Damian Pargas
Professor History and Culture of the United States
- Name
- Prof.dr. D.A. Pargas
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2736
- d.a.pargas@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Damian Alan Pargas is Professor of the History and Culture of North America at Leiden University and executive director of the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies in Middelburg. He is mainly specialized in the history of slavery and its aftermath.
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Damian Alan Pargas is Professor of the History and Culture of North America at Leiden University and executive director of the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies in Middelburg.
Research
Damian Pargas is specialized in the history of slavery and its aftermath, especially in North America but also in global contexts. He is the author or editor of seven books and numerous articles on various aspects of slavery. His first monograph, The Quarters and the Fields: Slave Families in the Non-Cotton South (University Press of Florida, 2010), compared and contrasted slave family life in three distinct regions of the American South. His second monograph, Slavery and Forced Migration in the Antebellum South (Cambridge University Press, 2014), examined the experiences of interstate, local, and urban slave migrants from a comparative perspective. In 2021 he published a third monograph (also with Cambridge University Press) titled Freedom Seekers: Fugitive Slaves in North America, 1800-1860, which dealt with the experiences of refugees from slavery in the US South, including fugitive slaves who left the South altogether (to the North, Canada, and Mexico) as well as runaways who remained within the slave states (illegally passing for free in southern cities, or remaining hidden by other slaves). This study was based on his NWO Vidi project (2015-2020) titled “Beacons of Freedom: Slave Refugees in North America, 1800-1860”. He also published an edited volume on this topic titled Fugitive Slaves and Spaces of Freedom in North America (University Press of Florida, 2018).
Damian is also interested in global and comparative perspectives on slavery. He co-edited (with Felicia Roşu) a 4-volume anthology of slavery studies, titled Critical Readings on Global Slavery (Leiden: Brill, 2018), as well as an edited volume (with Jeff Fynn-Paul) titled Slaving Zones: Cultural Identities, Ideologies, and Institutions in the Evolution of Global Slavery (Leiden: Brill, 2018). In 2023 he co-edited (with Juliane Schiel) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery throughout History (New York: Palgrave, 2023), a volume that is also available open access.
He is currently working on a new book titled In the Shadows of Slavery: Free Black Citizenship and Democracy in Antebellum America.
Fields of interest
- US history
- Economic and social history
- Comparative history
- North American slavery and emancipation
- Migration in the Atlantic world
- American racial and labor relations
Grants and awards
- NWO Veni Grant (€200.000), "Newcomers in Chains: Slave Migrants in the Antebellum South" (2011-2013).
- NWO Vidi Grant (€800.000), "Beacons of Freedom: Slave Refugees in North America" (2015-2020).
- SPL-1 Project Grant (€400.000), "Racial Democracy: Challenges to Civic Democratic Ideals in American History" (2021-2024).
Teaching activities
Courses in social and economic history, including courses on the history of North American slavery.
Curriculum vitae
Damian studied social history at Leiden University, earning his MA cum laude in 2004 and his PhD cum laude in 2009. From 2009 to 2013 he was assistant professor of history and American studies at Utrecht University. In August 2013 he returned to Leiden as assistant professor of social and economic history, and in 2017 he was appointed Professor of American History. He is also the executive director of the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies in Middelburg, which is formally affiliated with Leiden University.
Damian is the author of three monographs, an edited volume, and numerous articles on American slavery, slave family life, and slave migration in the 19th century. He has also edited or co-edited three edited volumes on global slavery. In 2011 he was awarded a visiting scholar fellowship by the JFK Institute for North American Studies at the Freie Universität in Berlin, and from 2011 to 2014 he held a Veni postdoctoral fellowship from the Dutch Council for Scientific Research (NWO) for his project “Newcomers in Chains: Slave Migrants in the Antebellum South, 1800-1860.” Between 2015 and 2020 he was the recipient and supervisor of the NWO Vidi project “Beacons of Freedom: Slave Refugees in North America, 1800-1860." For the period 2021-2024 he has received a grant from the Stichting Praesidium Libertatis-I for the project "Racial Democracy: Challenges to Civic Democratic Ideals in American History," for which he is currently supervising three PhD dissertations.
