Slavery and Resistance: An Indiana Perspective (1850)

EVENT LOCATION: Room 268

TIME: 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

In this Humanities Festival session, students in EMCO 204 share original research uncovering how slavery and resistance were discussed in Indiana newspapers in the early months of 1850. Working together in a collaborative digital archive, students systematically searched period newspapers for key terms related to slavery, freedom seeking, race, and law, then documented and analyzed each article with careful attention to language, evidence, and historical context. From this growing archive, small groups identified compelling stories—legal debates, reports of escape, political arguments, racialized rhetoric, and striking silences—and transformed them into public-facing presentations and 24 x 36 posters designed to make this history accessible and engaging for a broad audience.

These presentations illuminate how a so-called “free” state wrestled with the realities of slavery on the eve of the Fugitive Slave Act, revealing tensions, contradictions, and acts of resistance often absent from standard textbooks. By moving from archival discovery to interpretive storytelling, students participate in the work of recovering overlooked histories and connecting them to contemporary conversations about memory, justice, and citizenship.

This project grew out of Professor Mark Cassello’s participation in Yale University’s Legacies of American Slavery faculty seminar in 2023 and reflects that initiative’s commitment to examining the enduring legacies of slavery in local and national contexts. The work is supported by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and the Mellon Foundation through the Legacies of American Slavery initiative, and it benefits from the partnership of the Midwest Underground Railroad Network (MURN), whose regional scholarship and preservation efforts help situate this research within a broader community understanding of slavery and resistance in Indiana and beyond.

Hosted by Mark Cassello. If you have questions about the event, please contact him at [email protected].

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