Betsy Newman
Betsy Newman is a documentary filmmaker and web content developer at SCETV, where she has produced more than a dozen documentaries and two immersive interactive websites. Her films have been broadcast nationally and have won a Telly, a CINE Golden Eagle Award and a Southeast EMMY. For more than a decade she was Co-National Coordinator of the U.S. Office of the International Public Television Conference (INPUT). In 2016 she received the South Carolina Governor's Award in the Humanities. She has written numerous successful proposals to state humanities councils and has been awarded several grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, including for Reconstruction 360 (www.reconstruction360.org) and Between the Waters: Hobcaw Barony Website Project (www.betweenthewaters.org).
Stories
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Teaching Ourselves - Church as School | Reconstruction 360
March 27, 2023Freedpeople often had difficulty finding appropriate school buildings, and Black students regularly attended school in churches. Ministers were often happy to host schools in their churches, and congregation members in turn raised funds and often donated land to establish... -
Teaching Ourselves - Teacher | Reconstruction 360
March 20, 2023The school's new teacher has recently finished her training and this is her first teaching assignment. Black men and women were eager to teach in schools for freedpeople, and African American communities often wanted Black teachers for their children. Reconstruction 360 uses... -
Teaching Ourselves - Community Member | Reconstruction 360
March 13, 2023This community member, the leader of a local mutual aid society , has been instrumental in raising funds to hire a new teacher. Black communities often pooled their money to build schools and pay teachers. Northern missionary societies and the Freedmen’s Bureau also helped... -
Teaching Ourselves - Blue Back Speller | Reconstruction 360
March 06, 2023A popular book for teaching spelling and reading was Noah Webster’s Elementary Spelling Book, known as “the blue-back speller” because of its binding. Many enslaved people, including Frederick Douglass, taught themselves to read using the speller, which was first published... -
Teaching Ourselves - Child | Reconstruction 360
February 27, 2023Although this school has only a few students, many schools for freedpeople were overcrowded. Like most newly emancipated people, these children believe that education is the key to maintaining freedom and bettering their lives. Reconstruction 360 uses a 360 degree video... -
Teaching Ourselves - Portrait of Lincoln | Reconstruction 360
February 20, 2023On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, making him a symbol of Black freedom for years to come. As the war dragged on he began to recruit Blacks, free and enslaved, to the Union Army. Lincoln was so impressed with the African American troops that he...
