Directory

John R. Kaufman-McKivigan

Director of the Frederick Douglass Papers
Mary O’Brien Gibson Professor of History, Africana Studies
Department: Africana Studies, American Studies, History, Frederick Douglass Papers, Institute for American Thought (IAT)
(317) 274-5860
jmckivig@iu.edu
Cavanaugh Hall (CA) 344 A

Bio

Biography

I have been the Mary O’Brien Gibson Professor of History since July 1998.I was born in western Pennsylvania and attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania as an undergraduate, major in History. I did my graduate work at the Ohio State University, receiving both my M.A. and Ph.D. from that school. My academic interests at that time were focused around the U.S. Civil War era and I wrote a dissertation examining the abolitionists’ unsuccessful effort to convert the nation’s churches into militant antislavery institutions.

My first teaching job was at a number of junior colleges in Dallas and Tarrant (Fort Worth) counties in Texas. In 1979, I began my affiliation with the Frederick Douglass papers, when hired as assistant editor by the project’s direct, the eminent African American historian John W. Blassingame. While at Yale I taught also taught courses for the History department, including the Civil War and Reconstruction, long taught by C. Van Woodward, who I was privileged to get to know. I also began my publication career while at Yale when my first book The War against Proslavery Religion, based on my dissertation, came out from Cornell University Press.

A major formative experience occurred while I was working at Yale when I supported the successful strike by the university’s clerical and technical workers in 1984-85. I joined many progressive faculty and graduate students who refused to cross picket lines and instead moved classes off campus. I got to know Yale’s famed labor history David Montgomery and with some of his students I authored my second book On Strike for Respect, published originally by the radical Charles H. Hill Press and later picked up by the respected labor history series of by the University of Illinois Press. Inspired by these activities I developed a course entitled the History of Work in America that I still teach today.

In 1989, I left Yale to take a teaching position in the History department at West Virginia. While there I continue to work as consultant with the Frederick Douglass Papers, helping complete the project Speeches, Debates, and Interview series of volumes. In 1994, Blassingame agreed to my taking over his role as director of the Douglass Papers. I also coedited three new book-length collections of original essays on topics of nineteenth century history in the 1990s.

In 1998, I transferred the Douglass Paperers to IUPUI. Over the years there under my direction, the project has completed a three-volume Autobiographical Writing series and published three out of a planned volume Correspondence series and the first of a two-volume Journalism and Other Writings series. In recent years, the project has expanded its catalog by publishing three paperbacks: a critical edition of Douglass Narrative, a critical edition of his novella The Heroic Slave (with the editorial collaboration of Robert Levine and John Stauffer), and like a well-established rock band, a “Best Hits” volume of Douglass’s twenty most influential speeches. The Douglass Papers also sponsors a biannual symposium on Douglass’s life and times, publishes an annual interdisciplinary journal New North Star, and sponsors the Hoosiers reading Frederick Douglass Together program.

At IUPUI, I continue to teach the Civil War and Reconstruction and History of Work in America courses and have added new ones entitled “American Dissent!,” “Parties, Presidents, and Politics,” and “the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.” I enjoy working with graduate students as a thesis advisor and have mentored undergraduates in a years-long project to map Douglass’s speaking itinerary.

In scholarship at IUPUI, besides my many Douglass Papers volumes, I authored a biography of the nineteenth century American radical journalist James Redpath, published by Cornell University Press, and coedited an encyclopedia of American Antislavery and Abolition, published by ABC-CLIO. My most recently published book was Frederick Douglass in Britain and Ireland, published by The University of Edinburgh Press and coauthored with British historian Hannah-Rose Murray, Currently I am researching my next book contracted to Fordham University Press: The First Sixties: Frederick Douglass and the Radical Reconstruction of America.

