Welcome to Breaking Down Patriarchy. I'm Amy McPhee All the Best. In the fall of

2023, I took a class in my PhD program that explored the role of education in social

movements in the United States. One of our assigned books was called In Pursuit of Knowledge,

Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America by Cabria Baumgartner.

I was really intrigued. Never had I thought about educational activism before. And I knew

almost nothing about black women's activism before the Civil War. So I was very excited.

And this book did not disappoint. It turned out to be

one of my favorites of the semester, and it was a favorite among my classmates as well. So I am

thrilled to welcome to the podcast, the author of In Pursuit of Knowledge, Cabria Baumgartner. Thanks

for being here, Cabria. Thank you so much, Amy. I appreciate you inviting me to be on your podcast.

Super excited that you're here, really honored. And I did absolutely love the book and recommend

this to listeners that this is one that you buy and read because I learned so much. And again,

I love discovering pockets of history that I'm like, I didn't even think to think about that issue.

And so this was just really eye-opening. So I can't wait to get started. I'll introduce you

first, though, with a professional introduction, and then we'll have you tell your own story after

that. Cabria Baumgartner is a historian of the 19th century United States, specializing in the history of education, African-American women's and gender history, and New England Studies.

She's the author of In Pursuit of Knowledge, Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America, which tells the story of black girls and women who fought for their educational rights in the 19th century United States.

Her book has won four prizes, including the prestigious 2021 American Educational Research Association's Outstanding Book Award.

Again, well deserved, and congratulations, Cabria.

And, yeah, if we can start by having you just introduce us to you where you're from

and kind of some factors of growing up that led you to do the work that you do today.

Yes, that's a great question. So I would say in addition to my work studying 19th century

...