Professor Barbara Krauthamer discusses her book, Black Slaves, Indian Masters, which examines the role of slavery in the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations. She explores the tensions brought these Native American tribes by missionaries, trade, and the “civilizing” project of Euro-Americans. The role of slavery as a form of assimilation which Native Americans hoped would enrich them as well as protect their territorial sovereignty. This complicated history is illustrated with all the contradictions and failures which resonate, still, today.
Barbara Krauthamer, professor of history and Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the author of the book, Black Slaves, Indian Masters: Slavery, Emancipation, and Citizenship in the Native American South. She appears in the award-winning documentary film Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People. Her research and books have been profiled in many media outlets, including the New York Times, CBS Evening News, National Public Radio, Pacifica Radio, and CNN as well as in media outlets in the U.K., France and Italy.