Betsy Newman
Betsy Newman is a documentary filmmaker and web content developer at SCETV, where she has produced more than a dozen documentaries and two immersive interactive websites. Her films have been broadcast nationally and have won a Telly, a CINE Golden Eagle Award and a Southeast EMMY. For more than a decade she was Co-National Coordinator of the U.S. Office of the International Public Television Conference (INPUT). In 2016 she received the South Carolina Governor's Award in the Humanities. She has written numerous successful proposals to state humanities councils and has been awarded several grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, including for Reconstruction 360 (www.reconstruction360.org) and Between the Waters: Hobcaw Barony Website Project (www.betweenthewaters.org).
Stories
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The Black Codes - The Pink Palace | Reconstruction 360
May 15, 2023This scene was shot inside the Orangeburg County Jail, also known as the Pink Palace, in Orangeburg, South Carolina. The jail was built in 1860 with offices on the first floor and cells for prisoners on the second floor. Reconstruction 360 uses a 360 degree video platform as... -
The Black Codes - Freedmen's Bureau Agent | Reconstruction 360
May 15, 2023The growth of Black Codes in the South made it clear that freedpeople needed the support and protection of the federal government. On March 3, 1865 Congress established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, also known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, to provide... -
The Black Codes - Labor Contract | Reconstruction 360
May 08, 2023The Freedmen's Bureau helped create labor contracts that were supposed to be fair to both parties, but in many cases established conditions not much better than slavery. This system became known as sharecropping, and it lasted well into the 20th century among both Black and... -
The Black Codes - Jailer | Reconstruction 360
May 08, 2023There was little or no universal or public education in the Antebellum South. Only wealthy elites went to school, and most poor whites were illiterate. They remained ignorant of politics at the national level, helping to preserve slaveholders’ grip on political and economic... -
Teaching Ourselves - Flowers | Reconstruction 360
May 01, 2023The flowers used in this vignette were purchased for the scene and aren’t necessarily native to Alabama. Native wildflowers are sometimes considered weeds, but they play an important role in natural ecosystems. Reconstruction 360 uses a 360 degree video platform as a... -
Teaching Ourselves - Map of the World | Reconstruction 360
April 24, 2023A fugitive slave and an abolitionist, Frederick Douglass sailed to Britain in 1845 and stayed for 19 months. He was a powerful orator, and his antislavery speeches attracted huge crowds. Reconstruction 360 uses a 360 degree video platform as a storytelling device that lets...
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