Education

Education

  • Ph. D. The Ohio State University (December 1977)
  • Dissertation: “Abolitionism and the American Churches, 1830-1865: A Study in Attitudes and Tactics.”
  • Ph.D. Fields: Sectionalism, Civil War, and Reconstruction American Social History
    Jeffersonian and Jacksonian America
    19th and 20th Century British History
  • M.A. The Ohio State University (June 1973)
  • M.A. Thesis: “The Democracy of Columbus Ohio, During the Civil War.”
  • B.A. Indiana University of Pennsylvania (June 1971)
  • Graduate Newberry Library Institute on Quantitative History (Summer 1980)
  • Research Topic: “Schism: The Non-Ideological Factors Underlying the Factionalization of the American Antislavery Movement.”

Teaching

Teaching

My primary teaching is in the History Department but am also an adjunct instructor and offer courses cross-listed in the American Studies and Africana Studies programs. I regularly offer the following courses:

  • History 105: U.S. History to 1865
  • History 106: U.S. History since 1865
  • History 329: History of Work in America
  • History 328: American Dissent!
  • History 348: The Civil War and Reconstruction Era
  • History 376: The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
  • History 300: Presidents, Parties, and Politics in American History
  • History 421: The American Ethnic Experience

I also advise undergraduate and graduate students in independent tutorials and M.A. theses.

Publications

Publications

PUBLICATIONS: AUTHORED AND EDITED BOOKS: 

  1. The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series I:  Speeches, Debates, and Interviews, Volume II:  1847-1854. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982. With John W. Blassingame, et al. 
  2. The War against Proslavery Religion:  Abolitionism and the Northern Churches. Ithaca, N.Y.:  Cornell University Press, 1984. 
  3. The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series I:  Speeches, Debates, and Interviews, Volume III:  1855-1863. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985. With John W. Blassingame, et al. 
  4. On Strike for Respect:  A History of the Yale Clerical and Technical Workers’ Strike, 1984-85.  Chicago: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company, 1988. Revised edition; Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1994. With Toni Gilpin, Gary Isaac, and Dan Letwin.   
  5. The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series I:  Speeches, Debates, and Interviews, Volume IV: 1864-1880. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991. With John W. Blassingame et al. 
  6. The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series I:  Speeches, Debates, and Interviews, Volume V: 1881-1895. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992. With John W. Blassingame. 
  7. The Moment of Decision:  Essays on American Character and Regional Identity. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994.  Co-edited with Randall M. Miller. 
  8. James Redpath,The Roving Editor; or, Talks with Slaves in the Southern States. Edited by John R. McKivigan. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996. 
  9. Religion and the Antebellum Debate over Slavery. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998.  Co-edited with Mitchell Snay. 
  10. The Frederick Douglass Papers,Series II: Autobiographical Writings, Volume I: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999. With John W. Blassingame and Peter P. Hinks. 
  11. Antislavery Violence in Antebellum America: Essays on Sectional, Racial, and Cultural Conflict.Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1999. Co-edited with Stanley Harrold. 
  12. Abolitionism and the American Reform.New York: Garland Publishing Company, 1999. 
  13. Abolitionism and the American Religion.New York: Garland Publishing Company, 1999. 
  14. Abolitionism and the American Politics and Government.New York: Garland Publishing Company, 1999. 
  15. Abolitionism and Issues of Race and Gender. New York: Garland Publishing Company, 1999. 
  16. Abolitionism and the American Law. New York: Garland Publishing Company, 1999.
  17. The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series II:  Autobiographical Writings, Volume II: My Bondage and My Freedom.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. With John W. Blassingame and Peter P. Hinks. 
  18. Frederick Douglass: People Who Made History Series.San Diego, Calif: Greenhaven Press, 2003. 
  19. Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition. 2 vols. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishers, 2006. With Peter P. Hinks. 
  20. Forgotten Firebrand: James Redpath and the Making of Nineteenth-Century America. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2008. 
  21. The Frederick Douglass Papers,Series III:  Correspondence, Volume I: 1842-1852.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. With Peter P. Hinks and L. Diane Barnes. 
  22. The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series II:  Autobiographical Writings, Volume III: Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012.  
  23. In the Words of Frederick Douglass. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University, 2012. With Heather L. Kaufman.
  24. Frederick Douglass’s The Heroic Slave: A Cultural and Critical Edition.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015.  With Robert S. Levine and John Stauffer
  25. Antislavery and Abolition: An Historical Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic.Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2015. With Peter P. Hinks. 
  26. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.Critical Edition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016. With Peter P. Hincks and Heather L. Kaufman. 
  27. The Speeches of Frederick Douglass: Critical Edition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018. With Julie Husband and Heather L. Kaufman. 
  28. The Frederick Douglass Papers,Series III:  Correspondence, Volume 2: 1853-1865.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018. 
  29. Frederick Douglass in Britain and Ireland.(Edinburgh, Scot.: University of Edinburgh Press, 2021). With Hannah-Rose Murray. 
  30. The Frederick Douglass Papers,Series IV:  Journalism and Other Writing, Volume 1: Journalism and Other Writing.  New Haven: Yale University Press, forthcoming 2021.  
  31. The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series III:  Correspondence, Volume 3: 1853-1865.  New Haven: Yale University Press, forthcoming 2022. 

