Abolitionist Women and Their Worlds
In the spring of 2021, Tiya with teaching fellow Alyssa Napier (School of Education) offered a new public history course: Abolitionist Women and Their Worlds (History 12M) in the History Department at Harvard University, supported by the Mindich Engaged Scholarship Program of Harvard College and the Schlesinger Library Long 19th Amendment Initiative at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
In collaboration with the Cambridge Black History Project, the curious, creative, and committed students in the class produced an original, research-based multimedia walking tour of African American women’s historic sites in Cambridge, Massachusetts. View the tour.
In the fall of 2024, Tiya and teaching fellow Saffron Sener (History Department) offered an updated version of Abolitionist Women and Their Worlds to a second group of wonderfully dedicated and talented students.
In collaboration with the Harriet Jacobs Legacy Committee (HJLC) based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, this second class produced four projects focused on the Harriet Jacobs House, a local historic site at 17 Story Street.
We invite you to explore the four projects below and use these sites and materials, with credit to Abolitionist Women and Their Worlds, History Department, Harvard University.
Home and Garden Magazine
A home and garden style magazine focused on the question of who would have been sitting at Harriet Jacobs’s table.
The Yellow Pages
A yellow pages style directory featuring Jacobs’s fascinating boarders, many of whom had Harvard ties.
Harriet Jacobs in Massachusetts: A Timeline
An annotated and illustrated timeline of Harriet Jacobs’s time in Massachusetts.
Action Plan Proposal for Harriet Jacobs Legacy Committee
A research-based guide of concrete suggestions for how the HJLC can develop partnerships and programs to share Jacobs’s dramatic story of escaping slavery, publishing a memoir to further the cause of abolition, aiding refugees during the Civil War, educating freedpeople, and becoming a businesswoman.