Harvey Amani Whitfield

Harvey Amani Whitfield is a Professor and Centennial Carnegie Chair in the History of Slavery in Canada at the University of King's College. His research focuses on Black migration, coerced and free, to the Maritimes during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He previously held positions at the University of Vermont and the University of Calgary. Whitfield holds a BA from Colorado State University, MA and PhD from Dalhousie University. His work emphasizes uncovering the histories of enslaved Black people through fragmented archival records and challenges traditional narratives of Canadian exceptionalism regarding slavery.

Key publications include Blacks on the Border: The Black Refugees in British North America, 1815-1860 (2006), North to Bondage: Loyalist Slavery in the Maritimes (2016), and the award-winning Biographical Dictionary of Enslaved Black People in the Maritimes (2022), which won the Canadian Historical Association’s Clio Prize for the Atlantic Region. His articles critically examine legal frameworks of enslavement, runaway patterns, and the intersection of race, law, and memory in colonial contexts.

• Education:
  • PhD in History, Dalhousie University
  • MA in History, Dalhousie University
  • BA (Magna Cum Laude), Colorado State University

Whitfield’s research also explores the transatlantic dimensions of Black migration and the legacies of slavery in Canadian historiography. He advocates for inclusive archival practices to amplify marginalized voices in historical narratives. His current projects likely continue to interrogate underrepresented histories of enslavement and resistance in the Maritimes.