{"id":1015,"date":"2019-07-17T18:19:09","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T18:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wcsu.wpengine.com\/news-archives\/wcsu-wagnercollegeprofessortodiscusscivilwarerahistory\/"},"modified":"2019-07-17T18:19:09","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T18:19:09","slug":"wcsu-wagnercollegeprofessortodiscusscivilwarerahistory","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wcsu-wagnercollegeprofessortodiscusscivilwarerahistory\/","title":{"rendered":"Wagner College professor to discuss Civil War-era history"},"content":{"rendered":"
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DANBURY, CONN. <\/strong>\u2014 Dr. Rita Reynolds, assistant professor of American history, African-American history and Women\u2019s history at Wagner College in New York, studies a very complex part of African-American history. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to fathom the notion that within a slave society you had African Americans who were wealthy,\u201d said Reynolds, who will discuss \u201cWealthy Free Women of Color in Charleston, South Carolina During Slavery\u201d at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 2, in Warner Hall on the Western Connecticut State University Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury. The event will be free and the public is invited. <\/p>\n


\n The talk will be an examination of the social conditions of wealthy, free woman in antebellum Charleston, S.C. Reynolds, whose mother\u2019s family is from Charleston, said, \u201cMy case study is about five women who came to their wealth in different ways. I was fascinated and disappointed that nothing had been written on this particular group.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Reynolds has been working on this subject for a number of years. \u201cOne of the things I have noticed is that the topic itself causes people to really think about their perceptions,\u201d she said. \u201cNot all African Americans were slaves. Some were free. Some were actually wealthy. African-American history is not monolithic. There is a good deal of diversity in terms of wealth and education. Each story that\u2019s told is very different from the next person\u2019s story \u2014 even in the same community.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The means by which these women were able to obtain their wealth and freedom varied greatly, too, Reynolds said. \u201cThe women were vulnerable to the whims and desires of their masters. Some were able to succeed because of affection from their masters. In other cases, former slaves were able to obtain benefits from the relationship with their masters and were able to negotiate rights including freedom for themselves and their children.\u201d <\/p>\n

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John Read, a member of the WCSU Graduate Student Union, which is hosting the lecture, said the talk promises to be interesting because \u201cDuring an age of slavery, these women of color prospered.\u201d

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Reynolds obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photography from the California Institute of the Arts, a Master of Arts degree in photography from New York University and an M.A. in Afro-American Studies from the University of California. She also has a Ph.D. in Afro-American Studies from the University of Massachusetts. <\/p>\n

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For more information, call (203) 837-8486.<\/p>\n

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Western Connecticut State University offers outstanding faculty in a range of quality academic programs. Our diverse university community provides students an enriching and supportive environment that takes advantage of the unique cultural offerings of Western Connecticut and New York. Our vision: To be an affordable public university with the characteristics of New England\u2019s best small private universities.<\/em><\/p>\n

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DANBURY, CONN. \u2014 Dr. Rita Reynolds, assistant professor of American history, African-American history and Women\u2019s history at Wagner College in New York, studies a very complex part of African-American history. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to fathom the notion …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1015","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1015\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}