Banner image: Editor Matthew Pinsker and contributor Spencer Crew from a 2017 panel on “Teaching the Underground Railroad” hosted by the National Archives at Kansas City, Missouri. (C-SPAN)
H. ROBERT BAKER is an associate history professor at Georgia State University. He received his bachelor’s degree in history from Pomona College in California, his master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Manitoba, Canada, and his doctorate in history from University of California, Los Angeles. He authored two books: Prigg v. Pennsylvania: Slavery, the Supreme Court, and the Ambivalent Constitution (University Press of Kansas, 2012) and The Rescue of Joshua Glover: A Fugitive Slave, the Constitution, and the Coming of the Civil War. (Ohio University Press, 2006). His area of interest is the influence of historical consciousness on constitutional thinking, as well as the nature of constitutional change over time.
GORDON S. BARKER is a full professor of history at Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke , Quebec, Canada, where he specializes in African American, Revolutionary America, and Civil War Era history. He received undergraduate degrees in Economics and History from McGill University and his MA and PhD from the College of William and Mary. His works have appeared in leading scholarly journals such as the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography and the American Encyclopedia of Civil Liberties. He has authored two major books called Fugitive Slaves and the Unfinished American Revolution: Eight Cases, 1848-1856 (McFarland, 2013) and The Imperfect Revolution: Anthony Burns and the Landscape of Race in Antebellum America (The Kent State University Press, 2010) as well as several book chapters in edited volumes.
ALICE L. BAUMGARTNER teaches History at the University of Southern California. Baumgartner is the author of South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to Civil War (Basic Books, 2020), which was a New York Times’ Editors’ Choice and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times book prize in history. Baumgartner graduated from Yale University with a B.A in History, received an M.Phil in Latin American Studies from the University of Oxford, and completed her doctorate from Yale University.
R.J.M. BLACKETT is an emeritus professor of history at Vanderbilt University, where he held the Andrew Jackson Chair. He specializes in United States and Caribbean history, particularly their efforts to end slavery and racial discrimination. Previously, he was the visiting Harmsworth Professor at Oxford University and taught at the University of Pittsburgh, Indiana University, and the University of Houston. He received his bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Keele, England and his master’s degree in American Studies from the University of Manchester, England. He is the author of numerous books including The Captive’s Quest for Freedom and Fugitive Slaves, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, and the Politics of Slavery (Cambridge, 2018).
FERGUS M. BORDEWICH is an American historian who holds degrees from the City College of New York and Columbia University. His books include Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America (HarperCollins, 2005) which was selected as one of the American Booksellers Association’s “ten best nonfiction books” in 2005, and more recently Congress at War: How Republican Reformers Fought The Civil War, Defied Lincoln, Ended Slavery, And Remade America, (Knopf, 2020). His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, American Heritage, The Atlantic, Harper’s, New York Magazine, GEO, and Reader’s Digest, amongst others.
ROBERT H. CHURCHILL is Professor of History at Hillyer College at the University of Hartford where he teaches courses on American History, Global History, and Political Violence. At Brown University Churchill received a B.A. in History and a Masters in teaching; Churchill also holds a Ph.D. in Early American History from Rutgers University. Churchill’s publications include: To Shake Their Guns in the Tyrant’s Face: Libertarian Political Violence and the Origins of the Militia Movement (University of Michigan Press, 2009) and The Underground Railroad and the Geography of Violence in Antebellum America (Cambridge University Press, 2020).
ANTHONY COHEN is the creator of the Menare Foundation, a national non-profit that is dedicated to the preservation of Underground Railroad history, historic sites and environments, and the creation of vibrant educational programs. He received his bachelor’s degree in American Studies from American University. As part of his research, Cohen has walked the Underground Railroad on multiple occasions, the first time traveling over 1,200 miles by foot, boat, and rail. His journey caught the attention of numerous radio, television, and print sources such as C-SPAN and the Washington Post. He has served as a consultant to the National Parks Conservation Association, Maryland Public Television and NASA, among others, and trained Oprah Winfrey for her role as Sethe in the motion picture Beloved (1998).
SPENCER CREW is the Robinson Professor of US history at George Mason University. Crew received a PhD degree from Rutgers University in 1979 and in 2003, he was named to the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni. He served as president of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center for six years and worked at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution for twenty years. He became the first African-American director of the NMAH in 1994.