 PUBLICATIONS: SPECIAL ISSUES OF JOURNALS, EDITED AND COEDITED: 

 Journal of African American History.Vol. 99, no. 1-2 (Winter/Spring 2014). 

  1. Journal of African American History. Vol. 102 (Winter 2017). With Janes E. Schultz. 
  2. “Frederick Douglass’s Rhetorical Legacy,” Rhetoric Review, 37 (2018):1, 1-76. With Jonathan Rossing.
  3. Howard Journal of Communications. (2018) DOI:10.1080/10646175.2018.1461714.  With Jonthan Rossing. 
  4. New North Star. (2019)eISSN: 2693-1486 
  5. New North Star.(2020) eISSN: 2693-1486 

PUBLICATIONS: ARTICLES, ESSAYS, AND ENTRIES: 

  1. “The American Baptist FreeMission Society:  Abolitionist Reaction to the 1845 Baptist Schism.”  Foundations:  The Journal of the American Baptist Historical Society, 21 (October-December 1978): 340-55. 
  2. “The Christian Anti-Slavery Convention Movement of the Northwest.”The Old Northwest:  A Journal of Regional Life and Letters, 5 (October-December 1979): 345-66. 
  3. “The AntislaveryComeouter Sects: An Overlooked Abolitionist Strategy.” Civil War History, 26 (June 1980): 142-61. 
  4. “Prisoner of Conscience: The Reverend George Gordon and the Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law During the Civil War.”The Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society, 60 (Winter 1982):  336-54. 
  5. “’The Gospel Will Burst the Bonds of the Slaves’: The Abolitionists’ Bibles for Slaves Campaign.” Negro History Bulletin,45 (July-September 1982): 62-64, 77. 
  6. “The Ambivalent Six.” Reviews in American History, 11 (December 1983): 521-25. 
  7. “Vote As You Pray and Pray As You Vote:  Church-Oriented Abolitionists and Antislavery Politics” in Crusaders and Compromisers:  Essays on the Relationship of the Antislavery Struggle to the Antebellum Party System, edited by Alan M. Kraut. Westport, Conn.:  Greenwood Press, 1983. Pp. 179-203. 
  8. “’He Stands Like Jupiter’:  The Autobiography of Gerrit Smith.” New York History, 65 (April 1984):  188-200.  With Madeleine L. McKivigan. 
  9. “The Clerical and Technical Workers’ Strike at Yale University, 1984-1985: A Historical Perspective.”Newsletter of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, 13 (July/August 1985):  5-7. 
  10. “The ‘Black Dream’ ofGerrit Smith, New York Abolitionist.”  Courier: Journal of the Syracuse University Library, 20 (Fall-Winter 1985):  51-76.   With Madeleine Leveille. 
  11. “MonarchialLiberty and Republican Slavery:  West Indies Emancipation Day Celebrations in Upstate New York and Canada West.”  Afro-Americans in New York Life and History, 10 (January 1986):  7-18.  With Jason H. Silverman. 
  12. “James Redpath and Black Reaction to the Haitian Emigration Bureau.” Mid-America:  An Historical Review, 69 (October 1987):  139-53. 
  13. “Capturing the Oral Event:  Editing the Speeches of Frederick Douglass.” Documentary Editing, 10 (March 1988):  1-5. 
  14. “John Ball, Jr., alias ‘The Roving Editor,’ alias James Redpath.”Manuscripts, Part I: 40 (Fall 1988):  307-17; Part II: 41 (Winter 1989): 19-29. 
  15. “Henry Bibb” and “William and Ellen Craft” inThe Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery, eds. John David Smith and Randall M. Miller.  Westport, Conn.:  Greenwood Press, 1988.  Pp. 80-81, 153-54. 
  16. “Women in the Abolitionist Movement” inHandbook of American Women’s History, edited by Angela Howard Zophy.  New York:  Garland Publishing Company, 1990.  Pp. 4-5. 
