Stay engaged with the MHS this year!
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“Having no brothers & a womanly man for a father I find myself
rather staggered by some of the performances about me but possessing a touch of Macawber's spirit—I still hope to
get used to it & hold myself “ready for a spring if anything turns up.” My ward is the lower one & I perade that region like a stout brown ghost from six in the morning till nine at night haunting & haunted for when not doing something I am endeavoring
to decide what comes next being sure some body is in need of my maternal fussing.”
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Upon the Death of the Virtuous and Religious Mrs. Lydia Minot
Lydia Minot was a wife and mother in Dorchester, Massachusetts, when she died giving birth to her sixth child, who also did not survive, in 1667. This broadside printed in Cambridge in 1668 has memorialized her life with poems. But it also shows a lot of imagery that New Englanders associate with death: a skull and crossbones, time embodied by an hourglass with wings, a coffin, a shovel, and a skeletal figure holding a scythe who is saying “memento mori” on one side and “Remember DEATH” on the other.
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MHS’s online programs are held on the video conference platform Zoom. Registrants will receive an e-mail with a link to join the program.
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Her Yet Unwritten History: Black Women and the Education of Students of Color with Disabilities in the New South
Historians have recognized the role of Black women educators in schools throughout the South, work associated today with well-known figures like Mary McLeod Bethune, Nannie Helen Burroughs, and Mary Church Terrell. Little has been written, however, about lesser-known Black women educators like Susan Lowe, Amanda Johnson, and Effie Whitaker, all who made essential contributions to the early education of children of color with disabilities in the South. This essay will consider the critical work of these women who represent just a handful of the many Black women who recognized the overlapping effects of racism and ableism in the lives of disabled students of color.
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Re-examining Dorothea Dix and 19th-Century Disability Reform
Nineteenth-century Massachusetts reformer Dorothea Dix is renowned for her efforts to improve the horrendous treatment of people with mental disabilities in local jails, almshouses, and asylums. Her investigations and activism led to major changes in the mental health field, including shifting care from local to state control. However, Dix’s views and actions were not representative of individuals with cognitive and psychiatric disabilities, and the voices of these individuals are often marginalized when the history of these reforms is told.
In partnership with Emerging America and the Disability History Museum, the MHS offers an educator workshop that will provide a deeper context for teaching Dix’s legacy and the history of asylum reforms in the 19th century. Educators will engage with rich primary sources that center the voices of people with mental disabilities and will be equipped with strategies for bringing these important stories into the classroom.
This program is open to all who work with K-12 students. Teachers can earn either 22.5 PDPs or 1 graduate credit with Worcester State University (for an additional fee). The $25 workshop fee is non-refundable.
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The American Revolution from Two Perspectives: A Debate
Gordon Wood and Woody Holton are both distinguished scholars of the American Revolution. But they approach the founding very differently, as you can see from their just-published books. Join them as they debate their conflicting interpretations.
Power and Liberty: Constitutionalism in the American Revolution by Gordon Wood
Americans explored and debated all aspects of politics and constitutionalism—the nature of power, liberty, representation, rights, the division of authority between different spheres of government, sovereignty, judicial authority, and written constitutions. Gordon Wood illuminates critical events in the nation’s founding and discusses slavery and constitutionalism, the emergence of the judiciary as one of the major tripartite institutions of government, the demarcation between public and private, and the formation of states’ rights.
Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution by Woody Holton
Using eyewitness accounts, Liberty Is Sweet explores countless connections between the Patriots of 1776 and other Americans whose passion for freedom often brought them into conflict with the Founding Fathers. Woody Holton looks at the origins and crucial battles of the Revolution, always focusing on marginalized Americans—enslaved Africans and African Americans, Native Americans, women, and dissenters—and on overlooked factors such as weather, North America’s unique geography, chance, misperception, attempts to manipulate public opinion, and (most of all) disease.
Free for Members and Fellows as well as EBT or ConnectorCare cardholders. $20.00 for non-members.
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On Thursday, 28 October, at 5:15 PM, Vivian Delchamps, University of California, Los Angeles, presents “The Virus of Slavery and Injustice”: Analogy and Disabled Life in African American Writings, 1856–1892, with comment by Sari Altschuler, Northeastern University, a Malgeri Modern American Society and Culture Seminar.
On Tuesday, 9 November, at 5:15 PM, Justin Clark, Nanyang Technological University; Daniel Bottino, Rutgers University; and Hannah Pearson, Independent Scholar, present Conversion in Confinement, with Douglas Winiarski, University of Richmond, a Pauline Maier Early American History Seminar.
On Thursday, 18 November, at 6:00 PM, Afia Atakora, Novelist; Brianna Nofil, College of William & Mary; and Christopher Tomlins, Berkeley Law, present Literary Distinction in Historical Writing 2021: An Evening with the Society of American Historians Prize Winners, moderated by Megan Marshall, Emerson College, SAH past president.
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Interested in Viewing Past Programs?
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If you missed a program or would like to revisit the material presented, please visit www.masshist.org/video or our YouTube channel. A selection of past programs is just a click away.
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Our Members are the heart of the MHS community and an integral part of the MHS story. Become a Member to help make possible the Society’s mission to promote the study of American history. Receive benefits including invitations to enhanced Member-only events; free or discounted admission to special programs; and access to publications such as our calendar of events, newsletter, and Annual Report.
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