PAUL FINKELMAN is a noted American legal historian who has held several distinguished faculty positions. In 2024 he will hold the Boden Chair at Marquette University College of Law. He received his undergraduate degree in American studies from Syracuse University and his master’s degree and doctorate in American History from the University of Chicago. He was ranked among the most cited legal historians according to “Brian Leieter’s Law School Rankings.” Finkelman is the author of more than 200 scholarly articles and the author or editor of more than fifty books including An Imperfect Union (The University of North Carolina Press, 1981) and recently Supreme Injustice (Harvard University Press, 2018). His op-eds and shorter pieces have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, and on the Huffington Post.
ERIC FONER is the former DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. Foner has served as the president of the Organization of American Historians, American Historical Association, and Society of American Historians. He has also served as a consultant of several historical sites and museums for the National Park Service. Foner’s numerous publications include:The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery(Norton, 2010) and Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad (Norton, 2015). The Fiery Trial won the Pulitzer Prize for History, the Bancroft Prize, and The Lincoln Prize. Gateway to Freedom was awarded with the American History Book Prize by the New-York Historical Society.
KATHRYN GROVER is an independent researcher, writer, and editor in American social, ethnic, and local history. Grover’s publications include: Make A Way Somehow: African American Life in a Northern Community (Syracuse University Press, 1994); The Fugitive’s Gibraltar: Escaping Slaves and Abolitionism in New Bedford, Massachusetts (University of Massachusetts Press, 2001); The Brickyard: The Life, Death, and Legend of an Urban Neighborhood (Lynna Museum and Historical Society, 2004); and Rochester, New Hampshire, 1890–2010: “A Compact Little Industrial City” (Peter E. Randall, 2013); She is editor of New Jersey History of the New Jersey Historical Society. Grover has also published a Historic Resource Study of the antebellum African American community on the north slope of Beacon Hill for Boston African American National Historic Site.
STANLEY HARROLD is an emeritus professor of history at South Carolina State University. Harrold received a B.A. in history from Allegheny College, and holds a M.A. and Ph.D. in nineteenth century American history from Kent State University. Harrold received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities for two of his publications. Harrold is a coauthor and coeditor of the world’s bestselling African-American history textbook series, The African-American Odyssey (University Press of Florida). Harrold is also the editor of the high school version of the textbook, Southern Dissent, that consists of 28 books, six of them having won awards. Harrold was awarded with a faculty research award from the National Endowment for the Humanities for his book Border War: Fighting over Slavery before the Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2010).
KELLIE CARTER JACKSON is the Michael and Denise Kellen 68’ Associate Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. She is the author of the award-winning book, Force & Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence. Her essays have been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, NPR, and other outlets. Carter Jackson serves as a Historian-in-Residence for the Museum of African American History in Boston and is commissioner for the Massachusetts Historical Commission. She is the host and executive producer of “You Get a Podcast!: The Unauthorized Study of the Queen of Talk” and co-host of the Radiotopia podcast “This Day in Esoteric Political History.” Carter Jackson’s newest book is We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance to White Supremacy (Basic Books).
DÉANDA JOHNSON is currently the Civil Rights Historian with the National Park Service, Interior Region 2. She previously served as Midwest Regional Coordinator for the National Park Service Network to Freedom Program in Omaha, Nebraska. In that capacity, she worked with local, state, and federal entities, as well as other interested parties to preserve, promote, and educate the public about the history of the Underground Railroad. Previously, Johnson was the Coordinator of the African American Research and Service Institute at Ohio University and she also served as a visiting instructor in the Department of African American Studies. She received her BA from University of California, San Diego and her MA and PhD in American Studies from the College of William & Mary.
CHERYL JANIFER LAROCHE is an associate research professor at the University of Maryland who combines law, history, oral history, archaeology, geography, and material culture to define nineteenth century African American cultural landscapes and its relationship to the escape from slavery. She holds a PhD in American Studies with a concentration in Archaeology and African American history from the University of Maryland, College Park. She is the author of Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad: The Geography of Resistance (University of Illinois Press, 2014), which explores the landscapes of Black communities and their relationship to the Underground Railroad. She has consulted for Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, several National Park Service sites, the African Burial Ground Project and numerous museums, cultural institutions and historic sites.
KATE CLIFFORD LARSON is a historian and leading Harriet Tubman scholar who has taught at Simmons University in Boston, Massachusetts. After receiving undergraduate and master’s degrees from Simmons, she received her MBA at Northeastern and PhD at the University of New Hampshire. She is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author who wrote multiple books including Bound For the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero (One World, 2003) and The Assassin’s Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln (2008). Her work helped establish the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument which was approved by President Obama’s executive order.
