Scope and arrangement
The Rhoda G. Freeman manuscript and research collection consists of manuscripts of writings by Freeman, course materials, and research materials collected by Freeman and used in her writings and teaching. The manuscripts include two college papers, "The Pro-Slavery Defense in the Ante-Bellum South" and "Marcus Aurelius Garvey: Story of a Dream"; Freeman's master's thesis, "The American Negro and the Back-to-Africa Movement"; her dissertation, "The Free Negro in New York City in the Era Before the Civil War"; and later papers on the leadership of the free Black community in New York and emigration. There are several complete drafts of the dissertation as well as scattered notes and chapter revisions. There are also notes, syllabi, and readings for the class Freeman taught at Upsala College, "The Black Experience in America," and materials for a lecture she delivered on "The Future Roles of Men and Women" at South Maplewood Adult School. The largest part of the collection is research materials, which include photocopies of relevant articles and primary source documents such as nineteenth-century correspondence and census records relating to free African Americans in New York City and other topics in Black history, including Black English and Black-Jewish relations. Her files also include conference papers by others and lists and bibliographies of papers and microfilms. A major portion of the collection consists of bibliographic and topical index card files 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.
The Rhoda G. Freeman manuscript and research collection is arranged in three series: