We’re so glad that Rob Nelson and Scott Nesbit could join us today to offer an introduction to Visualizing Emancipation. Make sure to explore the site — and start imagining how you could use it with your students. The worksheet and lesson plan Rob and Scott shared should help you to get started.
Let us know your thoughts. Will Visualizing Emancipation or Mining the Dispatch make an appearance in your classroom next year?
Also, make sure to keep in touch with Rob and Scott as you develop ways of using their work. Write to them at rnelson2@richmond.edu and snesbit@richmond.edu.
Jodi
I will definitely be making use of Visualizing Emancipation. As a park ranger, one of our major interpretive themes for the 150th commemoration of the Civil War at Little Rock Central High School is from “Civil War to Civil Rights.” As Visualizing Emancipation shows and the discussion illustrated, Union victories at Pea Ridge and Helena, as well as other sites in Arkansas, led to the US Army camps being flooded by soon to be ex-slaves. The first schools for blacks in Arkansas were in these camps. Young and old set beneath shade trees within the camps and began to learn how to read, often taught by missionaries. Those ex-slaves knew that to truly be free, they had to be able to read. That is a lesson many students today need to learn and embrace.
Scott Nesbit
Thanks very much, Lance & Matt, for giving us the opportunity to chat with you all today. Jodi, thanks for your interest in Visualizing Emancipation!