exploring the issue of mobility and power in an urbanizing America

This past Wednesday, the students visited Manderson Landing here in Tuscaloosa. There, on the banks of the Black Warrior River, they saw remnants of the L & N Railroad line. This visit figures into a lesson on transportation, mobility and power in the nineteenth century. With the arrival of the steamboat, which moved along inland waters, people and products began to move through space in an urbanizing world. Railroads are a part of this narrative. The students were also made aware of how people of African descent, even ones enslaved, participated in these technological advancements.

Using David Cecelski's study on black watermen in antebellum North Carolina, they begin to see how even oppressed groups had the skills to navigate waterways. Robert Smalls, an enslaved boat pilot and later, Congressman, even escaped slavery on a vessel he piloted for the Confederates.

Notably, Horace King, an enslaved bridge builder, constructed bridges throughout the south. He was of huge assistance to Alabama Sen. Robert Jemison Jr., whose many business interests included building bridges and turnpikes during the antebellum period.

After my lecture and the visit, the students wrote reflections on these and other issues. Wrote Adams, "With the emergence of the 19th century city, some men learned skills that will translate into power, skills that even privileged white men did not possess at the time." Added Lin, "I was really surprised [to learn about men like] Horace King who were able to do thing that ...other black people...would not have been able to accomplish." Chance made connections between oppressed minorities in other settings, among them, ones residing in Turkey, who are able to gain control simply because they moved through space. Wrote William, "Space define[d] a relationship between man his quest for power." Morgan homed in on how information, not just people and products, trave[ed]  faster with advancements in technology.

These short reflections are worth 25% of the students' overall grade. I think they are off to a great start. When we meet on September 30, we will tackle the issue of civility in an urbanizing world. We will be attentive how people had to learn how to behave in public settings as an middle class urban population began to emerge in the United States during the nineteenth century.