Margaret Washington 
Professor
Office: 305 McGraw Hall
Phone: (607) 255-6746
Fax: (607) 255-0469
E-Mail: mw26@cornell.edu
Links
Cornell University Africana Studies
Cornell University American Studies
Cornell University Religious Studies
Margaret Washington joined the Cornell history department in 1988 as associate professor. Her specialties are African American history and culture, African American women and Southern history. She is one of the foremost authorities on the black experience.
Washington's most recent major work is Sojourner Truth's America, published in 2009 with the University of Illinois Press. This definitive biography unravels Sojourner Truth's world within the broader panorama of American history, slavery and other significant reforms in the turbulent age of Abraham Lincoln. Sojourner Truth's America notably provides a unique lens into the unlikely ascendancy of a New York black woman and former slave who was unschooled, but became a rousing preacher and political orator. Margaret Washington has also published the only modern edition of The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, A Bondwoman of Olden Times (Vintage, 1993) that includes an original introduction, notes and textual annotation. Washington's numerous articles on black women include, "From Motives of Delicacy": Sexuality and Morality in the Narratives of Sojourner Truth and Harriet Jacobs, Journal of African American History, Winter, 2007, "'Rachel Weeping for Her Children': Black Women in the Abolition of Slavery," History Now, September, 2005; "'A'rn't I a Woman?'",American History Through Literature, 2005; and "Sojourner Truth, Shadow or Substance: Writing the Life of A Legend," Culturefront, Summer, 1993. Washington has written encyclopedia entries on Sojourner Truth, African-Dutch holidays in the North, Harriet Tubman, and on woman's rights.
Margaret Washington is also a specialist in Southern history and has written extensively on the Gullah people of South Carolina. Her book "A Peculiar People": Slave Religion and Community-culture among the Gullahs, New York University, 1988, is one of the most original and frequently cited works among scholars writing about black spirituality, resistance, and the cultural connections between Africans in America and those on the Continent. Washington's articles on Southern history include "Meaning of Scripture in Gullah Religion," in Vincent Wimbush, ed., African Americans and the Bible, Continuum Publications, 2000; "Anthropological Approaches and Studies of Folk culture," Encyclopedia of Social History, Scribers, 1993; "Community Regulation and Cultural "Specialization among the Gullahs," in Paul Johnson, ed., African-American Christianity: Eight Historical Essays, University of California Press, 1994; "Gullah Attitudes toward Life and Death: An African-Christian Synthesis," in Joseph Holloway, ed., Africanisms in American Culture, Indiana University Press, 1990. Washington has also written encyclopedia entries on the Gullah people and their culture.
Washington's awards include the Alice H. Cook and Constance E. Cook Award, Cornell University; Center for Humanities Senior Fellow Award, Wesleyan University, Middletown CT.; National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for University Teachers; Society for the Humanities Faculty Fellow, Cornell University and the Sierra Prize for "A Peculiar People" from the West Coast Association of Women's Historians.
Washington is dedicated to professional activism outside of the university and committed to public history. She is a frequent lecturer and panel participant at high schools, summer institutes, museums, the park service and local libraries. She has served on the New York State Humanities Council and National Endowment for the Humanities media panels. She currently serves on the board of advisors of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and has helped plan conferences and events to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth. She is presently organizing a summer institute on American women and the Civil War.
Professor Washington has been advisor and consultant for numerous PBS documentary films and film series. They include:
"Gettysburg: The Speech that Saved America," Discovery Channel, 2007.
"The USS Constellation and the Atlantic Slave Trade, History Channel, 2006.
"Unchained Memories: The Slave Narratives." HBO, 2002.
"JAZZ." Florentine Films by Ken Burns, 2001.
"This Far by Faith: Stories from the African American Religious Experience." Blackside films, 2003.
"America During the Lincoln Years." American Experience, WGBH Television, 2000.
"Fatal Flood." Stewart Gazit Productions, 2001.
"Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided." David Grubin Productions, 2000.
"John Brown's Holy War." WGBH Television, 1999.
"Africans in America." Roja Productions and WGBH Television, 1998.
"1900" David Grubin Productions, 1998.
"Liberty," Middlemarch Productions, 1996.
"When the Lion Wrote History: The Life of Frederick Douglass." WETA Television and Roja Productions, 1994.
Washington holds a B. A. from California State University, Sacramento, an M. A. from New York University, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis. She has taught history and culture at California State University, Sacramento, the University of California, Davis, the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, Irvine. She has been Director of Africana and Hispanic Studies at Colgate University.
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