Damian is also a board member of the Netherlands American Studies Association, founder of the Leiden Slavery Studies Association, founder and chief editor of the Journal of Global Slavery, and co-editor of the book series Studies in Global Slavery.
Key publications
- The Quarters and the Fields: Slave Families in the Non-Cotton South (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2010).
- Slavery and Forced Migration in the Antebellum South (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
- Fugitive Slaves and Spaces of Freedom in North America, 1775-1860 (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2018).
- Freedom Seekers: Fugitive Slaves in North America, 1800-1860 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021). *“Disposing of Human Property: American Slave Families and Forced Separation in Comparative Perspective,” Journal of Family History, vol. 34, nr. 3 (July 2009): 251-74.
- “The Gathering Storm: Slave Responses to the Threat of Interregional Migration in the Early Nineteenth Century,” Journal of Early American History 2 no. 3 (Fall 2012): 286-315.
- “In the Fields of a ‘Strange Land’: Enslaved Newcomers and the Adjustment to Cotton Cultivation in the Antebellum South” Slavery & Abolition vol. 34, nr. 4 (Dec. 2013): 564-580.
Professor History and Culture of the United States
- Faculty of Humanities
- Institute for History
- Algemene Geschiedenis
- Pargas D.A., Montana I., Burnard T. & Müller V.F. (2024), Paul E. Lovejoy Prize, Journal of Global Slavery 9(3): 373-382.
- Pargas D.A., Montana I., Burnard T. & Müller V.F. (2024), Interview with Gunja SenGupta and Awam Amkpa, Journal of Global Slavery 9(3): 383-389.
- Pargas D.A. (1 July 2024), Bacchus (June 1774). Freedom Seekers: Stories of Black Liberation in the American Revolutionary Era and Beyond. Madison, WI (USA): University of Wisconsin (University of Wisconsin). [web article].
- Pargas D.A. (2023), Africans on the move: the transatlantic slave trade. In: Antunes C.A.P. & Taglicazzo E. (Eds.), The Cambridge history of global migrations: volume 1: migrations, 1400-1800. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. 52-70.
- Pargas D.A. & Schiel J. (Eds.) (2023), The Palgrave handbook of global slavery throughout history. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
- Pargas D.A. (2023), Introduction: historicizing and spatializing global slavery. In: Pargas D.A. & Schiel J. (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of global slavery throughout history. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. 1-13.
- Pargas D.A. (2023), Slavery in the US South. In: Pargas D.A. & Schiel J. (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of global slavery throughout history. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. 441-457.
- Pargas D.A. (2023), Review of: Brickell Bellows A. (2020), American slavery and Russian serfdom in the post-emancipation imagination. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. H-Nationalism .
- Pargas D.A. (2021), 'Stark mad after negroes': het ontstaan van slavernij in Noord-Amerika, Leidschrift 36(2): 17-31.
- Pargas D.A. (2021), Performing Freedom: Strategies of Escaping Slavery in Southern Cities, 1810-1860. In: Al Ghouz A., Bischoff J. & Dusend S. (Eds.) Joseph C. Miller Memorial Lecture Series, Volume 8 . Berlin: De Gruyter. 5-39.
- Pargas D.A. (2021), Freedom Seekers: Fugitive Slaves in North America, 1800-1860. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Pargas D.A. (2020) Review of [The Colonization of Freed African Americans in Suriname: Archival Sources relating to the U.S. Dutch Negotiations, 1860–1866] by [Douma, M.J.] . Review of: Douma M.J. (2019), The Colonization of Freed African Americans in Suriname: Archival Sources relating to the U.S. Dutch Negotiations, 1860–1866. Leiden: Leiden University Press. New West Indian Guide 94(3-4): 335-336.
- Pargas D.A. (2020), Review of: Bolton S.C. (2020), Fugitivism: Escaping Slavery in the Lower Mississippi Valley, 1820-1860. Fayettesville: University of Arkansas Press. The American Historical Review 125(5): 1877-1878.