CHANDRA MANNING is an American historian and Professor of History at Georgetown who specializes in 19th century US History. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College, received an M.Phil in Irish history and literature from the National University of Ireland, Galway, and a Ph.D. from Harvard in 2002. Her first book, What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War (Knopf, 2007) won the Avery O. Craven Prize awarded by the Organization of American Historians. Her second book, Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War (Knopf, 2016), about Civil War refugee camp, won the Jefferson Davis Prize awarded by the American Civil War Museum for best book on the Civil War.
DIANE MILLER served as the national program manager for the National Park Service, National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom from 1999 to 2023. Diane began her career at the NPS in 1984 working in the National Register of Historic Places programs. She received her MA in History from the University of Maryland and BA in both History and Anthropology from Ohio University. In December 2019 she received her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Her dissertation is “Wyandot, Shawnee, and African American Resistance to Slavery in Ohio and Kansas.”
CASSANDRA L. NEWBY-ALEXANDER is an associate professor of History at Norfolk State University and a dean at its College of Liberal Arts. Newby-Alexander also currently serves on the executive board of Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Board. Newby-Alexander was the co-chair of the Virginia Commission on African American History Education in the Commonwealth and Historical Commission of the Supreme Court of Virginia. Newby-Alexander received a B.A. in American Government and African American Studies at the University of Virginia and her Ph.D. in American History from the College of William and Mary, where she was a graduate teaching assistant and earned a teaching fellowship. Newby-Alexander is the author of Virginia Waterways and the Underground Railroad (The History Press, 2017) An African American History of the Civil War in Hampton Roads (Arcadia, 2010).
JAMES OAKES is an American historian and Distinguished Professor of History and Graduate School Humanities Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. An alumnus of Baruch College, Dr. Oakes holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California–Berkeley. Before coming to the Graduate Center, he taught at Princeton and Northwestern Universities. His pioneering books include The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics (W.W. Norton, 2007); and Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861–1865 (W.W. Norton, 2012). His most recent book is The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution (W.W. Norton, 2021).
DAMIAN ALAN PARGAS is the Professor of History and Culture of North America at Leiden University in the Netherlands and executive director of the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies in Middelburg. Pargas studied social history at Leiden University, receiving his MA and PhD. Pargas has written multiple books and several articles on American slavery, slave family-life, and slave migration in the 19thcentury. His most recent monograph is Freedom Seekers: Fugitive Slaves in North America, 1800-1860 (Cambridge, 2022). Additionally, Pargas is a board member of the Netherlands American Studies Association as well as founder and chief editor of theJournal of American History. Pargas supervises the NOW project “Newcomers in Chains: Slave Migrants in the Antebellum South, 1820-1865.”
MATTHEW PINSKER holds the Brian Pohanka Chair of Civil War History at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and serves as Director of the House Divided Project, an innovative effort to build digital resources on the Civil War era. Pinsker has previously held visiting fellowships at New America Foundation, US Army War College and the National Constitution Center. Pinsker directs the Slave Stampedes on the Southern Borderlands initiative in partnership with the National Park Service Network to Freedom. He is the author of two books on Abraham Lincoln and numerous articles on various topics in the Civil War Era, including on the Underground Railroad and resistance to slavery. Pinsker graduated from Harvard College and received a D.Phil. degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford. He often leads K-12 teacher-training workshops on the Underground Railroad for organizations such as the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Pinsker currently serves the Organization of American Historians (OAH) as a “Distinguished Lecturer” and sits on the advisory boards of several historic organizations, including Ford’s Theatre Society, Gettysburg Foundation, National Civil War Museum, President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home, and the Thaddeus Stevens-Lydia Hamilton Smith site in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
MANISHA SINHAis an Indian-born American historian and the Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut. She received her PhD from Columbia University and is the recipient of numerous fellowships, including from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Mellon Foundation. Sinha has authored multiple books includingThe Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition(Yale University Press, 2016) which won the Frederick Douglass Book Prize. She also wrote,The Counterrevolution of Slavery: Politics and Ideology in Antebellum South Carolina(University of North Carolina Press, 2000), which was named one of the ten best books on slavery by Politico. She has also written for many well-known sources including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post and served as an advisor and expert for the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary,The Abolitionists.