Peter Robert Kolchin (born June 3, 1943) is an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

. He has specialized in slavery and labor in the American South before and after the Civil War, and in comparisons with Russian serfdom and other forms of labor. He won the

Bancroft Prize The Bancroft Prize is awarded each year by the trustees of Columbia University for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas. It was established in 1948, with a bequest from Frederic Bancroft, in his memory and that of his brother, ...

in American History and the Avery O. Craven Award for his book '' Unfree Labor: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom'' (1987).

Life

Born in New York, Peter Kolchin attended local schools. He graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

with an

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in 1964, and conducted graduate work at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

, where he received a Ph.D. in 1970. His doctoral thesis was entitled ''First Freedom: The Responses of Alabama's Blacks to Emancipation and Reconstruction''. He is a professor at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 ma ...

Awards

* 1988

in American History * 1988 Avery O. Craven Award from the Organization of American Historians * Charles Sydnor Award,

Southern Historical Association The Southern Historical Association is a professional academic organization of historians focusing on the history of the Southern United States. It was organized on November 2, 1934. Its objectives are the promotion of interest and research in Sout ...

Works

* (Revised Ed. 2008, ) * * American Slavery, 1619-1877 (1993, revised ed. 2003) * * *

References

1943 births Living people Columbia College (New York) alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni University of Delaware faculty 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Historians of slavery Historians from New York (state) Bancroft Prize winners American male non-fiction writers {{US-historian-stub