Erica Armstrong Dunbar is an American historian at

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

. She was previously a distinguished

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''* ...

and Mary Beard Professor of History at

Rutgers Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College and was aff ...

. An historian of African American women and the antebellum United States, Dunbar is the author of ''A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City'' (2008) and '' Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge'' (2017). ''Never Caught'' was a

National Book Award for Nonfiction The National Book Award for Nonfiction is one of five US annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation to recognize outstanding literary work by US citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers". The panelists a ...

finalist and winner of the

Frederick Douglass Prize The Frederick Douglass Book Prize is awarded annually by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. It is a $25,000 award for the most outst ...

Life

Dr. Dunbar attended college at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, then earned an M.A. and Ph.D from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. She taught at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...

before joining

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

in 2017. She is

and Mary Beard Professor of History at

. Her research and teaching focus on the history of African American women and late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth-century United States history. Her first book was ''A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City'', published by

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

in 2008. In it she examines the lives black women made in Philadelphia’s large free black community, using documents like friendship albums and personal correspondence, church records, and labor contracts. In 2017 she published '' Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge''. ''Never Caught'' was a finalist for the 2017

. In November 2018 Dunbar was named joint winner of the

for ''Never Caught''.

Works

* ''A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City'' (Yale University Press, 2008) , * '' Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge'' (Atria/37 Ink, February 2017) , * ''The Politics of History: A New Generation of American Historians Writes Back'' with Jim Downs, Timothy Patrick McCarthy, and T.K. Hunter (in progress)

References

External links

Interview with Dunbar
in ''Richmond Magazine'', April 21, 2017 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dunbar, Erica Armstrong American women historians Living people Year of birth missing (living people) University of Pennsylvania alumni Columbia University alumni 21st-century American women