Sydney Harold Nathans (born May 24, 1940) is an American historian who is a professor emeritus at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

and has written several history books including ''To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker'' and ''A Mind to Stay: White Plantation, Black Homeland''.

Early life and education

Nathans was born on May 24, 1940. By the age of eight, his family (consisting of his merchant father, mother, and sister), had lived in five different states. He was educated at San Jacinto High School in Texas, where he won the 1958 National High School Oratorical Contest.

Career

Upon earning his PhD, Nathans accepted a faculty appointment in

's history department. He published his first book in 1973 titled ''Daniel Webster and Jacksonian Democracy'' through the

Johns Hopkins University Press The Johns Hopkins University Press (also referred to as JHU Press or JHUP) is the publishing division of Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and is the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The press publi ...

. The book focused on the establishment of the political party Whig and one of its founders,

Daniel Webster Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison, ...

. In 1978, Nathans travelled across

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

to see if he could locate descendants of enslaved African Americans in order to gain a better understanding of the Great Migration. There, he encountered Alice Hargress, whose story he based his book on titled ''A Mind to Stay: White Plantation, Black Homeland.'' Hargress described the migration of 114 black slaves from North Carolina to a 1600-acre plantation in Alabama where they eventually purchased their freedom. He received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1980 to assist in his research. In 1984, Nathans edited the

University of North Carolina Press The University of North Carolina Press (or UNC Press), founded in 1922, is a university press that is part of the University of North Carolina. It was the first university press founded in the Southern United States. It is a member of the Ass ...

and NC Division of Archives and History five-volume series ''The Way We Lived in North Carolina,'' which received the

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...

's James Harvey Robinson Prize. A few years later, he continued his research into the history of black migration in America by following the story of Mary Walker in

Glastonbury, Connecticut Glastonbury ( ) is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, formally founded in 1693 and first settled in 1636. It was named after Glastonbury in Somerset, England. Glastonbury is on the banks of the Connecticut River, southeast o ...

. Nathan came into contact with Walker's descendants and wrote her story of escaping slavery in his 2012 book ''To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker''. It would go on to receive the 2013

Frederick Douglass Prize The Frederick Douglass Book Prize is awarded annually by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University Yale University is a Private unive ...

from the

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History was founded in New York City by businessmen-philanthropists Richard Gilder and Lewis E. Lehrman in 1994 to promote the study and interest in American history. The Institute serves teachers, studen ...

as "the best book written in English on slavery or abolition."

Selected publications

*''Daniel Webster and Jacksonian Democracy.'' The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973. *''The Quest for Progress: The Way We Lived in North Carolina, 1870-1920.'' University of North Carolina Press, 1983. *''To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker.'' Harvard University Press, 2012. *''A Mind to Stay: White Plantation, Black Homeland.'' Harvard University Press, 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nathans, Sydney Living people 1940 births Johns Hopkins University alumni Duke University faculty African-American historians Historians of the American Civil War 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century American academics 20th-century African-American academics 20th-century American academics American male non-fiction writers