Kirt von Daacke, "Freedom Has a Face: Race, Identity, and Community in Jefferson's Virginia" (U Virginia Press, 2012)

Summary

In this podcast I talk to Kirt von Daacke about his 2012 work, Freedom Has a Face:Race, Identity, and Community in Jefferson's Virginia (University of Virginia Press, 2012). Professor von Daacke is Associate Professor of History and Assistant Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia. In this interview a few topics we discuss are:
  • Sources and methods for piecing together a picture of life in Albemarle County and the use of legal documents as a window into a past society
  • The relationship between law on the books and the actual behavior of the inhabitants of Albemarle County
  • Free people of color's experiences with the legal system
  • The possibilities and the pitfalls awaiting unmarried women of color in the rural antebellum South
  • Some implications of Freedom Has a Face for future work on African American history

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Siobhan Barco

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