[Thermosetty]

"....scholars recognize the profound importance of materials such as the Dorsey collection—resources collected and preserved informally by African Americans at a time when white historians claimed that African Americans had no history to speak of."

Imagine how much Black American (descendants of slaves) history has been lost to time because of mindsets like this. Tragic too because they built this country, yet the full extent of their contributions will never be known.

[WalterBright]

Expecting someone else to document one's own history isn't going to work that well. For example, I gathered together the information my family had on my grandfather's experience as a coaler on the yacht Eleanor during its trip around the world in 1895. It's now part of the Slater Museum. (The Eleanor was owned and operated by the Slaters.) They were pretty anxious to get it, as nobody had bothered to document what happened on the ship.

[Thermosetty]

"Expecting someone else to document one's own history isn't going to work that well."

Never indicted that. Dorsey collection and 19th century travels aside, how would you say a Black person in early 17th century America should've preserved their history/life experiences in recordable format and passed it to offspring they may or may not have been separated (i.e., sold) from?

[WalterBright]

Not all were slaves, and writing letters.

[Thermosetty]

"Not all were slaves, and writing letters"

Your point? "Free" Blacks were exceptions (about 9% by 1850) not the rule. Preservation of their history too was an exception, not the rule. Controlling for literacy rates and economic deprivation suppresses the preservation percentage more.

[WalterBright]

The last Civil War soldier died in the 1950s. There were 4 million slaves freed in 1865. Plenty of time for people taking oral histories of primary sources.

Besides, 9% of 4 million is 360,000. Quite a lot of people.

On February 25, 1837, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania became the nation's first Historically Black College and University (HBCU). -- Google

[cafard]

It took quite a while for the US government to get around take oral histories from persons born into slavery, but it did so: https://www.loc.gov/collections/voices-remembering-slavery/a...

[Thermosetty]

The last American slave died 70 years ago. Ignoring the millions that lived and died between the early 17th and mid 19th centuries is disingenuous.

The nature of slavery and the operational structure of this nation ensured that significant quantities of Black history was lost (original premise).

[actionfromafar]

No it won't but I imagine it helps if someone is willing to accept that documentation into its collections.

[WalterBright]

I put it up on my own website, where it sat for a couple years until some researcher from the Slater Museum found it.

[actionfromafar]

An option not available to black historians in the 19th century.

[WalterBright]

The source material was a large number of letters that were carefully saved.

Quite a bit of the history of the 19th century in America was originally in the form of letters.