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slavery

Should Princeton University remove its statue of former College of New Jersey president John Witherspoon?

John Fea   |  December 29, 2022

I’ve spent a little time studying Princeton University’s history over the years. My first book was on a Witherspoon student who studied at Princeton (then the College of New Jersey) between 1770 and 1772. My second book covered Witherspoon’s role...

The Author’s Corner with John Rodrigue

Rachel Petroziello   |  December 23, 2022

John Rodrigue is Lawrence and Theresa Salameno Professor in the Department of History at Stonehill College. This interview is based on his new book, Freedom’s Crescent: The Civil War and the Destruction of Slavery in the Lower Mississippi Valley (Cambridge...

Goodbye Roger Taney

John Fea   |  December 16, 2022

Earlier this week my U.S. history survey students answered a final exam essay question on the short-term causes of the American Civil War. I haven’t graded their essays yet, but if their blue books do not contain something about Roger...

On the slaveholder Jonathan Edwards and the Christians who read him

John Fea   |  November 29, 2022

This past weekend a couple of folks called my attention to tweets from Joash Thomas. According to his Twitter bio, he is the National Director of Mobilization & Advocacy for the International Justice Mission (IJM) of Canada. I have great...

The Author’s Corner with Elliott Drago

Rachel Petroziello   |  November 17, 2022

Elliott Drago is Editorial Officer of the Jack Miller Center. This interview is based on his new book, Street Diplomacy: The Politics of Slavery and Freedom in Philadelphia, 1820-1850 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022). JF: What led you to write Street...

William Tecumseh Sherman: emancipator of the enslaved

John Fea   |  November 1, 2022

Here is historian Bennett Parten at Zocalo Public Square: Americans get Sherman’s March all wrong. Ask anyone who’s seen Gone with the Wind, and they’ll tell you that U.S. General William T. Sherman’s roughly 250-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah marked...

One of the last children of enslaved Americans dies at 90

John Fea   |  October 26, 2022

His name was Daniel R. Smith. Here is Harrison Smith at The Washington Post: Growing up in the 1930s, Daniel R. Smith would listen to stories from his father, as young boys often do. He was not supposed to hear...

The Author’s Corner with Patrick Luck

Rachel Petroziello   |  October 25, 2022

Patrick Luck is Assistant Professor of History at Florida Polytechnic University. This interview is based on his new book, Replanting a Slave Society: The Sugar and Cotton Revolutions in the Lower Mississippi Valley (University of Virginia Press, 2022). JF: What...

William & Mary’s monument to the enslaved

John Fea   |  October 24, 2022

More and more colleges and universities are coming to grips with their connections to slavery. Here is historian Jody Lynn Allen at Perspectives on History: In the 1930s, William & Mary (W&M) constructed a four-foot brick wall around the oldest...

Slavery was the cause of the American Civil War

John Fea   |  October 8, 2022

Most historians agree with the title of this post. So do many Americans. But there are others who still claim that the Civil War was about something other than slavery. Watch: Yesterday I showed this video to my Civil War...

The Author’s Corner with Jane Hooper

Rachel Petroziello   |  September 6, 2022

Jane Hooper is Associate Professor of History and Director of Undergraduate History Programs at George Mason University. This interview is based on her new book, Yankees in the Indian Ocean: American Commerce and Whaling, 1786–1860 (Ohio University Press, 2022). JF:...

The Author’s Corner with Jesse Olsavsky

Rachel Petroziello   |  August 29, 2022

Jesse Olsavsky is Assistant Professor of History at Duke Kunshan University. This interview is based on his new book, The Most Absolute Abolition: Runaways, Vigilance Committees, and the Rise of Revolutionary Abolitionism, 1835–1861 (LSU Press, 2022). JF: What led you to...

What should a college graduate know about slavery?

John Fea   |  August 15, 2022

Historian Steven Mintz offers twenty-three things any college graduate should know about slavery. I like the idea of this post, but I would be happy if my general education (non-majors) students knew a handful of these facts. Here is a...

The Author’s Corner with Daniel J. Broyld

Rachel Petroziello   |  July 5, 2022

Daniel J. Broyld is Associate Professor of African American History at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. This interview is based on his new book, Borderland Blacks: Two Cities in the Niagara Region during the Final Decades of Slavery (LSU Press,...

Thomas Jefferson: hero or villain?

John Fea   |  July 2, 2022

The title of this post is not, primarily, a historical question. It is primarily a moral question. We should keep the complexity of the past in mind as we celebrate Independence Day. Check out early American historian’s Jack Rakove‘s recent...

“Slavery” or “involuntary relocation?”

John Fea   |  July 1, 2022

Here is Brian Lopez at The Texas Tribune: A group of Texas educators have proposed to the Texas State Board of Education that slavery should be taught as “involuntary relocation” during second grade social studies instruction, but board members have...

Does Harvard possess the remains of 7,000 Native Americans and enslaved people?

John Fea   |  June 3, 2022

Here is Gillian Brockell at The Washington Post: Harvard University holds the human remains of thousands of Native American people, despite a 1990 federal law requiring their return, according to a draft report leaked to the student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson....

How slavery shaped Harvard

John Fea   |  April 27, 2022

Harvard president Lawrence S. Bacow and historian Tomiko Brown-Nagin, chair of the Presidential Initiative on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery, explain in a piece at The Washington Post: In his groundbreaking 1935 book, “Black Reconstruction in America,” W.E.B. Du...

The Author’s Corner with David Silkenat

Rachel Petroziello   |  April 14, 2022

David Silkenat is Senior Lecturer of American History at the University of Edinburgh. This interview is based on his new book, Scars on the Land: An Environmental History of Slavery in the American South (Oxford University Press, 2022). JF: What...

Woody Holton reflects on Liberty is Sweet

John Fea   |  April 13, 2022

Over at the Age of Revolutions blog, historian Tom Cutterman of the University of Birmingham (UK) interviews University of South Carolina historian Woody Holton. The topic is Holton’s recent book, Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution....

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