Tag: slavery

Dear Young Master and Friend: How One Letter Turned into a Biography

The following is a guest post from Sydney Nathans, author of Freedom’s Mirage: Virgil Bennehan’s Odyssey from Emancipation to Exile, which traces the exceptional life of Virgil Bennehan, born in bondage in 1808 in Piedmont North Carolina, who rose to become an enslaved doctor on one of the South’s largest plantations and to view himself as a friend to Black… Continue Reading Dear Young Master and Friend: How One Letter Turned into a Biography

Who Was Julia Chinn?: An Excerpt from “The Vice President’s Black Wife”

The following is an excerpt from the introduction of The Vice President’s Black Wife: The Untold Life of Julia Chinn by Amrita Chakrabarti Myers, which is available wherever books are sold. Who Was Julia Chinn? Julia Ann Chinn was an enslaved Black woman. Born sometime between 1790 and 1797, Julia was originally owned by Richard’s parents, Robert and Jemima Suggett… Continue Reading Who Was Julia Chinn?: An Excerpt from “The Vice President’s Black Wife”

Ordinary Violence

The following is an excerpt from Consent in the Presence of Force: Sexual Violence and Black Women’s Survival in Antebellum New Orleans by Emily A. Owens, available wherever books are sold. In histories of enslavement and in Black women’s history, coercion looms large in any discussion of sex and sexuality. At a time when sexual violence against Black women was… Continue Reading Ordinary Violence

Seawall’s Secret: The Selling of More Than Two Dozen Black Africans

The following is an excerpt from Before Equiano: A Prehistory of the North American Slave Narrative by Zachary McLeod Hutchins, available wherever books are sold. In the antebellum United States, formerly enslaved men and women who told their stories and advocated for abolition helped establish a new genre with widely recognized tropes: the slave narrative. This book investigates how enslaved… Continue Reading Seawall’s Secret: The Selling of More Than Two Dozen Black Africans

Native Americans and Enslaved Africans

The following is an excerpt from The Southern Way of Life: Meanings of Culture and Civilization in the American South by Charles Reagan Wilson, available everywhere books and ebooks are sold. Native Americans and Enslaved Africans Southern colonists, including Jefferson’s forebears, had been on the periphery of Western civilization at the beginning of settlement, but they self-consciously came as predominantly… Continue Reading Native Americans and Enslaved Africans

Books to Look Forward to in 2023

As we wrap up our centennial celebration we’re heading into the start of our second century with an exciting list of new titles. Continue reading to see the remainder of our Fall 2022 books publishing in January and be sure to also browse our Spring 2023 catalog which includes books on the Covid-19 pandemic, history of the American south, America’s… Continue Reading Books to Look Forward to in 2023

Iconic Books From the Past 100 Years: Part 4

Over the past 100 years UNC Press is proud to have published an extensive catalog of award winning and highly praised books. As we celebrate our centennial, we’ve looked back at these prestigious titles to highlight some of our most influential and iconic books. Find the first three installations in our Iconic Books blog series here. Slave Counterpoint: Black Culture in… Continue Reading Iconic Books From the Past 100 Years: Part 4

Fugitive Slaves in the Antebellum South and the Question of Freedom in American History

The following is a guest blog post by Viola Franziska Müller, author of Escape to the City: Fugitive Slaves in the Antebellum Urban South, which is available now everywhere books are sold. Tens of thousands of people escaped slavery in the antebellum South. While the bulk of scholarship has focused on those who fled to the northern states and outside of the country, the… Continue Reading Fugitive Slaves in the Antebellum South and the Question of Freedom in American History

Iconic Books From The Past 100 Years: Part 3

Over the past 100 years UNC Press is proud to have published an extensive catalog of award winning and highly praised books. As we celebrate our centennial, we’ve looked back at these prestigious titles to highlight some of our most influential and iconic books. Find the first two installations in our Iconic Books blog series here. Graveyard of the Atlantic: Shipwrecks… Continue Reading Iconic Books From The Past 100 Years: Part 3

Dismal Freedom—On Sale Now

Dismal Freedom: A History of the Maroons of the Great Dismal Swamp by J. Brent Morris is available now wherever books and ebooks are sold. The massive and foreboding Great Dismal Swamp sprawls over 2,000 square miles and spills over parts of Virginia and North Carolina. From the early seventeenth century, the nearly impassable Dismal frustrated settlement. However, what may… Continue Reading Dismal Freedom—On Sale Now

