Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers is an American historian. She is an associate professor of history at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, and the author of '' They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South.'' She is an expert in

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

history, the history of American

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

, and women's and

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

history.

Education

Jones-Rogers attended

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

, earning a BA in

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

in 2003, and a Masters in 2007. She was awarded a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in History in 2012. Her doctoral thesis was ''"Nobody couldn't sell'em but her" slaveowning women, mastery, and the gendered politics of the antebellum slave market''. Her PhD was supervised by

Deborah Gray White Deborah Gray White is the Board of Governors Professor of History and Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. In addition to teaching at Rutgers, she also directed, "The Black Atlantic: Race, Nati ...

and examined by

Thavolia Glymph Thavolia Glymph is an American historian and professor. She is Professor of History and African-American Studies at Duke University. She specializes in nineteenth-century US history, African-American history and women’s history, authoring ''Out ...

. In 2013 her doctoral research won the Lerner-Scott Prize, which is given annually by the

Organization of American Historians The Organization of American Historians (OAH), formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S. and abroad inc ...

for the best doctoral dissertation in U.S. women's history.

Career

Jones-Rogers began her career at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

as assistant professor in the departments of History and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She was a Post-doctoral Fellow in Law and Society at

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

, 2013–14. She held the Harrington Faculty Fellowship in the History Department at the

University of Texas-Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, 2018–19. She has won fellowships from the Hellman Foundation, the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

, the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

, and the

Woodrow Wilson Foundation The Woodrow Wilson Foundation was an educational non-profit created in 1921, organized under the laws of New York, for the "perpetuation of Wilson's ideals" via periodic grants to worthy groups and individuals. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the chai ...

. Her first book was published in 2019 by

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

. ''

They Were Her Property ''They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South'' is a nonfiction history book by Stephanie Jones-Rogers. ''They Were Her Property'' is "the first extensive study of the role of Southern white women in the plantation e ...

'' challenges previous depictions of white

antebellum Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to: United States history * Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern United States ** Antebellum Georgia ** Antebellum South Carolina ** Antebellum Virginia * Antebellum ar ...

women as only minimally involved in the institution of slavery, onlookers to male relatives' active practice of enslaving African-Americans. Jones-Rogers draws on court records and oral histories to show the active role white women play in enslavement, both on a day-to-day basis and in the buying and selling of slaves, for their personal economic gain. Jones-Rogers demonstrates that white women exercised extraordinary control over the enslaved people in their households and had a deep economic investment in slavery. The book was described as 'scrupulous', 'focused', and 'crisp'. She also has a couple of podcasts as well as radio interviews. These as well as various events she speaks at can be found at he
personal website

Current projects

As of 2022 her research tends to focuses on gender and American slavery as well as colonial and 19th century legal and economic history with a focal point on women, systems of bondage, and the slave trade. They are also currently working on the manuscript ''Women of the Trade'' as well as ''Women, American Slavery, and the Law.'' She also has a study called the "'She had...a Womb Subjected to Bondage': The Afro-Atlantic Origins of British Colonial Descent Law". Rogers also is in charge of the Department of History's first African and African-American History Writer's Workshop. They work towards providing opportunities to scholars to circulate their research in a conducive environment. Another purpose of this Workshop is to cultivate the African-descended community of scholars within the department and offer a means of connecting them with one another.

Research interests

* African-American history * Slavery and the Atlantic Slave Trade * Slavery and the Law * The History of Women * Women and Early American Law

Awards and honors

''They Were Her Property'' won the L.A. Times Book Prize in History in 2020. Jones-Rogers was the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

and the third

woman A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

to receive the Prize in History. The book was also shortlisted for the 2020 Lincoln Prize in February 2020, with seven other books chosen out of 110 submissions. It won the

Merle Curti Merle Eugene Curti (September 15, 1897 – March 9, 1996) was a leading American historian, who taught many graduate students at Columbia University and the University of Wisconsin, and was a leader in developing the fields of social history and ...

Social History Award 2020 for the best book in American social history. Jones-Rogers was awarded the Organization of American Historians Lerner-Scott Dissertation Prize in U.S. Women's History in 2013. In February 2023, Jones-Rogers received the $300,000

Dan David Prize The Dan David Prize is a major international award that recognizes and supports outstanding contributions to the study of history and other disciplines that shed light on the human past. It awards nine prizes of $300,000 each year to outstanding ...

–the largest financial reward for excellence in the historical discipline in the world.

