Remembering a Great Scholar: Dr. Ira Berlin
It is with deep sorrow that we say farewell to an extraordinary scholar and historian, Ira Berlin, whose groundbreaking work left a tremendous impact on studies of slavery and race in America. Among many of his inspiring books, Dr. Berlin wrote award-winning Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South (1975), Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in Mainland North America (1998), Generations of Captivity: A History of Slaves in the United States (2003), and The Making of An African America (2010). He was the founding editor and director of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project, served as president of the Organization of American Historians, and served as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 2008, Dr. Berlin was one of our honored guest speakers. He gave a talk on “The Closing of the Slave Trade and the Transformation in the US.” It was an honor to have this great scholar speak to BU students and faculty about his fascinating work. We would like to express our deep condolences to his family and friends. Through his scholarly legacy, research, and many accomplishments, Dr. Berlin and his work have forever made an impact and will continue to do so in studies of slavery and the question of race in America.