Celebrate Juneteenth by Reflecting on Enslavement in the American South

Happy Juneteenth(observation day)! As we take today to commemorate the end of slavery in the US, we are sharing an excerpt from Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South by Stephanie M. H. Camp. 1 A GEOGRAPHY OF CONTAINMENT The Bondage of Space and Time THE PRINCIPLES OF RESTRAINT At the heart of the process of enslavement was… Continue Reading Celebrate Juneteenth by Reflecting on Enslavement in the American South

Women’s History Month 2022 Reading List (Curated by Ann Bingham)

Happy Women’s History Month! In celebration of this historical month, we’ll be sharing reading lists curated by our staff featuring all authors who identify as women. Today we’re sharing a list from our Exhibits and Awards Manager Ann Bingham. Click here to see the previously shared lists and learn more about how Women’s History Month came about. If you’re interested in purchasing any of… Continue Reading Women’s History Month 2022 Reading List (Curated by Ann Bingham)

Women’s History Month 2022 Reading List (Curated by Susan Garrett)

Happy Women’s History Month! In celebration of this historical month, we’ll be sharing reading lists curated by our staff featuring all authors who identify as women. Today we’re sharing a list from Susan Garrett, our Sales Manager. Click here to see the previously shared lists and learn more about how Women’s History Month came about. If you’re interested in purchasing any of these books,… Continue Reading Women’s History Month 2022 Reading List (Curated by Susan Garrett)

Women’s History Month 2022 Reading List (Curated by Cate Hodorowicz)

Happy Women’s History Month! In celebration of this historical month, we’ll be sharing reading lists curated by our staff featuring all authors who identify as women. Today we’re sharing a list from Cate Hodorowicz, one of our newly promoted Editors. Click here to see the previously shared lists and learn more about how Women’s History Month came about. If you’re interested in purchasing any… Continue Reading Women’s History Month 2022 Reading List (Curated by Cate Hodorowicz)

Women’s History Month 2022 Reading List (Curated by Debbie Gershenowitz)

Happy Women’s History Month! In celebration of this historical month, we’ll be sharing reading lists curated by our staff featuring all authors who identify as women. Today we’re sharing a list curated by one of our Executive Editors Debbie Gershenowitz. Last week we shared a list curated by Andreina Fernandez, one of our Acquisitions Assistants. Click here to check out Andreina’s… Continue Reading Women’s History Month 2022 Reading List (Curated by Debbie Gershenowitz)

Black History Month 2022 Reading List: The Black American Experience

Earlier this month, we published the first of our weekly Black History Month reading lists, focused on Black Resistance. This week’s reading list centers the Black American experience and it consists of books written by black authors who touch on a few of the various and infinite lived occurrences we share as Black people in America. We are not a… Continue Reading Black History Month 2022 Reading List: The Black American Experience

Critical Book Spotlight: Dr. Robert Chase

Reblogged with permission from the American Society of Criminology’s Division of Critical Criminology and Social Justice Newsletter Robert T. Chase is associate professor of history at Stony Brook University, State University of New York (SUNY). He is the author of We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners’ Rights in Postwar America (UNC, 2020). He is also the editor of Caging… Continue Reading Critical Book Spotlight: Dr. Robert Chase

Author Warren Eugene Milteer Jr.’s Talk With the U.S. National Archives

Last month, the U.S. National Archives hosted a talk with historian Alaina E. Roberts and Warren Eugene Milteer Jr., author of Beyond Slavery’s Shadow: Free People of Color in the South. On the eve of the Civil War, most people of color in the United States toiled in bondage. Yet nearly half a million of these individuals, including over 250,000 in the South,… Continue Reading Author Warren Eugene Milteer Jr.’s Talk With the U.S. National Archives

Permanent Markers: Geno-Myths

The following is an excerpt from Sarah Abel’s Permanent Markers: Race, Ancestry, and the Body after the Genome. Over the past twenty years, DNA ancestry testing has morphed from a niche market into a booming international industry that encourages members of the public to answer difficult questions about their identity by looking to the genome. At a time of intensified… Continue Reading Permanent Markers: Geno-Myths

Happy (early) Juneteenth! A Reading List, Part Two

Happy early JuneTeenth again! I’m back with part two of the recommended reading list in celebration of JuneTeenth, “the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.” Part one of the recommended reading list focused on the experiences of black American slaves whose labor helped shape the fabric of America. Part two of the reading… Continue Reading Happy (early) Juneteenth! A Reading List, Part Two