From Colonial to Mid-Mod: American Residential Architecture 1765-1965
Develop a visual literacy of two-hundred years of building history through this survey of domestic forms and aesthetic movements.
Topic Category: Eighteenth-Century History and Culture
Working with Descendants of the Enslaved at Presidential Plantation Sites
This lecture considers ways that staff at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and James Madison’s Montpelier have engaged with Descendants of those enslaved there in telling the stories of their ancestors.
The World of Dolley Madison
Dolley Payne Todd Madison (1768-1849) was the first wife of a U.S. President to occupy the role of First Lady in the way that we understand it today. This lecture discusses the life, achievements, and impact of one of the most important and interesting First Ladies.
James and Dolley Madison: The First American Power Couple
James Madison (1751-1836), Father of the U.S. Constitution and Fourth President, and his wife Dolley Payne Todd Madison (1768-1849), had a remarkable partnership. This lecture demonstrates how their complementary skills and abilities created the paradigm of the married couple that we still associate with a President and First Lady.
Thomas Jefferson and Monticello
Author of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, governor of Virginia, first Secretary of State, third President, and founder of the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson was all these things and more. This lecture will look at Jefferson’s life and career through the lens of Monticello, his plantation home in … Read more
Art and the American Revolution
How did artists depict the American Revolution while it was happening and shortly after independence was won? What visual knowledge was available to newly minted Americans about the war and its heroes? How was the war remembered fifty and seventy-five years later, as the nation headed towards Civil War?
South Carolina History is American History
This lecture shows how the story of South Carolina deeply impacted the story of the United States. Using numerous examples from the 16th century onwards, this lecture demonstrates how the actions of South Carolinians and events in South Carolina contributed to the success of the British colonies in North America, the colonial rebellion and the … Read more
The Swamp Fox- A Bibliographical History of Francis Marion
“Swamp Fox, Swamp, tail in his hat. Nobody knows where the Swamp Fox’s at.” Sang Marion’s men in a 1959 miniseries produced by Walt Disney. But that is only one of dozens books, films and television productions devoted to the life of Marion since 1805. This takes a look at what these representations got right … Read more
South Carolina’s Irish Patriots of the American Revolution
The story of the Irish in the American Revolution has not gotten its proper due. Of the 29 men who represented SC in the Continental and Confederation Congresses, 8 were Irish-Americans, including two signers of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. 11% of veterans of the American Revolution from SC who applied for … Read more
Cherokees in 18th Century South Carolina
Exploring Cherokee culture prior to European settlement is crucial to comprehending their values, gender roles, internal and external relationships, diplomacy, and conflict during this pivotal era in Cherokee history. The audience will learn how Cherokees dealt with European colonization, their relationships with South Carolinians and the British, and how they responded to the American Revolution … Read more
Cherokees in the Revolutionary Era: Diplomacy, Conflict, and Peace
Exploring the worldview of the Cherokees provides insights into the events that occur as colonists of South Carolina begin to discuss grievances with the rule of Great Britain. Experiences in the French and Indian War (1754-63) had affected Cherokee diplomacy and their alliances. As some colonists begin to fight for their independence, some Cherokee leaders … Read more
George Washington’s 1791 Tour of the South: Where He Went and What He Drank
George Washington promised to visit every state in the new union during his presidency, and in the spring 1791 he set off from his Mount Vernon, Virginia home and traveled all the way to Savannah, Georgia and back. In researching his journey for her book “Methodists and Moonshiners,” Smith followed the president’s tour, investigating not … Read more
History as a Way of Understanding: Irony and Innocence in American Life
Americans stand in a very peculiar relationship to their history. We are fond of evoking it with pride – as the inspiring story of the “City on the Hill,” or the “last best hope for democracy,” and as the “leader of the free world,” and so on. We Americans are also readily inspired by our … Read more
The Cherokee Trail of Tears
The Cherokee Trail of Tears story is one of political discord and ensuing tragedy as Cherokees faced removal from their homeland in the 1830s. However, the story begins with wars between South Carolina and the Cherokee Lower Towns in the 1700s. By examining the viewpoints of the Cherokee, the early British colonists, and then the … Read more
Brethren of Spade & Pruning Knife: The Naturalists & the Carolinas
This presentation tells a story of international trade, natural history, and science from the days of exploration & colonization. This was a time of transfer, the movement of people, animals and plants; it is the Age of the Natural Historians who looked around the world and tried to understand what they saw. Carolina has an … Read more
Touring the Tombstones: Charleston’s 18th Century Graveyards Tell a Tale to be Remembered
Skulls and crossed bones. Weeping willows and rosebuds. Did you know Charleston has more 18th-century burial grounds than any city in the United States? Find out why on this visual stroll through historic colonial and antebellum cemeteries as we explore a religious diversity unknown in the other thirteen colonies. Moreover, Charleston’s ancient graveyards are art … Read more
Slavery to Civil Rights: A Tour Through Time of Charleston’s African-American History
Did you know the author of Amazing Grace sold a shipload of slaves here? Charleston was the center of the English slave trade. Estimates are over 40% of the Nameless Enslaved sold in all thirteen colonies were sold here. This presentation tells the story of historic Charleston from the perspective of the African-American experience. During the chronologically … Read more
The Surprising Story of Charleston and the Carolina LowCountry
Bringing a conference or organization to Charleston? Introduce our city and the Carolina LowCountry with this entertaining, educational talk. Ruth Miller’s program is not “What to see and do,” but rather, sets the historic scene, making your stay here both interesting and worthwhile. The presentation ties over 350 years of local history into the American … Read more
Blue, Red, & Black: African Americans and the Revolutionary War
What role did black people play in the quest for liberty? This presentation and PowerPoints of period artwork, illustrations, and historical documentation addressing the little-known, yet significant impact African Americans made in US history during the period of 1763-1783.
