This past semester, Dr. Tera Hunter, Edwards Professor of American History and Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, visited campus to receive the Fourth Biennial Deep South Book Prize from the Summersell Center for the Study of the South for her book Bound in Wedlock: Slave and Free Black Marriage in the Nineteenth Century (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2017). Hunter presented a talk on her book and spoke with students at a luncheon.

In her book, Hunter analyzed the ways that African American couples created their own understanding of marriage while living under slavery and after Emancipation. She examines records from plantations as well as legal and court documents to see how these individuals and families shaped their marital identity in a time of oppression. These couples, Hunter argues, both conformed to and challenged white Christian norms pertaining to conjugal relationships.

Thank you for visiting, Dr. Hunter, and congratulations on winning the book prize!