Unbroken Bonds: Meaning of Slavery & Abolition in a Northern Textile City

Explore the connection, and tension, between slavery, capitalism, and abolition in a northern textile city. Using primary sources from Black and white Lowellians, we’ll examine their involvement in and reaction to, an economic system that profited from the enslavement of African people. We will:

• Investigate the connection between the southern agrarian slave economy and Lowell’s industrial capitalism.
• Discuss the reasons many of Lowell’s mill workers, whose livelihoods relied on slave-picked cotton, participated in antislavery activities.
• Share methods for teaching the abolition movement from the perspective of Black and white Northerners.
• Examine ways to help students internalize valuable lessons about agency and make connections to their own abilities to be changemakers.

Accommodations

We value inclusion and access for all participants and are pleased to provide reasonable accommodations for this event. Please contact this event’s organizer to make an accommodation request. (Please note: Requests submitted with less than 72 hours' notice may not be reasonable to provide certain accommodations).

PDPs:10 Massachusetts PDPs

Workshop Faculty:

• MaryBeth Faucher, Tsongas Industrial History Center (Lowell National Historical Park)
• Prof. Robert Forrant, University of Massachusetts Lowell
• Kristin Gallas, Tsongas Industrial History Center (UMass Lowell)
• Prof. Elizabeth Herbin-Triant, Amherst College
• Barbara Justice, Cane River Creole National Historical Park
• Prof. Seth Rockman, Brown University

This program is funded in part by Mass Humanities.

The Tsongas Industrial History Center is an education partnership between the University of Massachusetts Lowell School of Education and Lowell National Historical Park.

For more information visit the Tsongas Industrial History Center's Unbroken Bonds webpage and email: [email protected] or [email protected].

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Tsongas Industrial History Center, 115 John Street, Lowell, United States