Historian
Black history is American history, yet black history is still distressingly absent from many of America's K-12 history classrooms. Even during Black History Month, some parents have to struggle to get their children’s schools …
Continue Reading about Teaching about Slavery: Some Resources for Teachers
Some powerful myths have long dominated thinking about the history of slavery in western Maryland (and especially Washington County). When I start to talk about slavery with people who live here, or when I read what’s been …
Continue Reading about Seven Myths about Slavery in Western Maryland
Over the past decade, many colleges and universities in the U.S. have faced, with varying degrees of openness, the truth about their slave history. Like every institution with roots very far back in American history, higher …
Continue Reading about Slavery and the Roots of Hood College
Fountain Rock was a plantation about six miles south of Hagerstown, Maryland, from 1792 to 1825. In the antebellum years, the same site was home to the College of St. James (1841-1864), forerunner of today’s St. James School. …
Continue Reading about Slavery at Fountain Rock and St. James
Tucked away in an obscure corner of Halfway, outside of Hagerstown, an overgrown half-acre is all that remains of what was once a sprawling burial ground for Hagerstown’s African American community. Most of the “Halfway …
Continue Reading about The Halfway African American Cemetery: A Lost Burial Ground
Every “runaway” slave advertisement tells a story. No life story is ever complete, but as historians we try to piece together the evidence of past lives and tell the stories of people who can no longer speak for themselves. …
Continue Reading about David Davis, Enslaved Blacksmith and Resister
