{"id":1671,"date":"2014-09-19T08:02:50","date_gmt":"2014-09-19T13:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/?p=1671"},"modified":"2014-09-19T10:54:48","modified_gmt":"2014-09-19T15:54:48","slug":"interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Isabela Morales, Part III"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Isabela Morales, PhD candidate at Princeton University<\/p>\n

This post continues a conversation Cool@Hoole began on Monday with Isabela Morales, who did her undergraduate work at the University of Alabama and whose research in the Division of Special Collections led to her current position as a PhD candidate at Princeton<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

On Monday<\/a>, she discussed why she came to the University of Alabama and chose to study History and American Studies. On Wednesday<\/a>, she shared her eureka moment in the archives. Today, she will highlight how special collections influenced\u00a0how she perceives historical research and how her time at Hoole led her to develop her\u00a0current project.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Did you have any surprising experiences during your time working in special collections?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was surprised by how emotionally connected I began to feel toward the family I was studying, the Townsends.\u00a0 I know it\u2019s a dangerous thing for an historian to imagine they\u2019ve really come to \u201cknow\u201d their subjects, but I think that developing that sense of empathy can be valuable in research as well. Feeling that I was starting to understand, even to such a slight extent, the personalities, goals, and motivations of individuals\u2014Susanna\u2019s pursuit of independence and autonomy, Wesley\u2019s anger and bitterness, their half-brother Thomas\u2019s preoccupation with wealth and respectability\u2014helped me see the Townsends and ultimately write about them as fully three-dimensional people.\u00a0 As an historian I\u2019m interested in what their experiences tell us about post-emancipation America on a macro scale, but they were real people, and coming to care about them as real people keeps my research and writing grounded.\u00a0 I have a strong commitment to narrative and to microhistory, and it\u2019s important to me to remember that the Townsends weren\u2019t metaphors or vectors for historical argument\u2014they were people who actually lived, whose lives mattered, and whose stories deserve to be told.<\/p>\n

How has your project developed now that you\u2019ve begun to pursue a PhD at Princeton?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My dissertation is a social history of race, family, and region centered on the Townsend family.\u00a0 After their emancipation in 1860, the Townsends migrated across the American West\u2014some settling in Ohio, a large number in Kansas, and several to Colorado\u2019s silver mines.\u00a0 One of the men, Thomas, went full circle; after a decade in the West, he moved back to Huntsville and purchased the very land where Samuel Townsend had once held him, his mother, and his family as slaves.\u00a0 By bringing all of Samuel\u2019s children\u2014along with the extended Townsend family\u2014into the story, I hope to to compare the nature of race relations both between the West and the South and across the West.\u00a0 What did it mean, for example, to be a mixed-race man or woman in post-Civil War Leavenworth, Kansas?\u00a0 In Reconstruction-era Huntsville?\u00a0 In 1880s Denver?\u00a0 And how did Samuel\u2019s children\u2019s experiences differ from those of their half-siblings and cousins from their mothers\u2019 enslaved husbands?\u00a0 As at UA, I continue to be interested in ordinary individuals\u2019 everyday struggles for survival in changing social and political environments.\u00a0 By following the Townsends, I hope that my project will provide insight into the ways that class, color, and region affected African Americans\u2019 opportunities for economic and social mobility in the second half of the 19th\u00a0century.<\/p>\n

\"u0003_0000252_5401028_2048\"<\/a>

November 16, 1863 letter from G.O. Townsend to Thomas Townsend MSS 252 Box 54 Folder 1<\/p><\/div>\n

I am especially excited that I\u2019ll have a chance to explore the Townsends\u2019 relationships with each other\u2014and return to the ideas about identity and self-presentation that continue to interest me.\u00a0 The Hoole library has a number of letters written by Colorado silver miner Osborne to his half-brother Thomas, the ambitious attorney and cotton planter in Alabama.\u00a0 As with any source, these letters have to be analyzed critically, but they provide a different perspective than the majority of the Townsend letters.\u00a0 Osborne jokes and chides (\u201cIt is no use to kill yourself trying to get rich,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>he tells Thomas<\/a>), argues about politics (by the 1896 Osborne is enough of a Westerner to vote for the famous populist William Jennings Bryant), and reminisces about their childhood\u2014none of which you would see in the Townsends\u2019 more impersonal letters to Cabaniss.\u00a0 Because I am so interested in storytelling, parsing these sources for insight into how the Townsends saw themselves as individuals and as part of a family network is just as important to me as connecting them to larger arguments about American society at large.<\/p>\n

