John W. Blassingame
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John Wesley Blassingame (March 23, 1940 – February 13, 2000) was an American historian and a pioneer in the study of
Biography
Blassingame was born on March 23, 1940,
Blassingame joined the faculty at Yale in 1970 and became a history professor in 1974.[2] He was a professor of history, African-American studies, and American studies there for 29 years.
Blassingame wrote and edited several books, including New Perspectives on Black Studies (1971), The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South (1972), Black New Orleans, 1860–1880 (1973), and Frederick Douglass, the Clarion Voice (1976). In addition, Blassingame collected slave letters, interviews, and other materials in his book, Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies (1977). The book has a large selection of annotated and authenticated accounts of slaves who spoke for themselves during the era of Thomas Jefferson, Robert E. Lee, Henry Clay, and others.
From 1979 to 1999, Blassingame worked on editing the papers of Frederick Douglass and published six volumes of Douglass' papers and manuscripts.[7] He also joined several writers in his work of editing and writing. He was a co-author with Mary F. Berry of Long Memory: The Black Experience in America (1982) as well as a co-editor with Louis Harlan of The Autobiographical Writings of Booker T. Washington (1972).
Blassingame was a lifelong member of many history preservation, heritage, and educational organizations such as the American Historical Association, Southern History Association, the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, and the Phi Alpha Theta honor society.[5]
Blassingame died on February 13, 2000. According to his son, the cause of death was not known.[3]
References
- ISBN 978-0-307-90872-8.
- ^ a b "Historian John Blassingame, Pioneer in Study of Slavery, Dies". Yale Bulletin & Calendar. Vol. 28, no. 22. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University. February 25, 2000. Archived from the original on May 29, 2012. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
- ^ a b c Ravo, Nick (February 29, 2000). "John Blassingame, 60, Historian-Led Yale Black Studies Program". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 30, 2016. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
- ^ Stuckey, Melissa (October 27, 2007). "John W. Blassingame (1940–2000)". BlackPast.org. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
- ^ a b "In Memory of Blassingame" (PDF). www.library.gsu.edu. William Russell Pullen Library. February 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 September 2006. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
- ^ "Blassingame, John Wesley 1940–2000". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
- ^ Huff, Christopher Allen (August 30, 2007). "John Blassingame". New Georgia encyclopedia. Retrieved January 18, 2024.