There are only three small entries in the Black Abolitionist Archive associated with Christmas, so I chose this one. While this holiday was important to an enslaved people learning about the celebration of this Christmas story from the periphery of the Christian families who enslaved them, the way they celebrated this holiday was different. The celebration of any special occasion then was on Church, prayer, thankfulness, and finding joy where they could....
The UDM Libraries and Instructional Design Studio is pleased to announce the addition of the digitized version of “Light Up the Land” to our Digital Archives. The collection includes the digitized musical (offered in two parts), along with the production program and a biography of Father Lord....
A culture is defined by the stories it tells and the beliefs it holds about itself. In the English speaking world, there’s a rich oral tradition of teaching with story telling. ...
This month we celebrate Black History. As part of that celebration, our DVD of the week (titled “Underground Railroad: the William Still Story”) highlights a book by William Still. As it happens, William Still is one of my favorite Black Abolitionists. He is called an “unsung hero” and that he was. I’d wager that not too many people have heard of him. Yet his speeches, delivered during the late 1850s and early 1860s, are some of the most eloquent I’ve read....
In the first few pages of the June 1898 issue of the Tamarack, is the Skinner Prize Debate, an interesting argument on U.S. immigration laws. The discussion begins with a resolve: “That the immigration laws of the United States should be made more stringent.” This caught my eye as I was skimming over the offerings in this edition of our new Tamarack archive. From what I remembered from U.S. history, the U.S. during this time was welcoming immigrates with few exceptions. We had a vast country to fill in the late 1800s and those from other countries who sought freedom and boundless beauty were clamoring to populate it....
Included in the festivities for the celebration of Emancipation Day each year, were speeches delivered by prominent abolitionists. One champion of the cause of abolition to speak in 1861 was William Howard Day, whose speeches and editorials can be found in the Black Abolitionist Archive among our digital collections. Day, formally educated (rare for a man of color during this time), spoke eloquently and passionately for the cause of freedom, for a reasoned approach to ending slavery. ...
On Monday, April 1, something very strange occurred: Dyngus Day (a traditional Polish-American holiday celebrated on the first Monday after Easter) and April Fool’s Day (traditionally celebrated each year on April 1) fell on the same day. According to Professor James T. Callow, who’s Folklore Collection is among the more interesting offerings in our digital archives, this is a rare event. It’s quite unusual for these two celebrations of mischief to fall on the same day....
