New video project, led by Adriane Hopper Williams and Daina Ramey Berry, brings Black women’s history to life:

“Making History is a documentary film project that uncovers the untold stories of African American women starting from their painful beginnings in slavery. While it is challenging for historians to uncover these early stories, the voices of these women are often found in archival sources such as published and unpublished narratives, runaway advertisements, bills of sale, diaries, account books, insurance papers, probate records, court cases, and extant photographs.

“The historians in this film have done the work to unearth and breathe life into these findings thereby giving us a glimpse of the love, survival, virtue, and drive for freedom embedded deep within each woman’s life story.

“From Ona Judge Staines, the servant of Martha Washington who escapes to her freedom, to the story of Louisa Picquet, a concubine, who found a way to raise enough money to pay for her own mother’s freedom, we will introduce audiences to the many ways in which these women expressed their womanhood and personal agency given the harsh realities of their time.

“We will take this historical journey with the usage of archival footage, historical photographs, primary documents, and re-enactments. All of these elements, in addition to interviews with slavery scholars, will be woven together to provide portraits of women who lived during a difficult period in American history.”

Source: About — Making History