- Pargas D.A. (2019), Review of: Willentz Sean (2018), No Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. The Historian 81(4): 674-675.
- Fynn-Paul J. & Pargas D.A. (2018), Slaving Zones: Cultural Identities, Ideologies, and Institutions in the Evolution of Global Slavery. Leiden & Boston: Brill.
- Pargas D.A. (2018), Review of: Martín Casares Aurelia (2016), Juan Latino, Talento y destino: Un afroespañol en tiempos de Carlos V y Felipe II. Granada: Editorial Universidad de Granada. Journal of Global Slavery 3(1): 180-181.
- Pargas D.A. (2018), Fugitive Slaves and Spaces of Freedom in North America. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
- Pargas D.A. (2018), Introduction: spaces of freedom in North America. In: Pargas D.A. (Ed.), Fugitive slaves and spaces of freedom in North America. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. 1-20.
- Pargas D.A. (2018), Seeking freedom in the midst of slavery: fugitive slaves in the antebellum South. In: Pargas D.A. (Ed.), Fugitive slaves and spaces of freedom in North America. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. 116-136.
- Pargas D.A. (Ed.) (2017), Journal of Global Slavery. Journal of Global Slavery. Leiden: Brill.
- Pargas D.A. & Fynn-Paul J. (Eds.) (2017), Studies in Global Slavery. Leiden: Brill.
- Pargas D.A. (2017), ‘Lurking amongst the Free Negroes’: Fugitive Slaves and Black Solidarity in the Antebellum South. . San José, Costa Rica: Universidad de Costa Rica.
- Pargas D.A. & Rosu F. (2017), Critical Readings on Global Slavery. Leiden: Brill.
- Pargas D.A. (2017), Urban Refugees: Fugitive Slaves and Spaces of Informal Freedom in the American South, 1800-1860, Journal of Early American History 7(3): 262-284.
- Pargas D.A. & Rosu F. (2017), Introduction: Global Perspectives on Slavery. In: Pargas D.A. & Rosu F. (Eds.), Critical Readings on Global Slavery. Leiden & Boston: Brill. 1-9.
- Fynn-Paul J., Pargas D.A. & Rosu F. (2017), Slavery and Forced Labor in Asia, c. 1250-1900 (conference organization) (Leiden University). [other].
- Pargas D.A. (2016), Slavery as a Global and Globalizing Phenomenon: An Editorial Note, Journal of Global Slavery 1(1): 1-4.
- Pargas D.A. (Ed.) (2016), Journal of Global Slavery. Journal of Global Slavery. Leiden: Brill.
- Pargas D.A. & Fynn-Paul J. (Eds.) (2016), Studies in Global Slavery. Leiden: Brill.
- Pargas D.A. (2015), ‘When I Think How Our Family is Scattered’: Comparing Forced Migration among Antebellum Slave Families. In: Forret J. & Sears C. (Eds.), New Directions in Slavery Studies: Commodification, Community, and Comparison. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. 239-57.
- Pargas D.A. (2015), Chattel Slavery and Atlantic Exceptionalism. Global Slavery and the Exhibitionary Impulse 11 June 2015 - 12 June 2015.
- Pargas D.A. (2015), Beacons of Freedom: Slave Refugees and the Geography of Freedom. . Universittá Catolica del Sacro Cuoro, Milan.
- Pargas D.A. (2015), Slave Crucibles: Interstate Migrants and Social Assimilation in the Antebellum South, Slavery & Abolition 36(1): 26-39.
- Pargas D.A. (2015), 'When I Think How Our Family is Scattered’: Comparing Forced Migration among Antebellum Slave Families. In: Forret J. & Sears C. (Eds.), New Directions in Slavery Studies: Commodification, Community, and Comparison. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. 239-257.
- Pargas D.A. (2015), Slave Crucibles: Interstate Migrants and Social Assimilation in the Antebellum South, Slavery & Abolition 36(1): 26-39.
- Pargas D.A. (2014), Slavery and Forced Migration in the Antebellum South. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Pargas D.A. & Fynn-Paul J. (Eds.) (2014), Studies in Global Slavery. Leiden & Boston: Brill.
