PROPOSAL TYPE
Experiential
SEEKING
- Seeking General Feedback and Interest
RELATED TOPICS
- Memory
- Public Engagement
- Social Justice
ABSTRACT
As descendants of the family of William Whipple, a signer of the 1776 Declaration of Independence, and of Prince Whipple, an African he enslaved who co-signed the 1779 Petition for Freedom, we facilitate a juxtaposition of primary and secondary sources and spaces of our ancestors to illuminate both existing challenges and promising practices to strengthen public history. Experience the power of evidence-based inquiry and collaboration with descendants to inform critical thinking and deepen public engagement with long silenced histories.
We seek to bridge past and present, personal and public to deepen collaboration in the unfinished work of revolution in our field.
DESCRIPTION
We welcome your feedback on our title, abstract, and instructional flow to strengthen our proposal and create the best session for AASLH/NCPH 2026.
INSTRUCTIONAL FLOW
I – Introduction and Purpose (15)
As descendants of Prince Whipple, who signed the Petition for Freedom and of the family of his enslaver William Whipple, who signed the Declaration of Independence, we begin this experiential session with stories to ground us in why interpreting obscured histories matters. Weaving historical analysis with personal connection, we illuminate the power of collaborating to engage with histories of slavery.
II – Experiential Learning (40)
We frame the experiential tasks for their relevance to address key challenges in the field.
We facilitate collaborative annotation, reflection and dialogue with a series of sources relevant to our ancestors Prince and William Whipple.
First, we will engage participants in comparing key excerpts from the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the New Hampshire Petition for Freedom (1779), signed before and after our ancestors revolutionary war service, to explore contrasting themes of freedom, unfreedom and revolution.
Next, we invite a comparison between paired secondary sources, and images of public spaces relevant to our ancestors – to invite dialogue on the ways histories of the Whipple legacies Black and white have been uplifted, obscured and silenced.
Moving from trios to groups of six, participants collaborate to reflect, share insights or questions from the experience. Key questions explored include: What practices are essential to address omissions and to center the full humanity and contributions of people who were enslaved? How are legacies of omission and silence manifesting? What revolutionary strategies might address them? What are promising ways public historians can partner with descendant communities to promote understanding of shared histories, and to strengthen public engagement with these histories? As participants engage, facilitators listen for key themes, questions and challenges to bring into our interactive next step.
III – Unfinished Revolutions and The Work Ahead (20)
In our interactive close we facilitate a dialogue from illuminating challenges to identifying actionable next steps to deepen our work for public history in ways that help us to progress the founding ideals of liberty and justice for all.
If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly:
Tonya Singer, Courageous Literacy, [email protected]
All feedback and offers of assistance should be sent by November 15, 2025. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.
An interesting and experimental session proposal for NCPH. Have you thought of collaborating with other descendent communities that do public history work? If so, you could alter the experiential learning portion to highlight the shared questions of public memory, legacies of omission and silence, and understanding shared histories. I know that Stagville in North Carolina also works closely with descendent community for their interpretation and community building. I’ve also never attended a session like this other than specific workshop with intended educational outcomes. Not to say it wouldn’t be welcome!
This is really powerful, and I’m excited about it!
Do you think this would work as a workshop? Are you sharing a method that might be useful at other places? Might it be valuable to include some of the descendants and staff from Montpelier, too? Their work to document methods of true collaboration between descendants of enslavers and the enslaved seems relevant to your project. https://www.montpelier.org/descendants-project/
https://montpelierdescendants.org/rubric/
I agree with Denise and Rebecca here…this would be 1. great as a workshop and 2. great to engage a variety of descendant groups to talk about the unfinished business and how this work is not something done overnight. It’s also a great way to get others thinking about how we’re handling complicated legacies with descendant communities, and the always necessary understanding that all these voices need to be at the table in order to tell a richer history. I like this idea a lot.