BrANCHing Out

I recently learned that my proposal, “‘The Evolution of the Enslaved Community at Andrew Jackson’s Plantations, 1790s-1840s,” was accepted to be part of the 2012 BrANCH (Association of British American Nineteenth Century Historians) conference, which will be held in Newcastle-upon-Tyne this fall. This paper is part of a new project focusing on the slave community at The Hermitage. I envision it going in a couple of different, but complementary, directions, and I’m excited to float some preliminary ideas in front of a lot of smart people.

Hopefully, the project will help avoid claims such as the one that ‎one of Jackson’s house slaves, Alfred, “ran the farm when Jackson was away.” This erroneous statement recently appeared in the Nashville newspaper and builds on the local lore about “Uncle Alfred” and other slaves that The Hermitage is trying hard to correct.