Historical Postcards

A historical postcard creates a theme by using an image, a quote and a figure from the census data to work together to inspire curiosity and insight into the theme of the postcard.

Mark Twain

Born in Marion County, Hannibal, Missouri 1840

“Jim talked about how the first thing he would do when he got to a free state he would go to saving up money and when he go enough he would buy his wife; and then they would both work to buy the two children, and if their masters wouldn’t sell them, they’d get an ablitionist and steal them.
It most froze me to hear such talk...” Huck Finn

Number of Slaves in Marion County in 1840
2,342
24% of the population

HARPER LEE
Born in 1936 in Monroeville County, Alabama

“I was to think of these days many times. Of Jem and Dill and Boo Radley and Tom Robinson - and Atticus. He would be in Jem's room all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.” Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird

Number of African Americans in Monroeville when Scout Finch would have entered first grade
15, 782 - 52.5% of the population

	Langston Hughes Born in Joplin, Missouri in 1903 Lived in Douglass County, Kansas - 1903-1915
Iliteracy Rates, Males over 10 years old, Douglass County 1910 Black - 15.3% White - .5%	Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free (America never was America to me.)

"My mother died by the time I was 15, and already she’d imparted enough of herself to carry me for the rest of my life... and my father was sort of a wonderful dirt farmer who farmed mostly dirt, had enough food for his children, to eat. So we had a rather meager existence."

Number of farmers in Bourbon County, 1930
White 2,171
African American 10

GORDON PARKS

Born in Bourbon County, Kansas - 1913

COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG

"During the 18th century, half of Williamsburg's population was black. The lives of the slaves and free persons in this Virginia capital are presented in reenactments and programs by Colonial Williamsburg's Department of African-American Interpretation and Presentations, founded in 1988" From Colonial Williamsburg's web site

James City - Williamsburg - 1880
African American - 2,557 - 65.1%
(60.8% Enslaved - 4.3 Free

James City - Williamsburg - 1990
African American - 6,437 - 18.5%