  17. “The Frederick Douglass-Gerrit Smith Friendship:  A Biracial Alliance for Reform” inFrederick Douglass:  New Literary and Historical Essays, edited by Eric J. Sundquist.  Cambridge, Mass.:  Cambridge University Press, 1990. Pp. 205-32. 
  18. “James Redpath, John Brown, and Abolitionist Advocacy of Slave Insurrection.” Civil War History, 37(December 1991):  293-313. 
  19. “Frederick Douglass” and fourteen other entries inPolitical Parties and Elections in the United States:  An Encyclopedia, 2 vols., edited by L. Sandy Maisel.  New York:  Garland Publishing Company, 1991.  Pp. 1:3-5, 65, 100, 111, 271-73, 413-14, 420-21, 449-50, 462-63, 467-69, 584, 637-38, 2:1005-06. 
  20. “The Autobiography of William Wild Thayer: Boston Publisher and Abolitionist.”  Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 103(1991):  138-56. 
  21. “James Redpath inSouth Carolina: An Abolitionist Odyssey in the Reconstruction South” in The Historical Moment:  Essays on American Character and Regional Identity.  edited by Randall M. Miller and John R. McKivigan.  Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994.  Pp. 188-210. 
  22. “The Irish American Worker in Transition: New York City as a Test Case” in The New York Irish, edited by Ronald H. Bayor and Timothy J. Meagher.  New York:  Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. Pp. 301-30, 645-55. 
  23. “Making of a Carpetbagger:  The Military Career ofLiberty Billings.”  Northeast Florida History, 3(1996): 65-81. 
  24. “Frederick Douglass” and “John Brown” in theReader’s Guide to American History, edited by Peter Parish. Cambridge, Eng.: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1997. Pp. 75-76, 203-204.   
  25. “Christian Perspectives on Slavery.”  An entry forA Historical Guide to World Slavery, edited by Seymour Drescher and Stanley L. Engermann.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp. 152-55. 
  26. “TheNorthern Churches and the Moral Problem of Slavery” in The Meaning of Slavery in the North, edited by Marty Blatt and David R. Roediger.  Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998.  Pp. 77-94. 
  27. “Preface” forThe First Battle of Moorefield: Early’s Cavalry is Routed, by Stephen G. Smith.   Saline, Mich.: Blue and Grey Education Society, 1998.  Pp. 5-6. 
  28. “The Sectional Division of the Nation’s Churches as an Indicator of Northern Antislavery Sentiment.” inReligion and the Antebellum Debate over Slavery, edited by John McKivigan and Mitchell Snay. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998.  Pp. 343-63. 
  29. “Antislavery Movement.” An entry forAmerican Heritage Encyclopedia of American History, edited by John Mack Faragher.  New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1998.  Pp. 43-45. 
  30. “BaptistChurchand Slavery,” ”Morgan Godwyn,” “Irish Antislavery Society,” and “Massachusetts Antislavery Society,” “Methodist Episcopal Church and Slavery.”  Entries for the Macmillan Encyclopedia of World Slavery, edited by Paul Finkelman. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998. 
  31. “’His Soul Goes Marching On’: The Story of John Brown’s Followers after the Harpers Ferry’s Raid” inAntislavery Violence in Antebellum America: Essays on Sectional, Racial, and Cultural Conflict, edited by John R. McKivigan and Stanley Harrold. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1999.  Pp. 274-98. 
