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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251214T140000
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SUMMARY:Gossip and Rumor in Antebellum Hillsborough
DESCRIPTION:Before headlines and hashtags\, news traveled by word of mouth\, and in antebellum Hillsborough\, gossip could change lives. Join historian Dr. Sylvia Hoffert for a captivating talk and reading from her new book\, “Wagging Tongues and Tittle Tattle: Gossip\, Rumor\, and Reputation in a Small Southern Town.”\n\nDr. Hoffert calls on a particularly rich collection of primary sources\, including diaries\, letters\, oral histories\, census data\, court documents\, church records\, and psychiatric hospital logs\, all relating to Hillsborough\, North Carolina\, to argue that gossip and rumor were central to the formation of interpersonal relationships and an integral part of small-town life in the antebellum South. They exposed the insecurities and anxieties of the town’s inhabitants. Indeed\, they served as important weapons in the power struggle between the white slaveholding elite—who tried to exert\, maintain\, and consolidate their control over community life—and the Black\, white\, and mixed-race men and women\, free and enslaved\, who did their best to challenge the socioeconomic status quo. And they exposed fissures in the social fabric that discretion\, good manners\, and historical amnesia could not obscure. The result was that\, on a day-to-day basis\, the shady streets of Hillsborough may have seemed peaceful to the casual observer. But underneath all that tranquility\, the town was ripe with competition and conflict as the inhabitants used gossip to negotiate relationships with their neighbors and make places for themselves in the social\, economic\, and political hierarchy of the community.\n\nEnjoy an engaging conversation\, audience Q&A\, and book signing.
URL:https://visithillsboroughnc.com/event/gossip-and-rumor-in-antebellum-hillsborough/
LOCATION:Burwell School Historic Site\, 319 North Churton Street\, Hillsborough\, NC\, 27278\, United States
CATEGORIES:History,Speaker
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