Slavery in the Colonial North (NEH Teachers' Institute just outside NYC)

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Dates: July 9-14, 2017

Deadline to Apply: March 1, 2017

In contrast to an abundance of information on slavery in the American South, there is a dearth of resources about enslavement in the northern colonies. While every middle- and high- school student in the nation receives classroom instruction about colonial history, the topic of slavery is too often relegated to a sidebar. It is ironic that this is so. Just as knowledge of colonial American history is essential to understanding the development of key ideas and institutions that have shaped the nation, the economic and political context of events provides crucial framing to deepen our understanding of that history. However, when students are taught about the development of the country during the colonial era, usually overlooked is the fact that the economic strength of America (as well as much of the Atlantic world) was erected on the backs of enslaved individuals. To counter this, and to contribute to teachers' comfort in teaching this important yet difficult subject in today's classroom, Historic Hudson Valley has developed a week-long institute, to be held on our historic provisioning plantation Philipsburg Manor, located 45 minutes north of New York City. The institute will offer teachers a unique opportunity to look deeply into northern colonial enslavement and gain a better understanding of when northern slavery developed, how it was maintained, where it was contested, what was unique about enslavement in the North, and why it remains relevant. Teachers will examine the legal and economic systems in colonial America and how these systems justified and relied on the existence of slavery. They will understand that slavery was as entrenched in the North as in the South, and they will learn that by including enslavement as part of the story of colonial American, their students will see how the past is connected to their lives in the present day and how they might consider their futures. 

Please see our recent blog post on this topic. For more information, visit the insitute website.