Two Lynchburg College students were finalists in the Gilder Lehrman History Scholars Program for their research on slavery, and recently spent a week in New York City.
John Marks, a sophomore from Hillsborough, N.J., and Robert "Bobby" Stephenson, a senior from Felton, Del., were among only 50 students nationwide named finalists in the competition, and spent June 9-16 in New York. The top 15 scholars are awarded a five-week research program in New York.
The Gilder Lehrman History Scholars Program, inaugurated in 2003, is a competitive summer scholarship program in American history for outstanding college sophomores and juniors. The program is designed to reward undergraduates who have demonstrated superb research and writing skills in American history and to provide discussions with eminent scholars.
Marks and Stephenson did research for a history class taught by Dr. Kirt von Daacke in which they were required to do research and write a 15-page research paper utilizing local archival resources and examining an aspect of pre-1865 African-American life in the Lynchburg area. They were to base their paper almost exclusively upon primary documents found in those local archival resources.
Marks did a study of the social geography of the slave trade in Lynchburg. He started at Jones Memorial Library poring over slave sale and auction advertisements in newspapers, making note of locations of slave sales in the city and of the names of sellers and buyers. He took his list of names to the Lynchburg Clerk’s Office to try to learn who these people were.
Stephenson prepared a mini-biography of the Pride family, a free black family that began its road to success in slave Virginia thanks to the efforts of Armistead Pride, a free black barber in the antebellum period. Stephenson traced Armistead’s life and business dealings, and followed the story into the early twentieth century by tracking his two sons, both of whom became respected members of the community during the Jim Crow era. Stephenson did most of his research at the Campbell County Court Clerk’s Office, looking at marriage registers, wills, estate sale accounts and a wide variety of business deeds.
"The program in New York was everything I expected," Stephenson said. "The Historical Society, and the Public Library were fascinating (for a history major), and the tours we took were very informative. My favorite part of the experience was the original primary documents we were exposed to; we saw an original first edition print of Common Sense and the only copy of Columbus’ letter to Queen Isabella in 1493."
For more information, contact Shannon Brennan at 434/544-8609.