Doing our part to celebrate Black History Month 2021

East Felicinia Parish bill of sale (MSS SC 1147)

As was recently announced, the Lee Library will be joining the national celebration of Douglass Day, named for Frederick Douglass whose birthday was February 14. Douglass Day is the precursor to Black History Month.  Douglass Day will take place on February 12, 2021, and will include a transcribe-a-thon of historical documents related to Black history. This year they are transcribing the papers of Mary Church Terrell, founder of Douglass Day in 1897.  If you want to participate in the transcribe-a-thon, visit this site: https://douglassday.org/.

While Perry Special Collections does not focus on collecting documents specifically related to Black history, we have collected some over time. Most of these are related to the tragic story of the enslavement of Black Africans in early America.  We acknowledge that this is an unfortunate and terrible blotch on America’s history. Our hope is that by ensuring this history is well documented and accessible, future generations can learn from past mistakes. In this vein, we are doing our part to join in this celebration by releasing for transcription on Douglass Day (February 12) a small selection of recently digitized 18th and 19th century documents related to Black history!

If you are interested in helping to transcribe these items, visit the BYU Transcribe website. Anyone can participate, but you will need a BYU NetID. If you do not already have one, you can create one by filling out a form here.

Here is a sneak peek at some of the documents from Perry Special Collections that will be available to transcribe on February 12:

• Robert Daniel deposition, 1792 (MSS SC 473)
• Vick family letter of emancipation, 1789 (MSS SC 474)
• Temperance Randall deed of gift (MSS SC 475)
• East Feliciana Parish bill of sale, 1852 (MSS SC 1147)
• Charles George Gordon letter (MSS SC 2312)
• E. Parizot receipt, 1863 (Vault MSS 11)
• Mary Watson bill of sale, 1832 June 9 (Vault MSS 302)
• Samuel E. Grant agreement to sell slaves, 1852 April 20 (Vault MSS 352)
• Charles George Gordon letter, 1877 February 9 (Vault MSS 443)
• David Livingstone letter, 1862 October 24 (Vault MSS 445)