Student Contest

 

**Updates: the contest deadline has been extended to October 5^th to give students more time to enter. The prizes include a 2 night trip to Washington D.C., publication on the NEH website, and a cash prize.**

Rules and Guidelines
Creatively respond to or reinterpret a historical document(s) from either the Freedmen and Southern Society Project or Visualizing Emancipation (both NEH-funded sites), citing the primary source you are using. Possible submission formats include, but are not limited to: a short essay, a first-person narrative, a letter, a one scene play, a poem, a blog post, a video, an original song, or a digital recording. If you are interested in submitting media content, please attach a brief abstract along with your work. When you are finished, upload your entry to our submission page.

All projects must be historically founded in their respective primary sources. Any submissions of audio-visual media should not exceed five minutes in length and be accompanied by a brief abstract. Written material must be submitted in size 12 Times New Roman, and double spaced. Please read our additional legal guidelines before submitting your project.*

Prizes
First place, runner-up, and honorable mention will:
>Have their work published on the NEH website, neh.gov.
>Receive a 2 night trip to Washington D.C. for themselves and one guest. Travel to D.C., hotel accommodation, and meals will be provided by the NEH in accordance with GSA guidelines. This trip may be scheduled at any time between October 10^th and January 18^th.
>Receive specially guided tours of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and President Lincoln’s Cottage during their trip to D.C.
>The first place entrant will receive a $500 cash prize and the two honorable mention winners will each receive $250.

Eligibility
Students over 18 years of age who are currently enrolled in high school, community college, a four-year college or university, or a graduate degree program. Contestants must be US citizens. Only one author permitted per project.

Dates to remember
October 5th: Final deadline to submit entries
October 10th: Winners will be notified and contacted to coordinate transportation to Washington D.C.
October 10^th through January 15^th 2013: Winners can travel to D.C. This schedule allows winners to plan their trip to fit their schedule best and can be scheduled during a mid-semester/fall break, Veterans’ Day or winter break.

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exempli gratia,

Original Document: Re. Missouri Slave Woman to Her Soldier Husband

Mexico Mo Dec 30th, 1863

My Dear Husband I have received your last kind letter a few days ago and was much pleased to hear from you once more. It seems like a long time since you left me. I have had nothing but trouble since you left. You recollect what I told you how they would do after you was gone. they abuse me because you went & say they will not take care of our children & do nothing but quarrel with me all the time and beat me scandalously the day before yesterday– Oh I never thought you would give me so much trouble as I have got to bear now. You ought not to left me in the fix I am in & all these little helpless children to take care of. I was invited to a party to night but I could not go I am in too much trouble to want to go to parties. the children talk about you all the time. I wish you could get a furlough & come to see us once more. We want to see you worse than we ever did before. Remember all I told you about how they would do me after you left–for they do worse than they ever did & I do not know what will become of me & my poor little children. Oh I wish you had staid with me & not gone till I could go with you for I do nothing but grieve all the time about you. write & tell me when you are coming.

Tell Isaac that his mother come & got his clothes she was so sorry he went. You need not tell me to beg any more married men to go. I see too much trouble to try to get any more into trouble too– Write to me & do not forget me & my children– farewell my dear husband from your wife

Martha

Martha to My Dear Husband [Richard Glover], 30 Dec. 1863, enclosed in Brig. Genl. Wm. A. Pile to Maj. O. D. Greene, 11 Feb. 1864, P-91 1864, Letters Received, ser. 2593, Department of the Missouri, U.S. Army Continental Commands, Record Group 393 Pt. 1, National Archives.

Published in The Black Military Experience, p. 244, in Families and Freedom, p. 97 in Free at Last, p. 464, and in Freedom’s Soldiers, pp. 117–18.

On Coming Home

Trumpets blare in a faraway plane

As soldiers are mustered to rust in the rain,

While I hold a heart that’s fettered in chain,

I’m bound under roses of White.

Richard’s been gone for two years today

Too dazed by Confed’rates deep in the clay

To be with his Martha at morning who lays

Alone in her mourning & sight.

See, shadows nurse the babies, who cry,

Yet, under the sun hang no clouds in the sky,

The children talk of you but of you I…

Fear arms wear your hand not to write.

So if you get this letter, my love,

Or are watching from somewhere beyond or above

Know that in war some long for a dove

And can fall for freedom not right.

-MJM

Re. Missouri Slave Woman to Her Soldier Husband

Mexico Mo  Dec 30th, 1863

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Legal Guidelines
*Contestants agree (1) to comply with NEH’s rules and other requirements for this Contest which are binding and final in all matters; (2) to release and hold harmless NEH, its partners and affiliated entities in administering or promoting the Contest for any and all claims, expenses, and liability, including but not limited to copyright or other intellectual property rights, arising out of or relating to your entry, creation of an entry or submission of an entry, participation in the Contest, acceptance or use or misuse of prize (including any travel or activity related thereto) and/or the broadcast, transmission, performance, exploitation or use of entry; and (3) to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless NEH from and against any and all claims, expenses, and liabilities (including reasonable attorneys’ fees arising out of or relating to your participation in the Contest and/or your acceptance, use or misuse of award.