معرفی
Sharon Murphy is a Professor of History at Providence College, where she also serves as the Director of the Development of Western Civilization Program within the Department of History and Classics. Her research critically examines the entanglement of slavery with financial systems in 19th-century America, focusing on banking, insurance, and capital markets. Her work has received significant institutional support including grants from the American Philosophical Society.
- Ph.D. in History, University of Virginia, 2005
- M.A. in History, University of Virginia, 1999
- B.A. in History, University of Virginia, 1996
Professor Murphy's scholarship centers on how enslaved people functioned as financial collateral and how slavery underpinned the development of American capitalism. She investigates the role of banking institutions in financing southern expansion, the commodification of human life in financial markets, and the connections between slavery and modern financial systems. Her work bridges economic history, legal history, and critical race studies to expose slavery's foundational role in American finance.
Her recent publications reveal consistent patterns across three decades of research: a focus on slavery as financial infrastructure, the weaponization of debt against enslaved people, and the geographic expansion of slave-based finance. The 2023 monograph "Banking on Slavery" synthesizes this work, demonstrating how banks transformed enslaved bodies into liquid capital. Her articles analyze specific mechanisms like insurance underwriting, manufacturing finance, and banking panics to show how financial crises disproportionately impacted enslaved communities while enriching white creditors.
Professor Murphy's research has been funded by three major grants:
- "Banking on Slavery in the Antebellum South" (American Philosophical Society, July 2018–August 2018)
- "Banking on Slavery in the Antebellum South" (Committee on Aid to Faculty Research, January 2017–December 2018)
- "Banking on the Public's Trust: The Image of Commercial Banks in the Early American Republic" (Committee on Aid to Faculty Research, January 2010–December 2011)
