A conversation with historian Jesse Olsavsky, Walter O. Evans Fellow for the Study of Slavery or Race at Beinecke Library. Though Frederick Douglass is often viewed as an American nationalist with little interest in Africa, this talk will contrarily show the ways that intellectuals in West Africa, the West Indies and the United States circulated and reinterpreted Douglass’s thought in order to understand the horrendous changes in the world resulting from the overthrow of Reconstruction and the colonization of Africa. Out of these transatlantic discussions, in which Douglass figured heavily, emerged the ideas and practices of Pan-Africanism, which eventually became the principal ideology of African decolonization in the twentieth century.

Jesse Olsavsky is a historian focused largely on the history of slavery, abolitionism, and their legacies. An assistant professor of history at Duke Kunshan University, Jiangsu Province, China, he is currently the Walter O. Evans Fellow for the Study of Slavery or Race at Beinecke Library.

Mondays at Beinecke online talks focus on materials from the collections and include an opening presentation at 4pm followed by conversation and Q & A beginning about 4:30pm until 5pm. Episodes are generally recorded and published on the library’s YouTube channel within a few weeks of original live program.

Registration link:
https://yale.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Tf08VeFRSsuKvScm3FLL0A