Dr. Marie Stango

Antislavery, Abolition, and Colonization: or, Why the United States had a Colony in West Africa:

 Many American students have heard of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. Yet few Americans have read the novel, and even fewer have noted that the novel ends in Liberia -- a nation in West Africa, founded with funding from the United States Congress in 1822. Stowe was among a number of American supporters of Liberia: a nation founded for the settlement of free-born Black Americans as well as enslaved people who had been set free. In this talk, we will examine the origins of the colonization movement and discuss Black abolitionist opposition to colonization in Liberia. We'll have a chance to discuss primary sources produced both in the United States and Liberia, and discuss how American influence still exists in Liberia today.

The Age of American Revolutions:

 This talk examines three major American independence movements of the late 18th and early 19th centuries: the United States, Haiti, and Mexico. While these three movements emerged under separate contexts and created distinct nations, they shared many key ideological assumptions and shared similar intellectual traditions. In our exploration of these movements, we'll discuss universal ideals and national sympathies, the place of race and slavery, the role of social and economic conflicts, and the influence of culture, including religion, on the course and outcome of revolution.

Women's Suffrage in the United States:

 The U.S. recently celebrated the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment in the U.S., which guarantees voting rights for women. Yet, this achievement was more complicated than the constitutional amendment might seem. Many women were voting in U.S. elections long before the 19th Amendment, including some women in New Jersey in 1776, and in much of the American West (including Idaho in 1896). Further, while white women gained the right to vote in 1920, the vast majority of Black women, Indigenous women, and Asian American women were not able to participate in this political process. This talk explores the long history of women's voting in the U.S.