author
Ulrich Bonnell Phillips
1877–1934
A pioneering historian of the American South, he became one of the earliest major scholars to study plantation life and slavery as economic and social systems. His work was highly influential in its time and remains important today partly because later historians have vigorously debated and revised it.
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About the author
Born in LaGrange, Georgia, in 1877, Ulrich Bonnell Phillips built his career around the history of the antebellum South. He studied at the University of Georgia and completed doctoral work at the University of Chicago, then went on to teach at the University of Wisconsin, Tulane University, and Yale.
Phillips became widely known for shaping early scholarship on Southern plantations and slavery. Works such as American Negro Slavery helped define the field for a generation, and he was often described as a leading authority on the Old South.
At the same time, his interpretations were deeply tied to the racial assumptions of his era, so his books are now read with both historical interest and caution. That mix of influence and controversy is a big part of why he still matters in conversations about how American history has been written.