Course Description
Summary
Revolutions in transportation across the nineteenth century wrapped a “girdle of steam around the world,” giving people a sense of wider horizons in a shrinking universe. Indeed, Frederick Douglass’ newspaper spoke in the 1850s of “walls…giving way before the physical, mental and moral pressure of a world, whose business by land and water, is shot over its surface by steam, and whose daily history, progress, and improvements, in everything, are told almost everywhere, and at the same time, by lightning.” In this mix, people came to see “loco-motion” as their birthright, meaning “the power to change [one’s] situation, to move one’s person to whatever place one’s inclination might direct.” This course is an opportunity to explore this long-ago yet very familiar world on the move, focusing on people who “disappeared,” such as runaway slaves, absconding debtors, eloping spouses, disoriented immigrants, abducted children, and so on. Using online materials, including historical newspapers, censuses, vital records, digitized maps, and augmented reality tools, we will compile and develop fact-driven narratives of individuals who in their own time were lost, exiled, or on the run. Expectations for students include short weekly challenges and culminating projects, such as podcasts, fictive diaries and related documents), videos, animations, and various other wonderful possibilities students may suggest.
