On Sunday, January 26, Readex will host a special breakfast presentation titled “Freedom Found: Untold Stories of the Civil War’s Refugees from Slavery” at the 2020 American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia. An open discussion will follow the talk by acclaimed author Amy Murrell Taylor, Professor of History and winner of multiple outstanding teacher awards at the University of Kentucky.

About the Presentation

The liberation of four million men, women, and children from slavery in the United States is often told as a one-man, one-moment story centered on Abraham Lincoln’s issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. This talk revisits that story by looking at the emergence of Civil War “contraband” camps, settlements of over 500,000 refugees from slavery who sought protection inside the lines of the Union Army. It tells the untold stories of the many people and moments that accomplished the real work of seeking freedom in the Civil War, and considers why an elemental part of Emancipation’s history has remained relatively hidden in American memory. What challenges lie in the way of reconstructing this history—and in reshaping the way that most Americans understand this momentous period?

About the Speaker

More than half of America’s states began as territories. “Territorial Papers of the United States” records this official history, collecting Native American negotiations and treaties, correspondence with the government, military records, judicial proceedings, and more. Now these publications are available in a unique digital product, offering new research opportunities for all studying the creation of modern-day America.

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Praise for Territorial Papers of the United States:

“As government information librarians, we not only assist users with current issues, we often delve into historical research. Negotiation of Native American treaties, public land issues, and territorial administration all frame a significant role in the development of the United States. To have digital access in a single interface to the complete, original documents of the Territorial Papers of the State and Interior Departments culled from difficult-to-access locations is a great complement to existing collections and an enormous benefit to researchers. In addition, Readex’s Territorial Papers of the United States is cross-searchable through the Readex AllSearch interface with the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, Early American Imprints and Early American Newspapers.”

— Christopher C. Brown, Professor, Reference Technology Integration Librarian / Government Documents Librarian, University of Denver

The inclusion of California in Territorial Papers of the United States, 1763-1953, is perhaps surprising as that state was never formally organized as a territory prior to statehood in 1850. Rather, Alta (Upper) California, including much of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, went through a two-year transitional period during the Mexican-American War when its status was undetermined. The “territory” that became the Mexican Cession following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 was administered by the U.S. Army as a protectorate with the clear understanding that it would ultimately redound to the United States.

The conquest and annexation of Upper California was the ultimate step in “Manifest Destiny,” a term coined in 1845 by journalist John O’Sullivan to articulate the sense that the American national project was to extend republican government from coast to coast, and that this task was sanctioned by God.

Earlier this year, the United States Department of Defense and U.S. Intelligence Community issued reports warning that human-caused climate change is already exacerbating national security threats and global instability—a problem that’s only expected to worsen in coming decades. Among the impacts listed are rising sea levels that could flood U.S. military bases on Pacific islands; punishing drought that’s driving conflicts in East Africa; and melting Arctic sea ice reinvigorating competition for natural resources between the U.S., Russia and China.

Yet while the ways in which climate change fuels conflict and instability are ever evolving, the threat itself is hardly new. As early as the 1980s, the U.S. Naval War College began studying the intersection of global warming and American security. And a division of the CIA that monitored, recorded and translated into English thousands of foreign broadcasts and publications has been tracking international research on the issue for even longer. Today, these reports, found in Climate Science and Sustainability, offer a compelling archive for researchers interested in tracking how governments around the world have responded to the growing threat of climate change over time.