Dr Edward Mair

I am a historian of slavery in North America, focussing on the relationship between Indigenous peoples and unfree labour. I have previously held lecturing positions at Liverpool John Moores University and the University of York. I completed my PhD at the University of Hull, being associated with the Wilberforce Institute for Slavery and Emancipation.
For the 2024-5 academic year, I am teaching on the following papers:
- Part 1A, O9 North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, 1775-Present
- Part 1B, RP5 Research Paper
- Part II, Special Subject Empires and the American Imagination, c. 1763- c. 1900
- History and Politics Tripos, Evidence and Arguments
My research has primarily focussed on the Florida Seminoles in the early nineteenth century, having articles published in American Nineteenth Century History and Ethnohistory. I am currently finalising my first monograph, tentatively titled Seminoles, Settlers and Slavery in the Florida Borderlands, 1790-1837. This monograph critically reasses the role of slavery in Seminole society and unpacks the uneasy alliance that existed between Seminole Indians and Seminole Maroons (free Black communities that existed in Florida). Placed in the context of the expanding American empire, this monograph offers a significant contribution to community formation in the borderlands of North America. This project has been financially supported by the British Association for American Studies (BAAS) and British American Nineteenth Century Historians (BrANCH).
I am also beginning a new project on the use of Indigenous peoples in the works of abolitionists. For this project, I have been awarded a Huntington Library Fellowship which I will take up in 2025. Concurrent to my research projects, I am co-editing a four volume documentary series on American imperialism entitled American Imperialism in the Long Nineteenth Century: A Documentary History, 1775–1919, which is under contract with Routledge.
Contact
Tags & Themes
Trinity Hall
Cambridge CB2 1TJ