The American Council of Learned Societies has awarded Sue Peabody, professor of history at Washington State University Vancouver, a research fellowship to complete her book “Slavery and Emancipation in the Indian Ocean World: A Family Biography.” The $65,000 ACLS fellowship will allow Peabody to write during her 2013-2014 sabbatical leave.
One of 65 scholars to be selected for the fellowship out of more than 1,100 applicants nationwide, Peabody was chosen for her scholarly record, the potential of her project to advance her field of study and the quality of her proposal. Research for this project has already taken Peabody to archives in Paris, London, and the Indian Ocean islands of La Réunion and Mauritius. She will travel this spring to Paris and Aix-en-Provence, France through WSU’s Edward G. Meyer Professor of Liberal Arts fellowship.
Peabody’s book collects the life stories of Madeleine – a woman sold into slavery in 18th century Bengal – and her children living in slavery in the French and British colonies of Île Bourbon and Mauritius. Using rare historical documents, including letters by Madeleine’s son, Furcy, Peabody has constructed a historical narrative of the changing world of slavery and freedom from 1750 to 1850.
