Fathoming the Slave Trade: The Past Is Present in Southern New England Identity

• In Event: 42.029 - Then and Now: Grappling With Race in Psyche and Society

Abstract

The primary objective of this inquiry is threefold: to a) forward a theoretical examination of the influence of a particular era of regional history in a way that b) simultaneously brings the past forward and the present backwards in order to c) exhume the nature of the interconnectedness of past and present in the shaping of identity, politics, policy and practice. Utilizes memory to conceptualize history as immediate, experiential, and subjective. Addresses the role history, memory and the relationship between the past and the present. Draws upon traditional and recent historical renditions of the slave trade nationally and in New England, Present-day historical ephemera, school curricula, policy and practice used to investigate AERA call from the perspective of rethinking history.

Author

• Ann G. Winfield, Roger Williams University