Tessa Florida
Research Mentor(s): Lakisha Simmons
Mentor Department: History & Women’s and Gender Studies
Authors:
Session: Session 5 (2:00pm – 2:50pm)
Presentation Type: Poster 60
Abstract
In our symposium presentation, we will largely focus on the key takeaways from Professor Simmon’s upcoming book entitled “Labor, Love, Loss: Black Families After the Civil War.†First, we will focus on sharing the key takeaways about Harriet Jacobs, a prominent African American abolitionist who published a powerful autobiography in 1961, and we will touch upon her heartwarming yet powerful friendship with fellow abolitionist Julia Wilbur. Harriet Jacobs’ narrative demonstrates moving demonstrations of survival and resilience, and we want to showcase her courage through providing a timeline of the most important events in her life. We also will have a portion of our presentation dedicated to how Black families dealt with widespread illnesses and inequalities in the health care system in the 19th century, as a large deal of our research was dedicated to this topic. These injustices had significant mental health tolls on Black mothers who experienced Black infant mortality rates at far higher rates than white mothers. Additionally, we also will share a bit of research on the social and political landscape of Washington D.C. in the late 19th century, the place where Harriet Jacobs initially escaped to. Alexandria, Virginia also served as a campground for Julia Wilbur to help provide work to provide relief to newly freed enslaved people. Places like Alexandria served as initial forms of inspiration for Jacobs and Wilbur to grow more involved in the abolitionist movement, thus, we will discuss how the significance of these places, along with how Black families still managed, to some extent, thrive even in the most difficult of circumstances.
