Background

John Wesley Blassingame was born on March 23, 1940, in Covington, Georgia, United States. He was a son of Grady Blassingame and Odessa Blassingame.

Education

John attended Fort Valley State College (present-day Fort Valley State University), where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1960. He followed that with a Master of Arts degree from Howard University in 1961, as well as a Master of Arts degree in 1968 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1971, both from Yale University.

Career

Between 1961 and 1965, John served as an instructor at Howard University. Beginning in 1965 to 1970, he held a post of an associate in curriculum project at Carnegie-Mellon Foundation. During the short period, namely from 1968 till 1969, Blassingame served as an assistant editor at Booker T. Washington Papers.

In 1970, John accepted a position of a lecturer at Yale University, a post he held till 1971, when he was made an assistant professor there. In 1972, John was promoted to the post of an associate professor at the same educational establishment, a post he held till 1974, when he was appointed a history professor. He continued to serve as a professor of history, African-American studies and American Studies at Yale University until his death in 2000. In 1981, Blassingame was named a chairman of the African-American Studies department at Yale and maintained that position for eight years.

During his years at Yale, Blassingame wrote and edited several books. Among his best-known works are "New Perspectives on Black Studies" (1971), "The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South" (1972) and "Black New Orleans, 1860-1880" (1973).

Blassingame also edited books, that contained testimony from former slaves and six volumes of the papers of Frederick Douglass. Moreover, John collected slave letters, interviews and other materials in his "Slave Testimony: Two centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews and autobiographies" (1977), which include a large selection of annotated and authenticated accounts of slaves speaking for themselves during the slavery period of Thomas Jefferson, Robert E. Lee, Henry Clay and others.

Achievements

• John Wesley Blassingame gained prominence as a pioneer in the study of American slavery. Also, he authored several books, the most notable of which were the "New Perspectives on Black Studies" (1971), "The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South" (1972) and "Black New Orleans, 1860-1880" (1973).

Works

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• book

  • Long Memory: The Black Experience in America

    (This powerful, provocative survey is organized around the...)

    1982
  • Black New Orleans, 1860-1880

    (Reissued for the first time in over thirty years, "Black ...)

    1973
  • New Perspectives on Black Studies 1971
  • The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South 1972
  • Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews and Autobiographies 1977

Membership

During his lifetime, Blassingame was a member of different organizations, including the American Historical Association, Southern History Association, Phi Beta Sigma fraternity and the Phi Alpha Theta honor society, among others.

Connections

John was married to Teasie Jackson Blassingame. Their marriage produced two children - a son, John W. Blassingame Jr., and a daughter, Tia Marrie Blassingame.

Father:

Grady Blassingame

Mother:

Odessa Blassingame

child:

John W. Blassingame Jr.

child:

Tia Marrie Blassingame

Wife:

Teasie Jackson Blassingame