June 24, 2009
History Detectives PBS series featured Dr. Mary Mitchell's Research
To read the New Orleans Clarion Herald newspaper article regarding the program, please select the following link: clarionherald
The PBS series History Detectives aired a segment titled "Creole Poems" on Monday, June 29th. Earlier this year, producers of the program interviewed Associate Professor of History Dr. Mary Niall (Molly) Mitchell regarding her research into the Couvent School for free children of color in Antebellum New Orleans.
“In the antebellum period, the school was important because it served as a quasi-public school for free children of color at a time when only white children could attend the public schools in New Orleans,” Dr. Mitchell said. “All of the teachers were free people of color. … [The students] learned useful things like how to write a business letter to an associate, but they also had an awareness of the goings-on among free people of color in the rest of the Atlantic World, especially the Caribbean.”
The episode featuring Dr. Mitchell can be viewed via the following link: