About
Nicholas Crawford serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Sam Houston State University, specializing in the intersections of slavery, food systems, and freedom in eighteenth and nineteenth century North America and the Caribbean.
Education:
- Ph.D. in History, Harvard University, 2016
- M.A. in History, Harvard University, 2011
- B.A., Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York University, 2005
Research Focus: Dr. Crawford's scholarship examines how food provisioning shaped power dynamics and resistance in slave societies. His current book project, Sustaining Slavery: Food, Provisioning, Power, and Protest in the British Caribbean, 1788-1838, analyzes enslaved people's use of food as a tool of protest within British colonial contexts. His work bridges Atlantic World history, economic systems, and cultural studies.
Recognition:
- Gilder-Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition Fellowship
- Huntington Library Fellowship
- John Carter Brown Library Fellowship
- Library Company of Philadelphia Fellowship
Academic Contributions: Dr. Crawford teaches foundational courses including US History to 1876 and specialized offerings like History of American Slavery. His publications in Early American Studies and Slavery & Abolition demonstrate rigorous archival research supported by major institutional fellowships. Prior to SHSU, he held postdoctoral positions at Washington University in St. Louis and taught at Brooklyn College.
