Speaker Series

During the three-year grant cycle, selected teachers from Halifax, Charlotte, and Pittsylvania Counties, and the City of Danville, will be immersed in the wealth of history throughout the region viewed across the span of American history. The teachers will interact extensively with well-known scholars in the field of American History and will visit regional historic sites; participate in teachers’ institutes; create content, materials, and teaching resources that can serve all teachers of history in the consortium region and beyond; and host the American Origins Speakers Series.

“Our ultimate goal is to generate excitement in local history of our region. Hopefully this enthusiasm will spread to students in the classroom and they will realize they have a place in the regional history and will become more vested in it,” according to Amy Lammerts, Associate Director of Program Development, Marketing and Public Relations at the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center. “The teachers chosen to participate in this project already have a love for history and will be enriched through this program focusing on our local history.”

The three-year Teaching American History Grant is the result of a successful collaboration between the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH), Virginia Center for Digital History (VCDH), Southern Virginia Higher Education Center, the four school divisions in Southern Virginia, and numerous public partners, including the Halifax Historical Society, Danville Museum, Halifax Department of Tourism, South Boston Prizery, Upper Case Bookstore, Virginia Historical Society, Library of Virginia, and the Virginia Association of Museums.

This program is one of only five in Virginia and 122 nationwide funded through the highly competitive Teaching American History initiative.

American Origins Lecture Series

Virginia History in Black and White

foo Virginia Tech History Professor Peter Wallenstein will launch the series on Thursday, February 21, at 7 p.m., at South Boston-Halifax County Museum of Fine Arts and History, with a lecture and discussion titled “Virginia History in Black and White.” Wallenstein will provide glimpses of Virginians from the era of the American Revolution to the recent past whose lives reveal much about how racial identity has shaped power and opportunity in Virginia and America.

Peter Wallenstein is professor of history at Virginia Tech.

The 1st and 2nd Virginia at Guilford Courthouse: A View from the Ranks

foo The second lecture, “The 1st and 2nd Virginia at Guilford Courthouse: A View from the Ranks,” features Professor Lawrence Babits, the George Washington Distinguished Professor at East Carolina University, Greenville, NC. The lecture and discussion are on Tuesday, March 18, at 7 p.m., in South Boston at the Prizery. Babits will present how these two regiments came to be, who these men were, and what they did before enlisting. The resulting image of the Virginia Continental Infantry after March 1, 1781, will be surprisingly different from what most people think, according to Babits.

Lawrence Babits, George Washington Distinguished Professor at East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.

Listen to an audio recording of the session: Babits Part 01: Babits Part 02: Babits Part 03

What Did It Mean to Be a Colony?

foo The American Origins Speaker Series final lecture, “What Did It Mean to Be a Colony?,” will examine how Virginians lived as subjects in a British colony during the 18th century. What did it mean to them culturally, politically, economically, and psychologically? Professor Daniel Thorp, chair of Virginia Tech’s history department, will illustrate the multiple ways in which colonial life affected Southern Virginians during the first half of the 18th century and how that experience influenced the debate about whether or not to declare independence in 1776.

Daniel Thorp, associate professor and chair of the department of history at Virginia Tech.

Listen to an audio recording of the session: Thorp Part 01: Thorp Part 02: Thorp Part 03