Fellowships and grants

Harrington Faculty Fellow, Department of History, University of Texas, Austin, 2018-2019 American Association of University Women Post-Doctoral Fellowship (Declined) National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for University Teachers, 2017-2018 Ford Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 2017-2018 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty, 2017 Humanities Research Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley, 2017-2018 Hellman Fellows Fund Award, 2016 Regents' Junior Faculty Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley, 2015 Institute of International Studies Manuscript Mini-Conference Grant, University of California, Berkeley, 2015 Arts and Humanities Initiative Standard Grant, University of Iowa, 2013-2014 College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Old Gold Summer Fellowship, University of Iowa, 2013-2014 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Small Summer Research Grant, Rutgers University, 2011 Pre-Doctoral Leadership Development Institute Fellowship, Rutgers University, 2010-2011 Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis Graduate Student Fellowship, Rutgers University, 2010-2011 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Small Summer Research Grant, Rutgers University, 2010 Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship-Honorable Mention, 2010 Competition Graduate Assistantship, Center for Race and Ethnicity, Rutgers University, 2009-2010 Ralph Johnson Bunche Distinguished Graduate Award, Rutgers University, 2007 Louis Bevier Graduate Fellowship (Finalist/Alternate), Rutgers University, 2007

Web-based publications

"Slavery's Abolition: Dark and Bittersweet," ''Abolition Democracy 13/13'', Columbia University School of Law Center for Contemporary Critical Thought, November 8, 2020,http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/abolition1313/stephanie-jones-rogers-slaverys-abolition-dark-and-bittersweet/ "1662: Virginia's Act XII," in "21 Lessons From America's Worst Moments," ''Time.com'', June 25, 2020,https://time.com/5858169/americas-worst-moments/ "White Women and the Economy of Slavery." ''Not Even Past'', February 1, 2019, https://notevenpast.org/white-women-and-the-economy-of-slavery/ "Police shootings: How many more must perish before we see justice?" ''The Berkeley Blog'', July 27, 2017, https://blogs.berkeley.edu/2017/07/27/stephanie-jones-rogers-police-exonerations-history-of-slavery/ "Another Side to the Tubman Twenty," ''The Berkeley Blog'', April 26, 2016,https://blogs.berkeley.edu/2016/04/26/my-reservations-about-harriet-tubmans-image-on-the-new-20-bill/ "A Thousand Words, Countless Silences and the Audacity of Black Love," ''The Berkeley Blog'', March 31, 2016, https://blogs.berkeley.edu/2016/03/31/a-thousand-words-countless-silences-and-the-audacity-of-black-love/ "The Charleston Massacre: What is the Meaning of Black Life in America?" ''The Berkeley Blog'', July 13, 2015, https://blogs.berkeley.edu/2015/07/13/the-charleston-massacre-what-is-the-meaning-of-black-life-in-america/ "Rachel Dolezal's 'Deception': What We Don't Want to Know about Racial Identity in America," ''The Berkeley Blog'', June 29, 2015, https://blogs.berkeley.edu/2015/06/29/rachel-dolezals-deception-what-we-dont-want-to-know-about-racial-identity-in-america/

Bibliography

* e could. . .spare one ample breast for the profit of her owner': white mothers and enslaved wet nurses' invisible labor in American slave markets', ''Motherhood, childlessness and the care of children in Atlantic slave societies'', edited by Camillia Cowling, Maria Helena Pereira Toledo Machado,

Diana Paton Diana Paton, (born 1969) is a British historian and academic. She specialises in the history of the Caribbean, including slavery, crime and punishment, gender history, and religion. Since 2016, she has been William Robertson Professor of History ...

and

Emily West Emily Marie Nemmers (born July 9, 1981) is an American music artist, who performs and records under the name Emily West. Signed to Capitol Records Nashville, she debuted on ''Billboard's'' Hot Country Songs charts in early 2008 with the single " ...

(London: Routledge, 2020) * ''They Were Her Property. White Women as Slave Owners in the American South'' (Yale University Press, 2019) * 'Rethinking Sexual Violence and the Marketplace of Slavery: White Women, the Slave Market and Enslaved People's Sexualized Bodies in the Nineteenth-Century South', ''Sexuality and Slavery: Reclaiming Intimate Histories in the Americas'' edited by

Daina Ramey Berry Daina Ramey Berry is an American historian and academic who is the Michael Douglas Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of California at Santa Barbara. She was formerly the associate dean of the graduate school and chair of the hist ...

and Leslie Harris (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2018), 109–123 * 'Mistresses in the Making: White Girls, Mastery and the Practice of Slaveownership in the Nineteenth-Century South', ''Women's America'' , Volume 8: Refocusing the Past. edited by Linda Kerber, Jane Sherron De Hart, Cornelia Hughes Dayton, and Judy Wu (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015) *'If Only Trayvon Had Freedom Papers', ''History News Network'', 16 July 2013:

References

External links

Official website

Stephanie Jones-Rogers
��UC Berkeley faculty profile
Stephanie Jones-Rogers
on Women Also Know History {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones-Rogers, Stephanie Living people American women historians Rutgers University alumni 21st-century American writers University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty Year of birth missing (living people) African-American women academics American women academics 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century American academics 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century American women writers 21st-century African-American writers African-American historians Historians from California Historians of African Americans