is it that we have a constitution, for example, that how it is government, that frame what happened in washington state. Those deep histories, those deep histories of native americans and the native people who are powerfully important. Native means native. It is native territory. Verye americans and a important history of slavery, but also, really powerfully across north america, the native history that was foundational history,g american what happened when angloamericans arrived. In california, those Anglo American histories do not arrive until the 19th century and later, and we think about places like texas that have Anglo American histories of law that our lead over longstanding native and Spanish Colonial traditions that in fact, an independent to republic of texas and so on and so on. And createdriched our nation, and what happens when we begin on the east coast and only incorporate places into the american story as the united thats formally claims territory, we miss the richness from theory americn territory. Thanks for the volleyball. [laughter] jason i think you spiked it over the nets. Youve talked about the geography, but this also implies a different cast of characters as well. In particular, i know your work is focused on women, at least year scholarship, women in philadelphia. Earlythink about the american past, the early american story being formative, what roles that the other groups thing specific and concrete that will change the way we look at it . It is true that my own work is focused on women in , and imerican and native think those women contributed really powerfully to the American Revolution and beyond, but lets take that little bit further and say, what about the broad geography i was talking about, what changes when we not only say, well the american story primarily is really only two the 19th century and a native story. What does it mean to say that native american women are incredibly powerfully important in the native american story . There are women that are doing wonderfully rich work to show how a native american women to diplomacy, and agriculturalists shape the Nations Society that were in conflict and collaboration with each other and in conflict in collaboration with european society. This is entering up to the north america and expanding. Thatnk they are our ways we can think about women in every context, and every Demographic Group f