The American Studies program, in collaboration with African American
Studies, invites you to the Spring 2021 American
Studies Lecture on Monday, March 1, 2-3 p.m. on Zoom.
Meeting ID: 983 5341 1581
Passcode: 246979
This event will feature Dr. Karen Woods Weierman, Professor of
English at Worcester State U., who will deliver a talk based on her
latest book "The Case of the Slave-Child, Med: Free Soil in Antislavery
Boston" (U. of Mass. Press, 2019). In 1836, an enslaved six-year-old
girl named Med was brought to Boston by a woman from New Orleans who
claimed her as property. Learning of the girl's arrival in the city, the
Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS) waged a legal fight to
secure her freedom and affirm the free soil of Massachusetts. BFASS
claimed a broad victory for the abolitionist cause, and Med was released
to the care of a local institution. When she died two years later,
celebration quickly turned to silence, and her story was soon forgotten.
Karen Woods Weierman complicates Boston's identity as the birthplace of
abolition and the cradle of liberty, and restores Med to her rightful
place in antislavery history. In her AMST Lecture, Dr. Weierman will broaden
her remarks to include the lessons and legacy of this case for the
fraught social relations in U.S. present time.
Q&A to follow. Open to the public.
Please, bring/send your classes and do not hesitate to contact me with questions.