Whitney Nell Stewart is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas at Dallas. This interview is based on her new book, This Is Our Home: Slavery and Struggle on Southern Plantations (University of North Carolina Press, 2023). JF: […]
slavery
The Author’s Corner with Edward Gray
Edward Gray is Professor of History at Florida State University. This interview is based on his new book, Mason-Dixon: Crucible of the Nation (Harvard University Press, 2023). JF: What led you to write Mason-Dixon? EG: After writing two short biographical studies, […]
The Author’s Corner with Peter Radan
Peter Radan is Honorary Professor of Law at Macquarie University. This interview is based on his new book, Creating a More Perfect Slaveholders’ Union: Slavery, the Constitution, and Secession in Antebellum America (University Press of Kansas, 2023). JF: What led you to write […]
The Author’s Corner with William Jennings
William Jennings is Senior Lecturer of French and Deputy Head of School of Arts at the University of Waikato. This interview is based on his new book, Dibia’s World: Life on an Early Sugar Plantation (Liverpool University Press, 2023). JF: […]
The Author’s Corner with Peter Thompson
Peter Thompson is Sydney L Mayer Associate Professor of American History at the University of Oxford. This interview is based on his new book, Heir through Hope: Thomas Jefferson’s Lifelong Investment in William Short (Oxford University Press, 2023). JF: What […]
The Author’s Corner with Joseph Beilein Jr.
Joseph Beilein Jr. is Associate Professor of History at Penn State Behrend. This interview is based on his new book, A Man by Any Other Name: William Clarke Quantrill and the Search for American Manhood (University of Georgia Press, 2023). […]
Episode 114: “How Slavery Helped Grow the American Catholic Church”
Did you know the Jesuits were some of the largest slaveholders in colonial America? Our guest in this episode is Rachel L. Swarns, author of The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved And Sold to Build the American Catholic Church. We […]
John McWhorter on the Florida African American history curriculum
I took a little heat for my take on the Florida African American history controversy. Last month I wrote: The standards were much better than I expected. If I was a high school teacher in Florida I could easily work […]
James Madison’s Montpelier will honor the enslaved men and women who lived and died there
Tomorrow’s event is called “We the People: a Summer Celebration.” (Live-streaming here.) Here is Antonio Olivo at The Washington Post: This weekend, James Madison’s Montpelier estate will kick off a multiyear project to pay tribute to the nearly 300 enslaved […]
Did the enslaved “benefit” from slavery?
Here is CBS News: Florida’s 2023 Social Studies curriculum will include lessons on how “slaves developed skills” that could be used for “personal benefit,” according to a copy of the state’s academic standards reviewed by CBS News. The lessons in question fall […]
Jack Hibbs is still talking about American history. And it’s getting worse.
Last week I called your attention to megachurch pastor Jack Hibbs’s atrocious handling of the history of the Continental Army at Valley Forge. Now he is back with more. Watch: OK, let’s break it down: 1:10ff: Hibbs says, with no […]
The International African American Museum opens in Charleston
Here is Holland Cotter at The New York Times: In Charleston Harbor, where the initiating shots of the Civil War were fired — Fort Sumter is distantly visible — I’m on the site of a former shipping pier known as Gadsden’s […]
The Author’s Corner with Dennis Todd
Dennis Todd is Professor Emeritus of English at Georgetown University. This interview is based on his new book, Patriarchy in Peril: William Byrd II and Slavery in Early Virginia (University of Tennessee Press, 2023). JF: What led you to write […]
“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (and some not funny things too)
In the opening number of Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, made into a film by the same name in 1966, the narrator/protagonist does his best to excite the audience about the […]
Josh Hawley’s conservative populism was on full display at Road to Majority 2023
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley made a visit on Friday to the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority 2023” conference. Watch: If you watched the speech you can see that Hawley wasted no time identifying with the crowd: I’m proud […]
The Author’s Corner with Matthew J. Clavin
Matthew J. Clavin is Professor of American and Atlantic History at the University of Houston. This interview is based on his new book, Symbols of Freedom: Slavery and Resistance Before the Civil War (NYU Press, 2023). JF: What led you to […]
Juneteenth has always been “distinctly local” commemoration
Historian Tiya Miles wonders how the celebration of Juneteenth might change now that it is a federal holiday. Here is a taste of her piece today at The New York Times: It’s been two years since Juneteenth became a federal […]
The Author’s Corner with Sean M. Kelley
Sean M. Kelley is Professor of History at the University of Essex. This interview is based on his new book, American Slavers: Merchants, Mariners, and the Transatlantic Commerce in Captives, 1644-1865 (Yale University Press, 2023). JF: What led you to […]
The Author’s Corner with Giuliana Perrone
Giuliana Perrone is Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. This interview is based on her new book, Nothing More than Freedom: The Failure of Abolition in American Law (Cambridge University Press, 2023). JF: What led […]
Abortion, slavery, and Lincoln
When Donald Trump recently came out against any kind of federal ban on abortion he was on the receiving end of ire from various pro-life groups. Most notably the Susan B. Anthony List said a position like Trump’s is a […]