  32. “Charles Elliott,” “Myron Holley,” “Oliver Johnson,” “James Redpath,” and “Gerrit Smith” in The American National Biography, edited by John A. Garraty.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 
  33. “A Black Family in the Civil War,”Annotation: The Newsletter of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission 28(September 2000): 16-17. 
  34. “James H. Brown” inDictionary of Virginia Biography, edited by Edited by John T. Kneebone. Richmond:  Virginia State Library and Archive, 2001. Vol. 2:138-39.  
  35. “Harpers Ferryand John Brown.” An entry for the Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Paul Finkelman. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2001. Vol. 2:14-15. 
  36. “American Abolitionism.” An entry forAmericans at War: Society, Culture, and the Homefront, edited by John P. Resch and Sally G. McMillen. New York: Gale Centage Learning, 2004. Vol. 2. 
  37. “James Redpath.” An entry for the Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass. Edited by Paul Finkelman and L. Diana Barnes.New York: Oxford University Press, 2006). Pp. 3:16-18.  
  38. “American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society” and “James Redpath.” Entries forEncyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.2 vols. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishers, 2006. With Peter P. Hinks. Pp. 1:31-32, 2:567-68. 
  39. “Frederick Douglass.” An entry for theYale Biographical Dictionary of American Law, edited by Roger Newman. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. 9. 173. 
  40. “Howard Zinn and the Socially Conscious Academic.” International Journal of Social Education,24(Spring/Summer 2009): 27-32. 
  41. “Frederick Douglass and the Abolitionist Response to the Election of 1860” inThe Election of 1860, edited by A. James Fuller. Lexington, Ky.: University of Kentucky Press, 2013. 
  42. “Stalwart Douglass:Life and Times as Political Manifesto.” Journal of African American History, 99(Winter-Spring 2014): 46-55. 
  43. “Rediscovering the Life and Times of Fredrick Douglass.”Journal of African American History,99(Winter-Spring 2014): 4-11. 
  44. “Frederick Douglass.” An entry forAmerican Governance,edited by Stephen Schechter. Farmington, Mich. Gale/Centage Learning, 2016.  
  45. “Autographs for Freedom:The Heroic Slave’s Abolitionist Audience.”Journal of African American History. 102(Winter 2017): 35-51. With Rebecca A. Pattillo. 
  46. “The Heroic Slave: Frederick Douglass’s Foray into Fiction: Considering the Context of Recent Work onThe Heroic Slave.”Journal of African American History. 102(Winter 2017): 1-7. With Jane Schultz, 
  47. “Frederick Douglass’s Rhetorical Legacy.”Rhetoric Review, 37(January 2018): 1-5. With Jonathan Rossing. 
  48. “’A New Vocation before Me’: Frederick Douglass’s Post-Civil War Lyceum Career.”Howard Journal of Communications.29(July-September 2018): 268-81. 
  49. “Special Issue Introduction: Commemorating 200 Years since Frederick Douglass’s Birth,”Howard Journal of Communications.29(July-September 2018): 221-24. With Jonathan Rossing. 
  50. “Frederick Douglass’s Forgotten Autobiography,”New North Star, 1(Spring/ Summer 2018): 34-36.
  51. “The Most Wonderful Man That America Has Ever Produced”: Frederick Douglass and His Contemporary Biographer,”New North Star,2(2020): 33-44. 
  52. “Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C.” inFrederick Douglass in Context, edited by Michel Roy (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2020).

