Tessa Murphy

• 2024 Spring
  • HST 302 Early American History
  • HST 600 Selected Topics - Borderlands&EmpiresfromtheMarg
• 2023 Fall
  • HST 101 American History to 1865
• 2023 Spring
  • HST 330 Slavery and Freedom in the Americas
• 2022 Spring
  • HST 496 Distinction Thesis in History
  • HST 804 First-Year Graduate Research Seminar
  • HST 600 Selected Topics - Readings in Atlantic History
  • HST 303 The Age of the American Revolution

Tessa Murphy’s research and teaching interests lie in the history of the colonial Americas, broadly defined to include the Caribbean, Central and South America, and what are now Canada and the United States. Her research has been supported by a number of institutions, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, France’s Institut National d’Études Démographiques, the John Carter Brown Library, the David Library of the American Revolution, and the Clements Library.

This support allowed her to pursue work on her first book, "The Creole Archipelago: Race and Borders in the Colonial Caribbean" (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021). The book traces British and French attempts to assimilate or remake colonial societies that evolved beyond the boundaries of European empire in the early modern Americas. “The Creole Archipelago,” a Choice Outstanding Academic Title, won the 2022 James A. Rawley Prize in Atlantic History from the American Historical Association, the 2023 Elsa Goveia Biennial Book Prize from the Association for Caribbean History, the Biennial Book Prize from the Forum on Early-Modern Empires and Global Interactions, and the 2022 Mary Alice and Philip Boucher Book Prize from the Society for French Colonial History. The book also earned Honorable Mention for the 2022 Gilbert Chinard Prize from the Society for French Historical Studies.”

She is now at work on a second book-length project that uses British colonial registries to shed light on the lives and genealogies of people enslaved on the plantation frontiers of the British Caribbean during the Age of Abolition. She offers courses on the colonial, revolutionary and early republican Americas; the Atlantic World; and comparative slavery and emancipation.

"Slavery & Big Data: New approaches to colonial records: New Directions Fellowship", Sponsored by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

"The Creole Archipelago: Race and Colonization in the Southern Caribbean, C. 1660-1797", Sponsored by National Endowment for the Humanities/Natl. Fndn. on the Arts & Humanities.

"Slavery in the Age of Abolition", Sponsored by Humanities Center, Syracuse University.

"Central New York Early Americas Consortium", Sponsored by CNY Humanities Corridor.

• Book
  • Murphy, T., The Creole Archipelago: Race and Borders in the Colonial Caribbean. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021.
• Journal Articles
  • Murphy, T., "Centering Slavery in the Age of Abolition: Insights from the Saint Lucia Register of Plantation Slaves, 1815." The William & Mary Quarterly, 2024.
  • Murphy, T., "A Reassertion of Rights: Fedon’s Rebellion, Grenada, 1795-96." La Révolution française, 2018.
• Book Chapters
  • Murphy, T., "Dominica as an Evolving Landscape: Evidence of changing social, political and economic organization in the eighteenth century." In Archaeology in Dominica: Everyday Ecologies and Economies at Morne Patate. Hauser, M., Wallman, D. (eds.) University of Florida Press, 2020.
  • Murphy, T., "Kalinago Colonizers: Indigenous People and the Settlement of the Lesser Antilles, 1635-1700." In The Torrid Zone: Caribbean Colonization and Cultural Interaction in the long Seventeenth Century. Roper, L. H. (ed.) University of South Carolina Press, 2018.
• Book Reviews
  • Murphy, T., "Review of Captives of Conquest: Slavery in the Early Modern Spanish Caribbean by Erin Woodruff Stone." Hispanic American Historical Review, 2022.
  • Murphy, T., "Review of In a Sea of Empires: Networks and Crossings in the Revolutionary Caribbean by Jeppe Mulich." Hispanic American Historical Review, 2021.
  • Murphy, T., "Review of The Freedom of Speech: Talk and Slavery in the Anglo-Caribbean World by Miles Ogborn." Slavery & Abolition, 2020.
  • Murphy, T., "Review of Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora by Kevin Dawson." Journal of the Early Republic, 2020.
  • Murphy, T., "Review of Plus Jamais Esclaves! De l’insoumission à la révolte, le grand récit d’une émancipation (1492-1838) by Aline Helg." The William & Mary Quarterly 3rd Edition, 2019.
  • Murphy, T., "Review of Dangerous Neighbors: Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America by James Alexander Dun." Slavery & Abolition, 2017.
  • Murphy, T., "New Geographies of the Atlantic World: Connecting Lusophone Africa and Spanish America." Almanack , 2016.
• Essay
  • Murphy, T., "The Best Books on the Early Indigenous Caribbean." Shepherd.com, 2024.

