Invisible founders : how two centuries of African American families transformed a plantation into a college / Lynn Rainville.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rainville, Lynn, author.

Contributor:

John G. Hartman Memorial Library Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sweet Briar College.

Women's colleges.

History.

Enslaved persons.

African Americans.

Virginia--Sweet Briar.

Sweet Briar College--History.

African Americans--Virginia--Sweet Briar--History.

Enslaved persons--Virginia--Sweet Briar--History.

Women's colleges--Virginia--Sweet Briar--History.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xiii, 218 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Berghahn Books, 2019.

Summary:

"Literal and metaphorical excavations at Sweet Briar College reveal how African American labor enabled the transformation of Sweet Briar Plantation into a private women's college in 1906. This volume tells the story of the invisible founders of a college founded by and for white women. Despite being built and maintained by African American families, the college did not integrate its student body for sixty years after it opened. In the process, Invisible Founders challenges our ideas of what a college 'founder' is, restoring African American narratives to their deserved and central place in the story of a single institution--one that serves as a microcosm of the American South"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Invisible workers

Family origins, 1685-1810

Slavery in Virginia, 1811-1830

Survival strategies, 1831-1857

Families divided, 1858-1865

Freedom communities, 1866-1883

Mourning the dead, 1884-1900

Forgotten founders, 1901-2001

Commemorating founders.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the John G. Hartman Memorial Library Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Rainville, Lynn, author. Invisible founders

ISBN:

9781789202311

1789202310

OCLC:

1066125222