As the calendar inched closer to the ides of October, I
found the semester grind having its (usual) effects. I am in my last year of
coursework, and while I love learning, the seminars I am currently enrolled in
are more labor intensive than I imagined. The annual meeting of the Southern
Historical Association (this year in St. Louis), usually marks the first major
break during fall semester, but seems far off.
Being a graduate student often presents a lonely existence;
weekly – if not daily – reminders about your current course load, or perhaps
the looming spectre of the dissertation prove hard to ignore. Even if you
maintain a schedule that allows for minor breaks within the week, the
responsibilities of the semester eventually catch up. In short, sometimes you
need more of a jolt than simply another
cup of coffee. My solution: heading to a conference! Luckily, there was
conference (relatively) close at Ole Miss. So I rounded up some other grad
students, hopped in a car, and road tripped to Oxford.
Why Oxford, Mississippi? Eric Foner was scheduled to give
the keynote address at the 38th UM Conference on the Civil War, puton by the Center for Civil War Research. I am not a Civil War historian, but
the dual opportunity of (1) getting out of town and (2) seeing one of the
foremost historians of our time made the decision to travel easy. Unfortunately,
we were not able to stay for the entire conference because of classes on
Friday, but the trip was well worth it.
Foner’s talk focused on a theme discussed in his newest
work, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln
and American Slavery (2011). Foner spoke of two emancipations: the decision
to end slavery within the Union and Lincoln’s emancipation from his personal
opinions of African Americans. Both were processes that Foner claims have not
been examined except teleologically. He traced the evolution of Lincoln’s
opinions through his early Whig career, to membership in the Republican party,
to the final galvanization of the necessity to remove the “theft of labor” of
slaves in the seceded states. Harping the distinction between slavery and
racism, Foner devoted a fair amount of his paper to attempts at slave
colonization abroad, which (not surprisingly) met resistance from African
Americans who wished to stay in the United States. How did Lincoln arrive at
emancipation? Foner argues the circumstances of the secession crisis forced
Lincoln’s hand away from gradual emancipation and towards the final decision of
military emancipation.
As stated before, I do not specialize in the Civil War, but
I found Foner’s talk informative; it especially reminded me of the themes
present in the Understanding Lincoln MOOC wrapping up through DickinsonCollege. Not to discount the paper he delivered, but what I found most impressive
was his ability to navigate the question and answer session that included a
number of case studies by graduate students. His presence on stage is something
I have seen only a few historians demonstrate. Listening to and watching the
keynote address definitely accomplished the aim of reinvigorating myself for
the rest of the semester.
Sometimes you just need a momentary change of
scenery.
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