Beth Wilson

I am a historian of the nineteenth and twentieth century United States. My work has centred on the histories of slavery, exploring themes of emotions, gender, resistance and memory. Before joining the University of Warwick I was a Lecturer in American History at Cardiff University, and a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Universities of Reading and Oxford.

Research

My first book, I Felt All This: Enslaved People's Emotional Lives in the Antebellum US South was published by Cambridge University Press in 2026. Drawing on methods from the history of emotions to study enslaved people's lives, I Felt All This exposes the social, cultural and political role that emotion played in the US South. Exploring both individual and collective emotions, this book shows how enslaved people resisted white people's attempts to restrict their feelings and expressions by developing their own emotional ideals and expectations. Moving through case studies that examine a range of underexplored forms of testimony, the book introduces readers to slave narratives, letters, written interviews and recorded testimony to show that emotion was central to how enslaved people resisted, survived and remembered the system of slavery. You can hear more about this book on the podcast 'This Week in Black History, Society and Culture' https://thisweekinblackhistoryandsociety.buzzsprout.com/1285163/episodes/19901988-i-felt-all-this-a-conversation-with-beth-wilson

As part of my work into US slavery and emotions, I also co-edited (with Emily West) a special issue of Slavery and Abolition entitled 'Slavery and Emotions in the Atlantic World' which was also published as a book by Routledge in 2024.

I am currently working on two new projects. The first builds on my interest in gender, emotions and the archive to explore how enslaved people understood and experienced infertility in the antebellum US South. Through considering the experiences of women whose bodies were not ‘profitable’, this research will underline the intersecting forces of race, gender, and sex in shaping power dynamics in (and after) slavery. The second is a project to map, transcribe and analyse recorded testimonies with formerly enslaved people from the 1930s to make these available and usable for scholars and students of US slavery.

Publications

Monograph:

‘I Felt All This’: Enslaved People’s Emotional Lives in the Antebellum US South (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2026)

Articles:

‘Her Work of Love:’ Forced Separations, Maternal Grief, and Enslaved Mothers’ Emotional Practices in the Antebellum US South’, Slavery and Abolition, 45,1 (2024), 80-98.

“‘I ain' mad now and I know taint no use to lie’: Honesty, Anger and Emotional Resistance in Formerly Enslaved Women’s 1930s Testimony”, American Nineteenth Century History, 22.3 (2021), 307-316.

Journal Special Issue:

Slavery and Emotions in the Atlantic World Special Issue, Slavery and Abolition, 45,1 (2024), co-edited with Emily West.

Edited Collection:

Slavery and Emotions in the Atlantic World (Oxon: Routledge, 2025), co-edited with Emily West.

Teaching

This year at Warwick I teach on HI153: Making of the Modern World and contribute lectures to H111: A History of the United States and HI2K1: A History of Now.

In previous institutions I have developed, taught and convened numerous modules, including 'African American Resistance from Slavery to Black Lives Matter', 'Gender and US Slavery', 'The Atlantic World', and 'The Heritage of Slavery'.

Outreach

I am passionate about widening access to education and research, and have worked extensively in widening participation and youth participation, including at the University of Liverpool where I taught history skills, mentored young people, and helped run residential programmes to introduce students to university life. I have also worked as a Youth Participation consultant in the charity sector, co-producing research and policy reports with young people aged 18-25 into young people's experiences of food insecurity, including university students.