Guest Lecture: Justene Hill Edwards

Join the history department for a presentation by Dr. Justene Hill Edwards, University of Virginia, on “The Failed Promise of Black Economic Freedom in Reconstruction America.”

Edwards' research explores the intersection of African American history, American economic history, and the history of American slavery. Specifically, she looks at slavery’s influence on the evolution of African American economic life. Her recently published book, Unfree Markets: The Slaves' Economy and the Rise of Capitalism in South Carolina (April 2021 on Columbia University Press, in the Columbia Series in the History of U.S. Capitalism), explores the economic lives of enslaved people, not as property or bonded laborers, but as active participants in their local economies.

Her next book, The Freedman’s Bank: An Untold Story of Economic Triumph and Tragedy in Reconstruction America, (forthcoming from W.W. Norton) chronicles the rise and fall of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company and its lasting influence on African American communities across the nation.

Free and open to the public.

This is an FYO event.

Light refreshments.