Feb 27
Georgia Southern Museum Statesboro, GA
Dr. Julie de Chantal
Associate Professor of History and Public History Coordinator at Georgia Southern University
andDr. Chanda Powell
Interpretive Park Ranger at Reconstruction Era National Park
andDr. Bennett Parten
Assistant Professor of History at Georgia Southern University
Harriet— How Naturalism Informed the Underground Railroad
Program Description
Join the Georgia Southern Museum for a night celebrating science in Black History Month with expert panelists Dr. Julie de Chantal and Dr. Ben Marten of Georgia Southern, and Dr. Chanda Powell of Reconstruction Era National Park. This community panel will discuss Harriet Tubman's history, specifically her time along the coastal plain, where her childhood spent as a slave in tidelands working in marshes and trapping muskrats would later give her crucial skills to navigate the swamplands needed to conduct the Underground Railroad. Dr. de Chantal will lead the panel in a series of questions to dive deeper into Harriet's story as a naturalist who used the stars to navigate, bird calls to secretly signal others, and knowledge of changing tides and rivers to navigate coastal swamps as she led people to freedom. Panelists will also share their experience in historical site preservation and its challenges in a coastal environment.
Location: Georgia Southern University, Russell Union Auditorium 1085
Presented At
Georgia Southern Museum Statesboro, GA
Film Synopsis
The extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America's greatest heroines.
Based on the thrilling and inspirational life of an iconic American freedom fighter, Harriet tells the extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America's greatest heroes. Haunted by memories of those she left behind, Harriet (Cynthia Erivo) ventures back into dangerous territory on a mission to lead others to freedom. With allies like abolitionist William Still (Leslie Odom, Jr.) and the entrepreneurial Marie Buchanon (Janelle Monáe), Harriet risks capture and death to guide hundreds to safety as one of the most prominent conductors of the Underground Railroad. Witness the story of a woman who defied impossible odds to change the course of her life and the fate of the nation.
Photo credit: Focus Features
About the Speaker
Dr. Julie de Chantal is an Associate Professor of History and Public History Coordinator at Georgia Southern University. Originally from Canada, she earned a Bachelor’s and Master's degree from the Université de Montréal, and her PhD from the University of Massachusetts. She has published articles and book chapters on the history of Black women’s grassroots activism in Boston, and a special study on the Presence of African Americans at Fort Pulaski in collaboration with the National Park Service.
Chanda Powell is a native of North Carolina and attended North Carolina Central University in Durham, NC where she received her BA and MA in History and received her PhD at Howard University and majored in African American history and the Diaspora and has a minor in Public History. She has been a National Park Service ranger for nine years. She currently works at the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park located in Beaufort, South Carolina where she has an interest in Black history and culture and showing diasporic connections and learning from communities.
Bennett Parten is an Assistant Professor of History at GSU. He holds a Ph.D. in History from Yale University. His first book, Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest Emancipation, came out earlier this year with Simon & Schuster. He is also recognized as a Distinguished Lecturer with the Organization of American Historians.