Washington College Faculty
Carol Wilson
Professor of History
Chair, Department of History
E-mail: cwilson2@washcoll.edu
Phone: (800) 422-1782, ext. 7759
Office: Goldstein 211
Education
- B.A., University of Delaware, 1984
- M.A., University of Akron, 1986
- Ph.D., West Virginia University, 1991
Office Hours
MWF, 1:30-2:20
Courses
- African-American History
- American Women's History
- Victorian America
- South African History
- Historical Method
- U.S. History Survey
- Introduction to Women's Studies
Published Work
- The Two Lives of Sally Miller: A Case of Mistaken Racial Identity in Antebellum New Orleans
- Freedom at Risk: The Kidnapping of Free Blacks in America—1780-1865
Research Interests
As a specialist in early national and antebellum African-American history, my work has centered around the boundaries of racial identity and status. We have tended to think of such categories as "free" and "slave," "white" and "black," as definite, but in reality they were not. My first book focused on the kidnapping of free blacks. What I found was that the designation "free" was a tenuous one at best. Free blacks were subject to so many restrictions as to render their freedom categorically different from what whites experienced; this has been well documented by numerous scholars. Even that restricted freedom was in constant danger of being rescinded. When white people claimed even legally free blacks as slaves, the burden of proof fell upon the victim, and the entire system worked toward the retention of an individual in slavery.
My book on the case of Sally Miller looks at a similar issue of status. As a society we have recently begun openly acknowledging that many people in the United States are of mixed racial background. The restrictive categorization of people as either white or black has begun to collapse. Many people assume, however, that this is the result of relaxing of racial barriers over the last few decades. Scholars of pre-Civil War American history, however, are well aware of the extensiveness of racial mixing in our nation's past, albeit a practice usually illegal and denied. Because of the not uncommon existence of enslaved mulattoes, antebellum Americans were not unused to seeing slaves who looked "white." With racial identity a feature imposed by those in power in society, it was only a matter of time before "whites" (people of European ancestry) found themselves illegally enslaved. Because white status was impossible to prove, some whites did find themselves in slavery.
Knowledge of white slavery adds depth and subtlety to our picture of antebellum American history. The example of white slaves can help bridge the gap that still exists (although reduced) between American history (still often unconsciously assumed to be the experience of white men) and African-American history. This work also illuminates the current struggle to understand racial identity. Knowing how questions of racial identity were discussed and settled in their past can provide a context for comprehending current debate.