Detroit has historically been seen as the last station on the Underground Railroad yet many of its residents including merchants, priests and illustrious citizens such as Brush and Macomb were slaveowners.
Digging Detroit meets Prof. Tiya Miles of the University of Michigan whose team of graduate and undergraduate students uncovered a history of the colonial city that few remember or care to admit.
But with the past comes inspiration from Elizabeth Dennison Forth, a former slave who became a wealthy businesswoman and landowner--whose homestead is now a parking lot. Prof. Miles takes her students on a tour of the former frontier town.
Topics also include:
- Assembling a team at U of M
- Painstaking research, translation and transcription
- Primary roles of slaves including concubines
- Loaning slaves
- Importance in addressing Detroit's past as a slave-city.
Links:
www.DiggingDetroit.com
www.MappingDetroitSlavery.com
Host: Pete Kalinski
Guests: Prof. Tiya Miles, Elizabeth James, Michelle Cassidy and Emily Macgillivray
Narrator: Patrice K. Walsh
Directed/Camera/Edited by: Kevin Walsh
Producers: Pete Kalinski, Thomas J. Reed, Jr., Kevin Walsh
Additional Video footage courtesy of: University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science and the Arts
Special thanks to: Katie Barkell, Patrice K. Walsh
Additional Photos Courtesy of The Burton Historical Collection, The Detroit Public Libraryfreemusicarchive.org/music/Ign...
Copyright 2016 Digging Detroit Productions
All rights reserved.