"Black Elders: The Meaning of Age in American Slavery and Freedom"

Thu, 06 Nov, 2025 at 05:30 pm UTC-06:00

University of Memphis University Center | Memphis

Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities
Publisher/HostMarcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities
"Black Elders: The Meaning of Age in American Slavery and Freedom"
Advertisement
Join us for the annual Belle McWilliams Lecture, co-sponsored with the Department of History. As always, free and open to all!
Full details: https://www.memphis.edu/moch/events/index.php#HISTORY
Frederick Knight // Howard University
Belle McWilliams Lecture Series
Thursday, November 6, 2025
5:30pm Reception // 6:00pm Lecture
Maxine Smith University Center River Room (UC 342)
Dr. Knight will explore the pivotal role that elders played in African American families and communities through Reconstruction. Drawing on a wide range of printed and archival materials from the period, he will also examine how black and white Southerners used competing ideas about age to forge kinship, community, and freedom over the nineteenth century.
Frederick Knight is an expert on early African American and African Diaspora history. He is the author of Black Elders: The Meaning of Age in American Slavery and Freedom (Penn Press, 2024), which argues that elders were central to African American community formation through Reconstruction. The book also demonstrates how whites and blacks mobilized competing ideas about age to exercise power from the era of slavery through the period of emancipation in the United States. His first book Working the Diaspora: The Impact of African Labor on the Anglo-American World, 1650-1850 (NYU Press, 2010) traces how Africans, though carried across the Atlantic against their wills, drew upon knowledge from their homelands to shape the agricultural and material worlds of New World slave labor camps. He has published scholarly articles and book chapters on black history, and his work has appeared in the Journal of Negro History, the Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, The History Transactions of Ghana, Early American Studies, the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, and The Conversation.
Advertisement

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

University of Memphis University Center, Memphis, Tennessee, United States

Sharing is Caring:

More Events in Memphis

Commercial Horn Masterclass with Paul McKinney
Wed, 05 Nov at 05:30 pm Commercial Horn Masterclass with Paul McKinney

Stax Music Academy

Stavros Halkias
Wed, 05 Nov at 06:00 pm Stavros Halkias

Graceland Soundstage

Houston Rockets at Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum
Wed, 05 Nov at 07:00 pm Houston Rockets at Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum

FedExForum

Parking Houston Rockets at Memphis Grizzlies
Thu, 06 Nov at 01:00 am Parking Houston Rockets at Memphis Grizzlies

FedExForum

Open House
Thu, 06 Nov at 05:00 pm Open House

4730 Poplar Avenue #5, Memphis, TN

Memphis Tigers vs. Tulane Green Wave
Thu, 06 Nov at 06:00 pm Memphis Tigers vs. Tulane Green Wave

Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium

NBA Cup: Memphis Grizzlies vs. Dallas Mavericks
Thu, 06 Nov at 06:00 pm NBA Cup: Memphis Grizzlies vs. Dallas Mavericks

FedExForum

Shakey Graves
Thu, 06 Nov Shakey Graves

Minglewood Hall

Piano Studio Recital
Thu, 06 Nov at 06:00 pm Piano Studio Recital

1971 Jackson Ave

4th Annual Southern Supper
Thu, 06 Nov at 06:30 pm 4th Annual Southern Supper

Memphis Country Club

Tour: Beauty Standards and Fashion Evolution
Thu, 06 Nov at 06:30 pm Tour: Beauty Standards and Fashion Evolution

1934 Poplar Ave, Memphis, TN, United States, Tennessee 38104

Memphis is Happening!

Never miss your favorite happenings again!

Explore Memphis Events