Sunday September 29, 2013

Americans freedom story revealed in 50 documents

Proclamation from Harpers Ferry abolitionist among pieces highlighted

The Associated Press

In this Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013 photo, Erin Paulson stabilizes a 1900th century document at the The Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The society's new web site charts the evolution of American freedom, a story of struggle and conflict through 50 carefully selected historic documents, from an early draft of the Articles of Confederation to a suffragette's letter to her parents to a 1970's tract on gay rights. The organization hopes its interactive "Preserving American Freedom" web site will gain favor with educators.

PHILADELPHIA -- The Historical Society of Pennsylvania holds more than 21 million documents and items. It was Rachel Moloshok's job to sort, sift and select just 50.

What was she looking for? No less than a history of how Americans have defined freedom and how they've fought for it.

After two years of effort, the fruits of her labor can be seen on a new interactive website that charts the evolution of what many Americans take for granted. It's a 350-year-old tale of struggle and conflict told through original documents both famous and obscure, from an early draft of the Articles of Confederation to a suffragette's letter home, from a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation to a 1970s speech arguing against the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder.

The documents are a reminder that Americans' quest for freedom didn't end with the British surrender at Yorktown, or the ratification of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Rather, it was just beginning, with succeeding generations claiming freedom for themselves and fighting for it, nurturing it and protecting it.

"The way I define this project is not necessarily tracing the history of American freedom, but essentially the history of how Americans have defined or have envisioned and struggled for freedom," said Moloshok, project director of the Preserving American Freedom initiative. "At some point, everybody who has struggled for their own freedom kind of turns around and says, 'Yeah, but we didn't mean you.' It's this great, very complicated history of struggle."

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Americans' freedom story revealed in 50 documents