The African Slave Trade (Atlantic and Indian Oceans)
Between 750-1890, Africans were forcefully removed from the continent to places throughout the Islamic world and the Americas. Donald West addresses this historical period with the support of a PowerPoint presentation.
Cherokee Crossings: The Ridge Family and Cultural Change
As European colonists struggled to create a new nation in the late 1700s, Cherokee families dealt with intrusions into their territory, adaptation to new trade goods that changed their lifestyles, and shifting gender responsibilities and political power. Then they faced having to leave their homes for western territory. Cultural change can bring hardship and heartbreak, … Read more
Cherokee Women—Invincible Spirits
An exploration of the lives of Cherokee women from the time before Europeans arrived in the Americas to the twenty-first century. Using Cherokee myths, visual images, and artifacts crafted by the hands of Cherokee women, the speaker will weave a story of some of the most powerful women who have walked the earth. Their bravery, … Read more
South Carolina’s Medical Past
From its earliest inception as a European settlement, South Carolina has been a hotbed of both infectious disease and for innovative approaches to curbing disease and establishing public health. This lecture focuses on the fascinating history of medicine in South Carolina from the 17th to the 21st centuries.
Public Health and Pandemics in the Atlantic World
This presentation places in historical context the long history of how pandemics and epidemics of infectious disease have shaped the American history and the history of the Atlantic World. We will highlight the role of transatlantic slavery, the establishment of the plantation economy, and the last social and political impacts of disease on our world … Read more
The Stono Rebellion
The Stono Rebellion on September 9, 1739, was the largest slave uprising in North America. Twenty-one whites and approximately 40 African slaves were killed in this bloody confrontation just twenty miles from Charleston. This presentation examines the social and political context of the South Carolina Lowcountry’s plantation system and the growth of slavery in the early Colonial … Read more
Mary Draper Ingles, Survivor of the Wilderness, 1755
Talk about a hiking challenge! How about a 500 mile wilderness trek, without food, fire, or weapons, in early winter and while wearing a summer dress? Captured by a Shawnee war party in the French and Indian War and taken more than 450 miles from her home to what is now Cincinnati, Mary Ingles escaped … Read more
Music and Politics
An in-depth look at the relationship between political structures and musical movements. Depending upon the interests of the group, this talk can include Beethoven’s Musical Treatment from Napoleon to Hitler, Baroque Music and Absolutism, Mozart and the Enlightenment, Jim Crow and Jazz, or many others.
Classical Music History (including any specific artists or individual composers)
Can include specific descriptions of different eras, major works, and/or individual composers. Any talk will feature in-depth historical context and stories about major composers of the time period.
Women Taking Charge: The Rise of the Novel and Resistant Reading
One of the most interesting dynamics of eighteenth-century literature is the emergence of women writers. This talk will examine how early women novelists took the stories they inherited from male authors and retold them in ways that were quietly subversive. This process of appropriation and redirection continues today and provides important insight on how art … Read more
The Early-Modern Origins of Today’s Political Satire
As we are bombarded daily by ever-coarsening political discourse, it is tempting to long for a gentler, perhaps more civil, age. Imagining a past similar to the worlds of Jane Austen novels, we sometimes project our wishes onto the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This talk will suggest that what we are experiencing in America today … Read more
