Our Bondage and Our Freedom: Struggles for Liberty in the Lives and Works of Frederick Douglass and His Family (1818-1920)

Working to develop an alternative interdisciplinary framework, this project investigates the legendary example of Frederick Douglass as a renowned formerly enslaved and self-emancipated liberator in conjunction with the under-researched biographies and writings authored by his daughters and sons: Rosetta, Lewis Henry, Frederick Jr., Charles Remond and Annie Douglass. By reinterpreting the writings of the mythologised figure of Frederick Douglass within the context of his neglected family members, it is possible to reconceptualise dominant scholarly paradigms according to which the iconic and exceptional few are theorised over and above the individual and invisibilised many when it comes to black lives. An interdisciplinary project drawing together early, mid and senior career academics, activists, archivists and artists and aimed at specialist and general audiences, this proposed research consists of a literary biography, a family biography/scholarly anthology, a UK exhibition, 2 US companion exhibits, guided exhibition and Edinburgh black history city tours, a public educational programme, an academic conference, a US workshop on engaged scholarship, 2 refereed journal special issues, a commemorative plaque, an exhibition guide and 4 educational learning guides and online resources for use in universities, schools, adult-learning environments and by the general public.
At the heart of this project is the conviction that the only way in which to do justice to the under-researched writings and artworks produced by black women, children and men bought and sold into transatlantic slavery, and for whom the written word and the image remained contested terrain, is to develop a cross-, multi- and inter- disciplinary scholarly practice. Dominant theoretical models do not apply. Researchers must develop alternative analytical approaches in order to examine black authored literary and visual arts traditions forged in the interstices of legal, physical, cultural, historical, psychological and imaginative subjugation. Just as black authors and artists developed self-reflexively experimental textual and visual practices as they took on the burden of representation by acknowledging that, as Douglass insisted, "language has no power" and "images are mute" when faced with the impossibility of representing the tragedies of chattel slavery and its traumatising legacies, we as scholars must take on the burden of interpretation by developing a new theoretical language. I take the view that we are not there yet by arguing for the intellectual and political necessity of working with interdisciplinary methodologies within Black Studies, African Diasporic Studies, Slavery Studies, American Studies, Memory Studies and Social Justice Studies as the only way in which to investigate the otherwise missing historical, social, cultural, philosophical, ideological, political, psychological and aesthetic contexts of black lives. I take inspiration from Audre Lorde to argue that an interdisciplinary examination of black literary and visual arts traditions establishes that it is not the "master's tools" but the "slaves' tools" that succeed in "dismantling" the "master's house."
During the two-hundred year anniversary of his birth in 2018 and in a Black Lives Matter era, the Douglass needed now is no representative self-made man but a fallible, mortal individual. It was not only Douglass but his family members who despaired of "committing to paper the pain" they experienced as the "wounds upon the soul" defied textual or visual expression. The onus is on academics, archivists, artists and activists to harness every intellectual tool available in order to tell the story not only of the enslaved but of black women and men experiencing freedoms that were in name only in a post-emancipation era. For Douglass' rallying cry, "My Bondage and My Freedom" it is possible to read: "Our Bondage and Our Freedom."

Our Bondage and Our Freedom is the culmination of my decades of Black Studies research, writing and knowledge exchange and has already generated impact for users and beneficiaries outside UK/US academic research communities including: individuals (artists, archivists, curators, librarians, teachers, students, public educators); organisations (museums, galleries, historic sites); groups (BME and African American communities, local historians). The potential for generating impact on these and other users and beneficiaries of this research is as follows:
1) The digital files of the Douglass and family manuscripts and photographs held in the Walter O Evans Collection will directly benefit the Walter O Evans Foundation for Art and Literature's mission of making black history and culture available to US curators, librarians, teachers, community workers, activists, students and public historians through regional networks (Friends of African American Arts, Telfair Museums; Savannah College of Art and Design Museum; Savannah Black Heritage Festival) and internationally (NLS/FDNHS/ BDM).
2) The Strike for Freedom exhibition will directly benefit the National Library of Scotland's mission of inspiring engagement and reaching out by galvanising new directions for their curatorial policies, collections research and public education programming. As their first Treasures Display to include black content, this exhibition will show Douglass and his family's manuscripts and photographs alongside NLS items and will result in new resources for their webpages, education guides, exhibition tours and workshops designed for school teachers, lifelong learners and hard-to-reach groups.
3) The US companion exhibit at the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site will benefit National Park Service curators, collections managers, site directors and rangers by introducing them to new research on Douglass and his family members' activism and on Douglass as a transatlantic reformer at the heart of UK antislavery movements. The exhibit will result in Lesson Plans, Suggested Reading, and Online Exhibit Resources for their Teaching Himself, Teaching America initiative for school teachers and children in Washington DC.
4) The US companion exhibit at the Banneker-Douglass Museum in historic Mt. Moriah AME Church will provide new research on Douglass and the problem of mapping black genealogies which will play a major role in updating the museum's permanent display and developing their public programming. As Maryland's official museum of African American heritage, this exhibit will benefit state government cultural policy-makers by influencing the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture's outreach efforts to communities, organizations, and local governments (Maryland State Archives; Harriet Tubman Visitor Center).
5) The Methodologies in UK/US Black Studies Research: Dialogues in Engaged Scholarship workshop at the Center for Black Studies Research will benefit grassroots campaigns for mainstreaming Black Studies curricula. This collaboration will result in the first international Transatlantic Black Studies Research Partnership between the Center for Black Studies Research and the University of Edinburgh.
6) This project will provide new audiences with access to research based knowledge in engaging formats by working with specialists to develop an Edinburgh Black History Trail Tour, US/UK Guided Exhibition Tours, Public Education Programmes and Exhibition and Learning Guides which will benefit a wide range of users including the project partners and their networks and groups; teachers and students; diverse communities.
7) Working with Historic Environment Environment Scotland to place a Commemorative Plaque on Douglass' residence as Scotland's anti-slavery agent will benefit their outreach programme by widening access to his key role in Scottish histories of slavery and freedom.