Freedmen and Southern Society Project
@fssp.bsky.social
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The Freedmen & Southern Society Project was established in 1976 to capture the essence of the profound social revolution of emancipation in the United States.
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Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project
Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project
![Screenshot of passage from article linked above:
Several of my students have reflected on being impacted by the personal connections they found to the documents. Kevin Vanderbilt worked with three letters written in Jacksonville in the 1880s. In his essay, he described how compelling he found the personal details in that correspondence, remarking on his experience with one document in particular: “I felt myself connect to a story of a mother writing to her beloved son on his birthday while he was away at school. I let every detail consume me, and I analyzed it as if it were my own mother.”
Finley Jensen thought explicitly about how such a link to people in the past can be forged through editorial work. Comparing his engagement with primary sources to more traditional course activities, he concluded that the former offered greater possibilities for connection: “It’s one thing, of course, to research a historical figure and understand their lives outwardly through secondhand resources, but it’s another thing entirely to be involved in the transcription of their personal life. In many ways, this method is much more intimate, more private, encouraging a closeness [. . .] that wouldn’t otherwise be available.”
Whitney Kerr considered the same matter from a different angle. She explained that her editing work helped her to understand her own family’s experiences within larger narratives in African American history: “I was lacking a connection that I did not even know existed until I had transcribed and edited other stories similar to that of my family.” In reflecting on this years later, she reiterated this idea: “I really appreciate this class for how it has bridged the gap in my emotional understanding.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:yvw45wv24snqf5kgwfltymbb/bafkreifgycrrayxqgtz7h6hfrxincqxpnchfe7w4tcb3x5w6li565qib3u@jpeg)
Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project
Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project