Race and Gender in Democracy in Performance

• In Event: Democracy in Performance and Presidential Debates: Civic Engagement Through Living History

Abstract

In "Race and Gender in Democracy in Performance," Merrill will discuss abolitionist performances included in the event such as Henry Ward Beecher‚s antebellum mock slave auctions in Plymouth Church in which he exhorted the congregation to buy the freedom of young slave girls and the performances of Henry "Box" Brown who gave lectures about his mailing himself to freedom in a box.

Author

• Lisa Merrill, Hofstra University