Bringing 19th-Century Black Organizing to Digital Life

May 28, 2023 4:07 PM

The Colored Conventions Project. The first Colored Convention was held in 1830 in response to Ohio’s 1829 exclusionary laws and a wave of anti-Black mob violence that had forced two thousand Black residents to flee the state...more than 200 state and national Colored Conventions were held between 1830 and the 1890s. An Introduction to the Colored Conventions Movement. Colored Conventions and the Carceral States. Mary Ann Shadd Cary’s Herstory in the Colored Conventions. To Stay or To Go? The 1854 National Emigration Convention. A rich site with lots of detailed exhibits.

Each of the exhibits has a menu at the left to explore; there are also lots of articles about the roles of women, who were often ignored or minimized in the official proceedings. A few selections:

Women Activists: "A Great Many Females Being Present"
Black Women Reformers
It is possible Catherine Doram was also a member of the Anti-Slavery Sewing Society of Cincinnati, Ohio. The society existed from 1847-1861 and was made of members who constructed new clothing for slaves escaping through the Underground Railroad.
Black Organizing in Pre-Civil War Illinois: Creating Community, Demanding Justice
The Early Case for a National Black Press
Minutes and proceedings of the conventions organized by decade and year

posted by mediareport (4 comments total)

Oh, there's also a book from the University of North Carolina Press.
posted by mediareport at 4:11 PM on May 28, 2023

Thank you for this extraordinary collection of materials. There is a lot here to digest. As usual with this sort of online exhibit, it’s mostly an introduction to whet the reader’s interest and pass them on to other sources. I wish it was more mobile-friendly and had better scans, but those are small things.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:08 AM on May 29, 2023

Yeah, I found it on my desktop so wasn't aware of the weird display issues on some mobile pages. Sorry about that, y'all.

it’s mostly an introduction to whet the reader’s interest and pass them on to other sources

I want to learn so much more about some of the featured women. Someone please write a historical novel about Cincinnati's Anti-Slavery Sewing Society.
posted by mediareport at 8:35 AM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

That would be something to read!

Don’t worry about the mobile business; that was an acknowledgement, not a complaint. Those display panels for PDFs or whichever image files they are using never work on mobile, but they are more stable and archival, I guess.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:43 AM on May 29, 2023