- Pargas D.A. (2014), Where She Has Relations: Family and Fugitive Slave Women in the Antebellum South. National Underground Railroad Conference 16 July 2014 - 21 September 2014.
- Pargas D.A. (2014), Slave Crucibles: The Assimilation of Slave Migrants in the US South, 1800-1860. .
- Pargas D.A. (2014), Seeking Freedom in the Midst of Slavery: Fugitive Slaves in the American South, 1800-1860. .
- Pargas D.A. (Ed.) (2014), . Itinerario.
- Pargas D.A. (2014), Slavery and Forced Migration in the Antebellum South. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Pargas D.A. (Ed.) (2013), . Itinerario.
- Pargas D.A. (2013), 'In the Fields of a Strange Land': Enslaved Newcomers and the Adjustment to Cotton Cultivation in the Antebellum South, Slavery & Abolition 34(4): 564-580.
- Pargas D.A. (2012), De Verenigde Staten en hun federale overheid, 1865-1965. Amersfoort: Thieme Meulenhoff.
- Pargas D.A. (2012), Agricultural Labor. In: Berry D.R. (Ed.), Enslaved Women in America: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: Greenwood/ABC-CLIO. 155-162.
- Pargas D.A. (Ed.) (2012), . Itinerario.
- Pargas D.A. (2012) Cabin, Quarter, Plantation: Architecture and Landscapes of North American Slavery. Review of: Clifton Ellis & Rebecca Ginsburg (2010), Cabin, Quarter, Plantation: Architecture and Landscapes of North American Slavery. New Haven: Yale University Press. Journal of American History 99: 578.
- Pargas D.A. (2012), The Gathering Storm: Slave Responses to the Threat of Interregional Migration in the Early Nineteenth Century, Journal of Early American History 2(3): 286-315.
- Pargas D.A. (Ed.) (2011), . Itinerario.
- Pargas D.A. (2011), Hoe het Zuiden toch nog won: De nasleep van de Amerikaanse Burgeroorlog, Geschiedenis Magazine 46: 14-19.
- Pargas D.A. (2011), From the Cradle to the Fields: Slave Childcare and Childhood in the Antebellum South, Slavery & Abolition 32: 477-493.
- Pargas D.A. (2010), The Quarters and the Fields: Slave Families in the Non-Cotton South. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
- Pargas D.A. (Ed.) (2010), . Itinerario.
- Pargas D.A. (2010), Voor straf naar Amerika, Geschiedenis Magazine 45(5): 30-33.
- Pargas D.A. (Ed.) (2009), . Itinerario.
- Pargas D.A. (12 March 2009), Weathering different storms : regional agriculture and slave families in the non-cotton South, 1800-1860 (Dissertatie, Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University). Supervisor(s) and Co-supervisor(s): Emmer P.C., Quispel G.C.
- Pargas D.A. (2009), The Past, Present, and Future of Slavery Studies: An Interview with Stanley Engerman, Itinerario 33: 6-11.
- Pargas D.A. (2008), Disposing of Human Property: American Slave Families and Forced Separation in Comparative Perspective, Journal of Family History 34(3): 251-274.
- Pargas D.A. (2008), Boundaries and Opportunities: Comparing Slave Family Formation in the Antebellum South, Journal of Family History 33(3): 316-345.
- Pargas D.A. (Ed.) (2008), . Itinerario.
- Pargas D.A. (Ed.) (2007), . Itinerario.
- Pargas D.A. (2006), Work and Slave Family Life in Antebellum Northern Virginia, Journal of Family History 31(4 (oct.)): 335-357.
- Pargas D.A. (2006), 'Slavery, Migration, and the Atlantic World': An Interview with Piet Emmer, Itinerario 30(3): 8-18.
- Pargas D.A. (2006), "Various Means of Providing for Their Own Tables": Comparing Slave Family Economies in the Antebellum South, American Nineteenth Century History 7(3 (sept)): 361-387.
- Member, International Advisory Board
- Hoofdredacteur Journal of Global Slavery
- Redacteur boekenreeks Studies in Global Slavery
- Bestuurslid