KATE MASUR
speaks about
"They Knew Lincoln: Reconsidering A Classic"
speaks about
"They Knew Lincoln: Reconsidering A Classic"
CLICK HERE FOR AUDIO
CLICK HERE FOR SLIDES
Presentation to the
The Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia
andCLICK HERE FOR SLIDES
Presentation to the
The Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia
The Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia
at the Fort Myer Officers' Club in Arlington, VA
on February 12, 2019
The images used during her presentation are available HERE or at
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1I2ySmJ1OpmOq54vvDHXTxr0jbzyzsB9x
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1I2ySmJ1OpmOq54vvDHXTxr0jbzyzsB9x
About the Topic:
A new introduction by Kate Masur places Washington's book in its own context, explaining the contents of They Knew Lincoln in light of not only the era of emancipation and the Civil War, but also Washington's own times, when the nation's capital was a place of great opportunity and creativity for members of the African American elite. On publication, a reviewer noted that the "collection of Negro stories, memories, legends about Lincoln" seemed "to fill such an obvious gap in the material about Lincoln that one wonders why no one ever did it before." This edition brings it back to print for a twenty-first century readership that remains fascinated with Abraham Lincoln.
About the Speaker:
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Originally published in 1942 and now reprinted for the first time, They Knew Lincoln is a classic in African American history and Lincoln studies. Part memoir and part history, the book is an account of John E. Washington's childhood among African Americans in Washington, DC, and of the black people who knew or encountered Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln.
Washington recounted stories told by his grandmother's elderly friends; stories of escaping from slavery, meeting Lincoln in the Capitol, learning of the president's assassination, and hearing ghosts at Ford's Theatre. He also mined the U.S. government archives and researched little-known figures in Lincoln's life, including William Johnson, who accompanied Lincoln from Springfield to Washington, and William Slade, the steward in Lincoln's White House.
Washington was fascinated from childhood by the question of how much African Americans themselves had shaped Lincoln's views on slavery and race, and he believed Lincoln's Haitian-born barber, William de Fleurville, was a crucial influence. Washington also extensively researched Elizabeth Keckly, the dressmaker to Mary Todd Lincoln, and he advanced a new theory of who helped her write her controversial book, Behind the Scenes.
A new introduction by Kate Masur places Washington's book in its own context, explaining the contents of They Knew Lincoln in light of not only the era of emancipation and the Civil War, but also Washington's own times, when the nation's capital was a place of great opportunity and creativity for members of the African American elite. On publication, a reviewer noted that the "collection of Negro stories, memories, legends about Lincoln" seemed "to fill such an obvious gap in the material about Lincoln that one wonders why no one ever did it before." This edition brings it back to print for a twenty-first century readership that remains fascinated with Abraham Lincoln.
About the Speaker:
Kate Masur received her Ph.D from the University of Michigan in 2001 and is a professor in the Department of History at Northwestern University's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. She specializes in the history of the 19th-century United States, focusing on how Americans grappled with questions of race and equality after the abolition of slavery in both the North and South. She is a faculty affiliate of the Department of African American Studies and is the author of An Example for All the Land: Emancipation and the Struggle over Equality in Washington, D.C. (2010) and numerous articles on emancipation and black politics during and after the Civil War. With Gregory P. Downs (UC-Davis), Dr. Masur co-edited The World the Civil War Made (2015), a collection of essays that charts new directions in the study of the post-Civil War Era.
In 2018, Oxford University Press published her new edition of They Knew Lincoln by John E. Washington. This largely forgotten classic in Lincoln studies and African American history was first published by E. P. Dutton in 1942 and is the first book-length study of Lincoln’s relationships with African Americans, including members of the White House staff and Lincoln’s Haitian-born barber in Springfield, William de Fleurville. It offers a mosaic of stories, deep research on Elizabeth Keckly’s life and authorship of her 1868 book, Behind the Scenes, and vignettes of Washington’s own childhood in the neighborhood near Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. Dr. Masur’s introduction to the new edition (excerpted here) explores John E. Washington’s life and work, as well as the book’s original reception and significance.
Dr. Masur has extensive experience in public history and teacher education. She was part of the editorial team that created Reconstruction: The Official National Park Service Handbook, and she and Dr. Downs co-authored The Era of Reconstruction, 1861-1900, a National Historic Landmark Theme Study published in July 2017. They wrote about their NPS work in The Atlantic Online and The New York Times, and they co-edited a Reconstruction special issue of The Journal of the Civil War Era that includes a forum on the future of Reconstruction studies and a roundtable conversation on Reconstruction in public history and memory.
Dr. Masur regularly leads teacher workshops at the Newberry Library and has served as a consultant on a variety of museum exhibits and documentary films. She has separately written for The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic Online on topics related to the Civil War, emancipation, the film Lincoln, and the history of the District of Columbia. Dr. Masur is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards.
In 2018-2019, Dr. Masur is on research leave courtesy of an NEH faculty fellowship and is a visiting scholar at the American Bar Foundation in Chicago. She is working on a book about police powers, the anti-slavery movement, and the origins of Reconstruction-era constitutional change. She has presented portions of that work at the National Archives, Brown University, Vanderbilt University, and other venues. A preliminary article based on her new research is published in the 2017 volume of American Journal of Legal History.Dr. Masur is also affiliated with the Center for African American History, the Department of African American Studies, and the Program in American Studies.
In 2018, Oxford University Press published her new edition of They Knew Lincoln by John E. Washington. This largely forgotten classic in Lincoln studies and African American history was first published by E. P. Dutton in 1942 and is the first book-length study of Lincoln’s relationships with African Americans, including members of the White House staff and Lincoln’s Haitian-born barber in Springfield, William de Fleurville. It offers a mosaic of stories, deep research on Elizabeth Keckly’s life and authorship of her 1868 book, Behind the Scenes, and vignettes of Washington’s own childhood in the neighborhood near Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. Dr. Masur’s introduction to the new edition (excerpted here) explores John E. Washington’s life and work, as well as the book’s original reception and significance.
Dr. Masur has extensive experience in public history and teacher education. She was part of the editorial team that created Reconstruction: The Official National Park Service Handbook, and she and Dr. Downs co-authored The Era of Reconstruction, 1861-1900, a National Historic Landmark Theme Study published in July 2017. They wrote about their NPS work in The Atlantic Online and The New York Times, and they co-edited a Reconstruction special issue of The Journal of the Civil War Era that includes a forum on the future of Reconstruction studies and a roundtable conversation on Reconstruction in public history and memory.
Dr. Masur regularly leads teacher workshops at the Newberry Library and has served as a consultant on a variety of museum exhibits and documentary films. She has separately written for The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic Online on topics related to the Civil War, emancipation, the film Lincoln, and the history of the District of Columbia. Dr. Masur is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards.
In 2018-2019, Dr. Masur is on research leave courtesy of an NEH faculty fellowship and is a visiting scholar at the American Bar Foundation in Chicago. She is working on a book about police powers, the anti-slavery movement, and the origins of Reconstruction-era constitutional change. She has presented portions of that work at the National Archives, Brown University, Vanderbilt University, and other venues. A preliminary article based on her new research is published in the 2017 volume of American Journal of Legal History.Dr. Masur is also affiliated with the Center for African American History, the Department of African American Studies, and the Program in American Studies.
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