London Group of Historical Geographers, University College London, "Slavery in the Age of Abolition: A view from the St. Lucia Registry of Plantation Slaves, 1815" (November 21, 2023)

Early Modern Connected Histories Working Group, CNY Humanities Corridor, "The Interconnected Early Modern Caribbean: The Creole Archipelago" (September 9, 2023)

Empires & Atlantics Workshop, University of Chicago, "Slavery in the Age of Abolition: A View from the St. Lucia Registries" (May 8, 2023)

Reimagining Europe from its Peripheries Conference, Nanovic Institute for European Studies, University of Notre Dame, "Organizing Empire: The Creation of Slave Registries in British Crown Colonies" (April 28, 2023 - April 30, 2023)

Hamilton College Diversifying Collections Series, Hamilton College, "No ‘Forgotten Spot in the Caribbean': Preserving the Historical Record of Saint Kitts and Nevis" (March 30, 2023 - March 30, 2023)

Americas Seminar, University College London, "Rethinking Indigenous power in the colonial Caribbean: A View from the Lesser Antilles" (January 25, 2023)

David Nichol Smith Seminar, "Marine Worlds of the Eighteenth Century", "Centering Oars in the Age of Sail: Indigenous Maritime Worlds of the Eighteenth-century Caribbean" (December, 2022)

Latin American and Caribbean Section, Southern Historical Association, "New Approaches to the Early Modern Caribbean" (November, 2022)

“The Indigenous Circum-Caribbean.” Latin American and Caribbean Section, Southern Historical Association Conference (November, 2022)

Lowell Lecture Series “Beyond the 13: The American Revolution Outside the Emerging United States”, Paul Revere Memorial Association, "The Other Fourth of July: The American Revolution in the Lesser Antilles" (October, 2022)

Central New York Early Americas Consortium workshop, "From Demography to Biography: Reconsidering Registries of Enslaved People as Archival Sources" (May, 2022)

"Atlantic World Networks of Empire" Future Professoriate Conference, Syracuse University (April, 2022)

William & Mary Quarterly and Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation joint workshop, "From Demography to Biography: Reconsidering Registries of Enslaved People as Archival Sources" (April, 2022)

French Colonial Historical Society, "How to write academic book proposals" (April, 2022)

Center for Latin American Studies, University of Chicago, and the Seminary Co-op Bookstore, "The Creole Archipelago: Race and Borders in the Colonial Caribbean" (April, 2022)

Africa Initiative, Syracuse University, "From Kalinagos to Black Caribs: Racialization and Dispossession in the 18th century Caribbean" (March, 2022)

Bates College, "Afro-Indigenous Relations in the Lesser Antilles: Historical Narratives & Erasures in the Colonial Caribbean" (February, 2022)

Colonial Latin America History Section, American Historical Association, "Resisting Empire: Opposition to Colonial Expansion" (February, 2022)

Latin America and Caribbean Section, Southern Historical Association, "Kalinagos at the Edge of Empire: Indigenous People, the Catholic Church, and the French State in Eighteenth-Century St. Lucia" (November, 2021)

Mutiny on the Rising Sun: A conversation with Dr. Jared Ross Hardesty, Boston Public Library (November, 2021)

Negotiating with the Empire or Escaping it: Indigenous People, EnslavedAfricans, and Maroons in the Long Eighteenth Century, Latin America andCaribbean Section, Southern Historical Association (November, 2021)

Latin American and Caribbean Studies Seminar Series, Cornell University, "The Creole Archipelago: Race and Borders in the Colonial Caribbean" (November, 2021)

“Constructing Identities,” Future Professoriate Conference, Syracuse University (March, 2021)

Murphy, T., Schmitt, D., Central New York Humanities Corridor Early Americas Consortium, Cornell University (2021)

John Carter Brown Library, "The Creole Archipelago: Race and Colonization in the Eastern Caribbean, 1660-1797" (March, 2020)

Association of Caribbean Historians Annual Conference, "Constructing narratives of resistance: The invention & dispossession of the ‘Black Caribs’ of St. Vincent" (May, 2019)

“Creating Borders and Contesting Empires in the Colonial Caribbean,” Association of Caribbean Historians Annual Meeting (May, 2019)

History Department Future Professoriate Program, Syracuse University, "Organizing and Writing your Dissertation" (April, 2019)

Lees Seminar, Rutgers University, "Centering Slavery in the Ceded Islands, 1763-1773" (March, 2019)

Porter Fortune Symposium, University of Mississippi, "From Creole to African in the Ceded Islands: Experiencing Transformations in Slavery after the Seven Years’ War" (March, 2019)

“Commodification in the Atlantic World,” Future Professoriate Conference, Syracuse University (March, 2019)

Moynihan Research Workshop, Syracuse University (2017 - 2019)

Divided Loyalties: Slaves, Slavers, and Institutions in the 17th and 18th Century Atlantic World, American Historical Association (January, 2019)

Biennial Book Prize, Forum on Early-Modern Empires & Global Interactions (FEEGI) (2023)

Elsa Goveia Book Prize, Association of Caribbean Historians (2023)

Mary Alice and Philip Boucher Book Prize, French Colonial Historical Society (2023)

Outstanding academic title, Choice Magazine (2023)

Honorable Mention, Gilbert Chinard Prize, Society for French Historical Studies (2022)

James A. Rawley Prize in Atlantic History, American Historical Association (2022)

Daniel Patrick Moynihan Award for Excellence in Teaching & Research, Syracuse University (2021)

2018-2019 Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Teaching Recognition Award, Syracuse University (2019)