 PUBLICATIONS: REPRINTED ARTICLES:

  1. “The Antislavery ‘Comeouter’ Sects:  A Neglected Dimension of the Abolitionist Movement” in Articleson Slavery,Vol. 16, Religion and Slavery, ed. Paul Finkelman. New York:  Garland Publishing, Inc., 1989.  Pp. 406-25. 
  2. “The Christian Anti-Slavery Convention Movement of the Northwest” inHistory of the American Abolitionist Movement: A Bibliography of Scholarly Articles, Vol. 2, Abolitionism and American Religion, ed. John R. McKivigan.  New York:  Garland Publishing Company, 2000.  Pp. 145-66.   
  3. “The Antislavery ‘Comeouter’ Sects:  A Neglected Dimension of the Abolitionist Movement” inHistory of the American Abolitionist Movement: A Bibliography of Scholarly Articles, Vol. 2,Abolitionism and American Religion, ed. John R. McKivigan.  New York:  Garland Publishing Company, 2000.  Pp. 236-54. 
  4. “MonarchialLibertyand Republican Slavery:  West Indies Emancipation Day Celebrations in Upstate New York and Canada West.” in History of the American Abolitionist Movement: A Bibliography of Scholarly Articles, Vol. 4, Abolitionism and Issues of Race and Gender, ed. John R. McKivigan.  New York:  Garland Publishing Company, 2000.  Pp. 95-106. 

Awards

Awards

Over the years, I have received the following awards and grants:

