Scope and arrangement
The Rhoda G. Freeman Manuscript and Research Collection consists primarily of materials collected by Freeman and used in her writings, including her dissertation entitled, "The Free Negro in New York City in the Era Before the Civil War." There are four complete drafts of the dissertation as well as scattered pieces and chapter revisions. There are also research materials which document several related but unpublished papers by Freeman: "Marcus Aurelaius Garvey: Story of a Dream," "The Pro-Slavery Defense in the Ante-Bellum South," "Black New Yorkers and the Cord of Caste 1827-1861." and her thesis for George Washington University, "The American Negro and the Back-to-Africa Movement." The research materials include bibliographic and topical card files, photocopies of relevant articles and research papers by others, and secondary source materials consisting of news clippings and photocopies of nineteenth century correspondence relating to free African Americans in New York City dealing with history, abolition, census records, and African American-Jewish relations. Her files also include conference papers by others, lists and bibliographies of papers and microfilms, and her research papers.|||There are also notes, syllabi and readings for the class Freeman taught at Upsala College, "The Black Experience in America.".|||A major portion of the collection consists of index cards dealing with the following subjects: emancipation, colonization, abolition, kidnappings, fugitive slaves, political issues, biography, church, census, conventions, economics, problems of poverty, education, discrimination, social and cultural. Numerous index cards relate to bibliographic materials.