COLLEGE BOOK STIPEND

Vernetta Henson, the great-great-granddaughter of Clotilda Surviors and Africatown co-founders  "Poleete" Pollee and Rose Allen is the inspiration behind the name of the book stipend.

Going back to the teachings of Pollee and how he along with the Africatown cofounders built the town together so all could be successful, Vernetta was reminded of an African proverb whose origins date back to slavery when education was denied to them.

“The proverb is ‘Each One, Teach One,’” said Vernetta. “When someone learned how to read or write back then, it became their responsibility to teach someone else and to spread that knowledge. By sharing your knowledge, it would strengthen your community. This should be the mindset for all generations young and old no matter where you are from. It’s time to take back that responsibility and help others. For in the end, it will only create new opportunities for everyone.”

TO QUALIFY

- Must show documents proving you are a current college student- schedule for upcoming semester, letter confirming college commitment

- If not an incoming Freshman, have a GPA of 2.5

- Write a 250-500  word essay on oral family history 

- Historical document indicating a family member was enslaved  * we realize documents that contain enslaved by names can be hard to locate for it depended on the record keeping of the enslavers. 

There is a broad range here for submission: 

* Any communication with the Freedman's bureau

* An enslaver's will that manumitted an enslaved person

* A DNA test that confirms descent from a slave owner

*Clotilda survivors- the immigration card of their loved one, since Clotilda survivors were illegally smuggled in during 1860, they were not considered naturalized citizens so after emancipation they had to "immigrate" to America in order to be recognized as U.S. citizens since they were not born in the country.  

* Located in the Library of Congress: Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves.   

* Duke University: American Slavery Documents (Legal and personal documents related to the institution of U.S. slavery from 1757-1860)

* Slave Letters- Duke University Libraries

* State Libraries- ask your state library if they have records of enslaved people, for example State Library of North Carolina does

- National Archives: Federal Slave Census Schedules, 1850-1860

- Federal Population Census, 1790-1940

- Confederate Slave Payrolls, 1862-1865

- Coastwise Slave Ship Manifests 

- Documents from National Archives on Federal Records that Help Identify Former Enslaved People LINK HERE