By: Claire Lavarreda, DITI Fellow + History PhD Candidate
“The soul that is within me no man can degrade. I am not the one that is being degraded on account of this treatment, but those who are inflicting it upon me.” – Frederick Douglass, as quoted by Booker T. Washington.
While most people may celebrate February 14th with hearts, candy, or cards, communities across the United States – including those at Northeastern – celebrated through transcription. Besides Valentine’s day, February 14th is recognized as the renowned abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ (1818-1895) birthday, with numerous institutions using the date to highlight Black history. Since 2017, the Colored Conventions Project has coordinated a mass transcription effort each year to transcribe and digitize Frederick Douglass’ personal documents and correspondence. Through the By the People platform via the Library of Congress, participants are able to select a document, transcribe it, and submit it for review. This year, things were a little different — transcribers had the opportunity to work with an exciting new collection titled African American Perspectives.
Joining in this collaborative effort, the NULab for Digital Humanities and Computational Social Science, the Digital Scholarship Group, the Archives and Special Collections, and the Women Writers Project at Northeastern University hosted their annual co-sponsored Douglass Day at 12PM on campus and on Zoom. In addition to transcribing, deciphering handwriting, and mentioning memorable quotes, in-person attendees were encouraged to enjoy baked goods made by event hosts Julia Flanders and Caitlin Pollock. Zoom participants sipped on their own coffee or tea and used the chat to discuss particularly impactful documents. Attendees like Ash Clark and Halima Haruna offered insights into documents they were working on, such as donations made by women to the National Association for the Relief of Destitute Colored Women and Children. In particular, works such as The Brownies’ Book and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Records were especially popular.
In total, participants across Northeastern and other institutions:
- Transcribed 6,462 pages from the African American Perspectives collection
- Registered 1,206 contributors
- Completed 60% of the collection, with 40% in review and only 1% remaining to be finished
While Douglass Day may be over, the spirit of the work never ends! If you are interested in contributing to the important transcription of Black history, you can do so at any point via the By the People crowdsourced platform.
