Tweets of the Un-Mastered Class: Exploring the Freedom on the Move Database with Edward Baptist The Humanities Pod

Ed Baptist, Cornell history professor, joins Paul and Annette to discuss the Freedom on the Move database and related pedagogical projects. This work by Baptist and many other scholars, educators, and volunteers aims to shift the narrative surrounding slavery in America, bringing together tens of thousands of newspaper “wanted” ads for freedom seekers. These ads inadvertently bear witness to the names, lives, and personalities of self-liberators who otherwise have been effaced from history—while also highlighting the complicity of mainstream newspapers and their subscribers in attempting to subjugate “runaway property.”