![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Jun. 6th, 2008 06:12 pmI like to say I was a history major from the time I was about 10 and got upset when social studies classes were canceled every time we had a 2 hour snow delay. From the time I was in middle school and my sisters and I played southern plantation in the basement, complete with cotton plants made out of cotton balls. From the time I was in high school and dyed paper with tea and wrote by candlelight to complete a US history assignment, then went on to read The Peculiar Institution in AP US history and ace both the US and European history AP tests.
Reading The Peculiar Institution, the first modern book written on antebellum slavery in the United States inspired my senior year college thesis project titled Slavery and Freedom in St. Mary's County, Maryland and Key West, Florida. You should have been there to see the reaction when I presented my project, with a white professor who grew up in Tennessee or something arguing that they always took care of the black children in their care and a black professor who grew up in the Caribbean arguing vehemently otherwise. After I graduated, I put the project away and all but forgot about it.
Until now.
Now I'm not saying that I'm going to devote myself full-time to research or anything, especially not with teaching starting in the fall and for at least three years and education classes for at least the next 11 months. But visiting the Historic New Orleans Collection this afternoon touched a nerve. I'd love to continue the research I started 4 years ago and see how New Orleans compared with Maryland and Key West, especially Key West because it too was a frontier town heavily influenced by Caribbean immigration. If nothing else, I can read a few books on New Orleans history to satisfy my own interest and help get me ready for eventually becoming a licensed tour guide.
Committing to teaching in New Orleans for at least three years gives me a stake in her future and, by extension, a need to understand her past.
Plus, it's a great excuse to take advantage of ice-cold air-conditioning.
Reading The Peculiar Institution, the first modern book written on antebellum slavery in the United States inspired my senior year college thesis project titled Slavery and Freedom in St. Mary's County, Maryland and Key West, Florida. You should have been there to see the reaction when I presented my project, with a white professor who grew up in Tennessee or something arguing that they always took care of the black children in their care and a black professor who grew up in the Caribbean arguing vehemently otherwise. After I graduated, I put the project away and all but forgot about it.
Until now.
Now I'm not saying that I'm going to devote myself full-time to research or anything, especially not with teaching starting in the fall and for at least three years and education classes for at least the next 11 months. But visiting the Historic New Orleans Collection this afternoon touched a nerve. I'd love to continue the research I started 4 years ago and see how New Orleans compared with Maryland and Key West, especially Key West because it too was a frontier town heavily influenced by Caribbean immigration. If nothing else, I can read a few books on New Orleans history to satisfy my own interest and help get me ready for eventually becoming a licensed tour guide.
Committing to teaching in New Orleans for at least three years gives me a stake in her future and, by extension, a need to understand her past.
Plus, it's a great excuse to take advantage of ice-cold air-conditioning.
