Historia Mortis

In 1991, construction workers broke ground on a new federal government office building at 290 Broadway in New York City. When they opened up the earth before them, they got more than they had bargained for. In the coming months,  archaeologists descended upon the site. What they unearthed was a six-acre burial ground, historically known as the Negro Burial Ground, with some 15,000 intact skeletal remains of enslaved and free Africans.

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In the summer of 1757, James Murray faced the difficult task of protecting his young family from another "sickly season" of tropical diseases among the rice swamps of early North Carolina. Was he successful?

What happens when early American families faced the death of a parent? How did men and women experience widowhood in environments where life expectancies weren't so great? In this episode, historian and host Kimberly Sherman explores how death could unmake families, while also prompting their re-creation. 

Find out more and review show notes at www.historiamortispodcast.com

Are ghosts the spirits of the dearly departed communicating from beyond the grave? At least some early modern theologians were skeptical about the idea. In this episode of Historia Mortis, we delve into early modern beliefs around ghost sightings, their connections to one's mental state, and the "science of the dead" -- thanatology! 

Historian and host Kimberly Sherman is joined by fellow historian Emily Betz. Emily is a final-year PhD student at the University of St Andrews. Her thesis focuses on the various ways that melancholy shaped identity in early modern England, c. 1580-1780. She is particularly interested in the impact that medical discourse had on the way mental illnesses were discussed, defined, and diagnosed.

Is death an adversary or a friend? This week on Historia Mortis, Dr. Kimberly Sherman takes us on a jaunt through early American history as we explore the changing attitudes toward death from the seventeenth century to the antebellum era. 

Historia Mortis: A podcast about life, death, and the rest is history.

Join historian, writer, and educator Dr. Kimberly Sherman, as she explores the lives and deaths of early Americans. This new series reveals how early Americans dealt with the presence of death and how cultural deathways emerged to produce society's beliefs about death and the afterlife, burial practices, mourning customs, and more.