The Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has revealed the three finalists for the 2021 Harriet Tubman Prize, which honors the best nonfiction book on the slave trade, slavery, and anti-slavery in the Atlantic World published in the U.S. during the previous year. The winner, which will be announced in November, receives $7,500. The finalists are:
Tacky's Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War by Vincent Brown (Harvard University Press)
Hiding in Plain Sight: Black Women, the Law, and the Making of a White Argentine Republic by Erika Denise Edwards (University of Alabama Press)
Jamaica Ladies: Female Slaveholders and the Creation of Britain's Atlantic Empire by Christine Walker (UNC Press)
"This year's Harriet Tubman Prize competition has been quite exciting," said Dr. Michelle Commander, associate director and curator of the Lapidus Center. "I am in awe of the works produced by all of this year's nominees and am beyond thrilled for the field of slavery studies.The three finalists are phenomenal scholars whose books uncover lesser-known and compellingly told and researched stories regarding the ways that enslaved people asserted their agency as well as the surprising racial and gendered dynamics that animated Caribbean and South American societies during the era of slavery."