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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Teaching Ourselves - Blue Back Speller | Reconstruction 360
March 06, 2023A popular book for teaching spelling and reading was Noah Webster’s Elementary Spelling Book, known as “the blue-back speller” because of its binding. Many enslaved people, including Frederick Douglass, taught themselves to read using the speller, which was first published... -
Teaching Ourselves - Child | Reconstruction 360
February 27, 2023Although this school has only a few students, many schools for freedpeople were overcrowded. Like most newly emancipated people, these children believe that education is the key to maintaining freedom and bettering their lives. Reconstruction 360 uses a 360 degree video... -
Teaching Ourselves - Portrait of Lincoln | Reconstruction 360
February 20, 2023On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, making him a symbol of Black freedom for years to come. As the war dragged on he began to recruit Blacks, free and enslaved, to the Union Army. Lincoln was so impressed with the African American troops that he... -
Violence and Hatred - Freedpeople in Memphis | Reconstruction 360
February 13, 2023After the U.S. Army occupied Memphis on June 6, 1862, thousands of enslaved people escaped nearby plantations and took refuge in the city. They were often penniless, bringing with them only the clothes they were wearing and a little food, such as these sweet potatoes, a... -
Violence and Hatred - U.S. Army Soldier | Reconstruction 360
February 06, 2023This soldier is a member of the 16th U.S. Infantry Regiment stationed at Fort Pickering, who has been sent to take freedpeople to safety. Union forces captured Memphis on June 6, 1862 and took over the fort, which had been built by the Confederate Army on land once inhabited... -
Violence and Hatred - Daughter | Reconstruction 360
January 30, 2023The daughter of this family exemplifies a young freedwoman who has learned to read and write, and assists in one of the twelve missionary schools for freedpeople in Memphis. Most of the twenty-two missionary teachers in Memphis at this time were white, but there were three...
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