Abolition Website

Since 2006, incoming Library Company Director Richard Newman has on five occasions taught well-received summer seminars at the Library Company for K-12 teachers on the Abolition Movement. In 2012, the National Endowment for the Humanities—which funds the seminars—provided an additional $10,000 grant designed to supplement the seminar’s pedagogy with digital innovation. The result, unveiled this year, was abolitionseminar.org–a model educational resource for both teachers and students based on the seminar curriculum that can greatly extend its reach.

The project includes a virtual seminar experience, lesson plans, a map of important sites in the historyof anti-slavery movements around the world, and a YouTube channel playlist of featured seminar speakers and historic site tours, as well as extensive links to primary source materials. The most popular feature has proved to be a map application that allows for crowdsourcing of historic data. As a vehicle for engagement with website visitors, the map application will be an integral part of the site’s growth and sustainability.