Dr. Tera W. Hunter to Discuss African-American Marriage, Slavery, and Freedom in the 1800s

On Monday, February 18, Dr. Tera W. Hunter, professor of History and African American Studies at Princeton University will deliver the John Hope Franklin Distinguished Lecture on African-American marriage, slavery, and freedom in the 1800s. The lecture will cover the history of marriage among the enslaved, free blacks, and ex-slaves in the 19th century, as well as how recent marital patterns help us to understand “post-racial” America. The free event, part of Adelphi’s Black History Month celebrations, will take place in the Ruth S. Harley University Center in the Thomas Dixon Lovely Ballroom at 7:00 p.m., 1 South Avenue, Garden City, NY.  

Dr. Hunter specializes in African-American history and gender in the 19th and 20th centuries and her research has focused on African American women and labor in the South during that period. Her first book,  To ‘Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors After the Civil War, included experiences of working-class women, especially domestic workers, in Atlanta and other southern cities from Reconstruction through the 1920s. It has received numerous awards including the H. L. Mitchell Award from the Southern Historical Association, the Letitia Brown Memorial Book Prize from the Association of Black Women’s Historians, and the Book of the Year Award from the International Labor History Association. Michael Honey in his review in the American Historical Review called it a “triumph of research, astute analysis, and engaging imagination that deserves to be widely read by students of African-American, labor, and women’s studies and of American history.”   

She has also co-edited a number of publications, including Dialogues of Dispersal: Gender, Sexuality and African Diasporas with Sandra Gunning and Michele Mitchell, and African American Urban Studies: Perspectives from the Colonial Period to the Present with Joe W. Trotter and Earl Lewis. Currently, she is working on a book about African-American marriages in the 19th century. Dr. Hunter received her B. A. from Duke University and Ph.D. from Yale University.  

This event is sponsored by the John Hope Franklin Distinguished Lecture Series and the Center for African, Black & Caribbean Studies. For more information, contact Ms. Fabian Burrell, program coordinator for the Center for African, Black & Caribbean Studies at (516) 877-4978 or fburrell@adelphi.edu. 

 About Adelphi University: Adelphi is a world class, modern university with excellent and highly relevant programs where students prepare for lives of active citizenship and professional careers. Through its schools and programs—The College of Arts and Sciences, Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Honors College, Ruth S. Ammon School of Education, University College, Robert B. Willumstad School of Business, Schools of Nursing and Social Work—the co-educational university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as professional and educational programs for adults. Adelphi University currently enrolls nearly 8,000 students from 43 states and 45 foreign countries. With its main campus in Garden City and centers in Manhattan, Hauppauge, and Poughkeepsie, the University, chartered in 1896, maintains a commitment to liberal studies in tandem with rigorous professional preparation and active citizenship.