It’s been a fast-moving summer!
Since June, “From the Page” collaborators in Hanover and beyond have struggled to decipher nineteenth century handwriting. About half of the uploaded project documents (nearing three hundred items, a threshold that should be achieved before September) are now either completed or in-progress. That represents more than 11,000 lines of text entered. Whew.
In the week to come, as our Dartmouth team prepares for final exams, we will collaborate on two life stories as a way to wrap up the summer term work. The pair were selected based upon these criteria:
- a sufficient body of material for both subjects now exists in fully transcribed form.
- both lend themselves to “manageable” sketches that would not overwhelm this preliminary / pilot effort (they are limited in a way that material related to Pierce Lafayette, Eliza Stephens, and others truly sprawls).
- both have, in different ways, already been “visible” to the public, albeit in highly partial ways. In drawing attention to that aspect of the existing record, we can reflect on what can be gained by a more thorough consideration of difficult materials
By the end of the month, we will have finalized the “compiled life stories” of:
GEORGE STEPHENS, the skilled carpenter and long-time Taliaferro resident, whose domestic life drew attention, and extended commentary, from his white enslavers.
BEN TRAVIS, the “valet” of several powerful white Georgians who attended Alexander Stephens in Richmond during the Civil War. That may well have been a permanent re-location northwards on his part, though materials on his post-1865 existence are scanty.