Heather A. Williams

Last updated
Heather A. Williams
Alma mater Saint Ann's School
Harvard College
Harvard Law School
OccupationProfessor
Employer University of Pennsylvania
Notable work Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom
Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery
TitlePresidential Professor and Professor of Africana Studies

Heather A. Williams is a scholar of African American studies and lawyer. She serves as Presidential Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. [1]

Heather Andrea Williams moved to the United States from Jamaica when she was 11 years old. [2] She attended Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn, New York, [2] then Harvard College, graduating in 1978, then earned a J.D. from Harvard in 1981. She practiced law in the public sector, serving as an assistant attorney general and section chief for the State of New York and as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. [3]

After teaching history at Saint Ann's School for two years, [2] she earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University [4] in 2002. [3] She was a post-doctoral fellow at Smith College for two years, then taught in the history department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 2004 to 2014, when she was named Presidential Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. [3]

Her book Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery (2012), about ads placed after emancipation to reunify families, was described as "a superbly researched and engaging analysis" by John G. Cox, though Williams's writing was criticized for engaging "only very slightly with extant scholarship". [5]

Works

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After the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, emancipated African Americans searched for their lost families and placed want ads to reunify with them.

References

  1. ↑ "Heather A. Williams | Africana Studies". africana.sas.upenn.edu. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 Feiner, Lauren (May 10, 2014). "Historian to join Africana Studies department as a Presidential Professor". The Daily Pennsylvanian. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
  3. 1 2 3 Mott, Amanda (April 30, 2014). "Heather Williams Appointed Sixth Presidential Professor at Penn". news.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2017-08-25.
  4. ↑ "Heather Williams: " 'What I Came to Say': Writing Help Me to Find My People" | Department of African American Studies". afamstudies.yale.edu. Retrieved 2017-08-25.
  5. ↑ Cox, David G. (2 January 2014). "Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery". American Nineteenth Century History. 15 (1): 102–104. doi:10.1080/14664658.2014.893096. S2CID   144561214.
  6. ↑ Ayatey, Shirley A. (2006). "Review of Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom". Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association. 47 (1): 120–124. JSTOR   4234173.
  7. ↑ Bernstein, Robin (2009-02-21). "Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom (review)". Southern Cultures. 15 (1): 87–89. doi:10.1353/scu.0.0047. ISSN   1534-1488. S2CID   149949374.
  8. ↑ Mintz, Steven (2007-10-02). "Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom (review)". Civil War History. 53 (1): 94–96. doi:10.1353/cwh.2007.0022. ISSN   1533-6271.
  9. ↑ Rousmaniere, Kate (2007-11-01). "Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom by Heather Andrea Williams". History of Education Quarterly. 47 (4): 532–534. doi:10.1111/j.1748-5959.2007.00120.x. ISSN   1748-5959. S2CID   143801231.
  10. ↑ Troupe, Carol (2006-02-01). "Heather Andrea Williams, Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom". Black Theology. 4 (2): 240–242. doi:10.1179/blt.4.2.l61v08t6t417j560. ISSN   1476-9948. S2CID   144410638.
  11. ↑ King, W. (2006-04-01). "HEATHER ANDREA WILLIAMS. Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom. (John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture.) Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2005. Pp. xiii, 304. $29.95". The American Historical Review. 111 (2): 484–485. doi:10.1086/ahr.111.2.484. ISSN   0002-8762.
  12. ↑ Margo, Robert A. (June 2005). "Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom. By Heather Andrea Williams. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Pp xii, 304. $29.95. -". The Journal of Economic History. 65 (2): 590–591. doi:10.1017/S0022050705290228. ISSN   1471-6372. S2CID   153567180.
  13. ↑ Chakkalakal, Tess (2014-02-08). "Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery by Heather Andrea Williams (review)". The Journal of the Civil War Era. 4 (1): 126–129. doi:10.1353/cwe.2014.0007. ISSN   2159-9807. S2CID   162368817.
  14. ↑ Perry, Imani (2012-06-29). "'Help Me to Find My People,' by Heather Andrea Williams". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2017-08-25.
  15. ↑ Hager, Christopher (2014-03-04). "Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery by Heather Andrea Williams (review)". Civil War History. 60 (1): 92–93. doi:10.1353/cwh.2014.0009. ISSN   1533-6271.
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