Because my focus remains on the Townsends, the Cabaniss papers at Hoole still form the heart of my dissertation.\u00a0 But in order to gather more information about the communities that the Townsends inhabited\u2014to go both broader and deeper\u2014this summer I took my first dissertation research trip to state and local historical societies in Kansas.\u00a0 The materials I found at the Carroll Mansion Museum<\/a>\u00a0and the Richard Allen Cultural Center<\/a> in Leavenworth, Kansas (newspapers, city directories, death certificates, just to name a few) were exceptionally valuable\u2014not to mention how generous the archivists were with their time.\u00a0 (One woman gave me a ride back to the motel so I didn\u2019t have to walk in the 100 degree heat!)\u00a0 And in the digitized photography collections of the Amon Carter Museum<\/a> in Fort Worth, Texas, I finally found a photograph of one of the Townsends.\u00a0 At long last being able to put a face to a name\u2014even just one\u2014sounds like a such a little thing, but I was thrilled and moved and inspired all over again.\u00a0 It reminded me of nothing so much as that first trip to Hoole in 2009, when, hardly knowing even what I was looking for, I fell in love with research.<\/p>\n

Thank you for your time, Isabela. It\u2019s been a pleasure to speak with you. Best of luck in the future!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Isabela Morales, PhD candidate at Princeton University This post continues a conversation Cool@Hoole began on Monday with Isabela Morales, who did her undergraduate work at the University of Alabama and whose research in the Division of Special Collections led … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":435,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11225,3727],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-isabela-morales","category-slavery"],"yoast_head":"\nInterview with Isabela Morales, Part III - What's Cool at Hoole<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interview with Isabela Morales, Part III - What's Cool at Hoole\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Isabela Morales, PhD candidate at Princeton University This post continues a conversation Cool@Hoole began on Monday with Isabela Morales, who did her undergraduate work at the University of Alabama and whose research in the Division of Special Collections led … Continue reading →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"What's Cool at Hoole\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-19T13:02:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-19T15:54:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/files\/2014\/09\/u0003_0000252_5401028_2048-300x198.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Interview with Isabela Morales, Part III\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-19T13:02:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-19T15:54:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/\"},\"wordCount\":986,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/files\/2014\/09\/u0003_0000252_5401028_2048-300x198.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Isabela Morales\",\"Slavery\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/\",\"name\":\"Interview with Isabela Morales, Part III - What's Cool at Hoole\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/files\/2014\/09\/u0003_0000252_5401028_2048-300x198.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-19T13:02:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-19T15:54:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/files\/2014\/09\/u0003_0000252_5401028_2048-300x198.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/files\/2014\/09\/u0003_0000252_5401028_2048-300x198.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Interview with Isabela Morales, Part III\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/\",\"name\":\"What's Cool at Hoole\",\"description\":\"Just another University Libraries - Public Blogs site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Interview with Isabela Morales, Part III - What's Cool at Hoole","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Interview with Isabela Morales, Part III - What's Cool at Hoole","og_description":"By Isabela Morales, PhD candidate at Princeton University This post continues a conversation Cool@Hoole began on Monday with Isabela Morales, who did her undergraduate work at the University of Alabama and whose research in the Division of Special Collections led … Continue reading →","og_url":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/","og_site_name":"What's Cool at Hoole","article_published_time":"2014-09-19T13:02:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-09-19T15:54:48+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/files\/2014\/09\/u0003_0000252_5401028_2048-300x198.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Interview with Isabela Morales, Part III","datePublished":"2014-09-19T13:02:50+00:00","dateModified":"2014-09-19T15:54:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/"},"wordCount":986,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/files\/2014\/09\/u0003_0000252_5401028_2048-300x198.jpg","articleSection":["Isabela Morales","Slavery"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/","url":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/","name":"Interview with Isabela Morales, Part III - What's Cool at Hoole","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/files\/2014\/09\/u0003_0000252_5401028_2048-300x198.jpg","datePublished":"2014-09-19T13:02:50+00:00","dateModified":"2014-09-19T15:54:48+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/files\/2014\/09\/u0003_0000252_5401028_2048-300x198.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/files\/2014\/09\/u0003_0000252_5401028_2048-300x198.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2014\/09\/19\/interview-with-isabela-morales-part-iii\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Interview with Isabela Morales, Part III"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/#website","url":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/","name":"What's Cool at Hoole","description":"Just another University Libraries - Public Blogs site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/author\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/435"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1671"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1692,"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions\/1692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}