  1. University Fellow, Ohio State University, 1971-72
  2. Grant-in-Aid, American Philosophical Society, 1983. $1,296.
  3. Distinguished Alumni Ambassador, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 1985.
  4. Research Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies, 1985. $12,500.
  5. Research Proposal Preparation Mini-Grant, College of the Arts and Sciences, West Virginia, 1990. $2,200. Declined.
  6. Senate Research Grant, West Virginia University, 1990. $3,580.
  7. Riggle Fellowship in the Humanities, College of the Arts and Sciences, West Virginia University, 91. $2,500.
  8. Radiological Consultants Association Faculty Development Summer Fellowship, West Virginia University, 1991. $5,000.
  9. Research Proposal Preparation Mini-Grant, College of the Arts and Sciences, West Virginia, 1992. $2,500.
  10. National Historical Records and Publications Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Autobiographical Writings of Frederick Douglass, March 1994-February 1995. $26,500.
  11. National Endowment for the Humanities, Grant for the Editing of the Correspondence of Frederick Douglass, June 1994-May 1996. $224,000.
  12. Senate Research Grant, West Virginia University, 1994. $5,000.
  13. National Historical Records and Publications Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Autobiographical Writings of Frederick Douglass, March 1995-February 1996. $22,500.
  14. National Historical Records and Publications Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Autobiographical Writings of Frederick Douglass, March 1996-February 1997. $29,121.
  15. Course Development Grant, Multicultural Studies Committee, West Virginia University, 1996. $2,500.
  16. Faculty Development Program Grant, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, West Virginia University, 1996. $500.
  17. National Historical Records and Publications Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Autobiographical Writings of Frederick Douglass, March 1997-June 1998. $31,500.
  18. National Endowment for the Humanities, Grant for the Editing of the Correspondence of Frederick Douglass, June 1997-July 1998. $105,532.
  19. National Historical Records and Publications Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Autobiographical Writings of Frederick Douglass, July 1998-June 1999. $45,524.
  20. National Endowment for the Humanities, Grant for the Editing of the Correspondence of Frederick Douglass, July 1998-June 1999. $146,230.
  21. Alliance of Distinguished Faculty of Indiana University, September 1998-Present.
  22. National Historical Records and Publications Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Autobiographical Writings of Frederick Douglass, July 1999-June 2000. $55,837.
  23. National Endowment for the Humanities, Grant for the Editing of the Correspondence of Frederick Douglass, July 1999-June 2002. $213,259.
  24. National Historical Records and Publications Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Autobiographical Writings of Frederick Douglass, July 2000-June 2001. $55,156.
  25. National Historical Records and Publications Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Autobiographical Writings of Frederick Douglass, July 2001-June 2002. $56,789.
  26. IUPUI School of Liberal Arts. Small Grant for Teaching Using New Technologies. January-December 2002. $4,729.
  27. National Historical Records and Publications Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Autobiographical Writings of Frederick Douglass, July 2002-June 2003.60,746.
  28. IUPUI Center for Teaching and Learning. Faculty Learning Community Member. August 2002-Present. $500.
  29. IU School of Liberal Arts. Small Grant for Teaching Using New Technologies. January-December 2002. $3,750
  30. National Endowment for the Humanities, Grant for the Editing of the Frederick Douglass Papers, July 2003-June 2004. $270,987.
  31. National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Frederick Douglass Papers, July 2003-June 2004. $63,107.
  32. IUPUI Office for Professional Development. Faculty-in-Residence. June 2003-August 2004. $5,000.
  33. National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Frederick Douglass Papers, July 2004-June 2005. $67,111.
  34. National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Frederick Douglass Papers, July 2005-June 2006. $59,468.
  35. National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Frederick Douglass Papers, July 2006-June 2008. $63,866.
  36. National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Frederick Douglass Papers, July 2008-June 2009. $158,564.88.
  37. National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Frederick Douglass Papers, July 2009-June 2012. $376,668.
  38. National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Frederick Douglass Papers, July 2012-June 2013. $57,844.
  39. Indiana Humanities. A Public Symposium: Rediscovering the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, 4-5 October 2012. $4,000.
  40. IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute. A Public Symposium: Rediscovering the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, 4-5 October 2012. $12,000.
  41. National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Frederick Douglass Papers, July 2013-June 2014. $57,844.
  42. New Currents. A Public Symposium: Frederick Douglass’s The Heroic Slave and the American Revolutionary Tradition, October 9-10, 2014. $22,000.
  43. Indiana Humanities. Frederick Douglass’s The Heroic Slave and the American Revolutionary Tradition, October 9-10, 2014. $4,000.
  44. IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute: “Frederick Douglass’s The Heroic Slave and the American Revolutionary Tradition, October 9-10, 2014. $4,000.
  45. National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Frederick Douglass Papers, July 2014-June 2015. $52,060.
  46. National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Frederick Douglass Papers, July 2015-June 2016. $57,844.
  47. New Currents. A Public Symposium: “Frederick Douglass and the Role of Oratory in African American Leadership,” October 20, 2016. $15,800.
  48. Indiana Humanities. “Fourth Annual Madame C.J. Walker/Frederick Douglass Public Workshop,” October 21, 2016. $4,000
  49. IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute. “Frederick Douglass and the Role of Oratory in African American Leadership,” October 20, 2016. $2,000,
  50. National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Frederick Douglass Papers, July 2016-June 2017. $57,266.
  51. National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Frederick Douglass Papers, July 2017-June 2018. $75,930.
  52. New Currents. A Public Symposium: “Frederick Douglass at 200: His Living Words,” October 25-26, 2018. $18,686.
  53. Indiana Humanities. “Frederick Douglass at 200: His Living Words,” October 25-26, 2018. $4,000.
  54. IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute. “Frederick Douglass at 200: His Living Words,” October 25-26, 2018. $2,000,
  55. National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Frederick Douglass Papers, July 2018-June 2019. $97,877.
  56. National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Frederick Douglass Papers, July 2019-June 2020. $118,363.
  57. Indiana Humanities. “Advancing Awareness of the Hoosiers Reading Frederick Douglass Together Program.” 2020-2021. $5,000.
  58. National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Frederick Douglass Papers, July 2020-June 2021. $120,000.
  59. Presidential Arts and Humanities Initiative Grant. “Race, Religion, and Politics in the Age of Frederick Douglass (and Donald Trump).” October 25-26, 2021.
  60. National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Grant for the Editing of the Frederick Douglass Papers, July 2021-June 2022. $123,450.