John Wesley Blassingame

John Wesley Blassingame (March 23, 1940 – February 13, 2000) was an American historian and pioneer in the study of slavery in the United States. He was the former chairman of the African-American studies program at Yale University. He edited the papers of Frederick Douglass, abolitionist and author.

Biography Blassingame was born on March 23, 1940, He received a bachelor's degree at Fort Valley State College (1960), a master's degree at Howard University (1961), and a master's degree (1968) and a doctorate (1971) at Yale University. His doctoral dissertation, written under the supervision of C. Vann Woodward, was titled A Social and Economic Study of the Negro in New Orleans, 1860–1880.

Blassingame taught at Howard University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Maryland, College Park.

From 1979 to 1999, Blassingame worked on editing the papers of Frederick Douglass and published six volumes of Douglass's papers and manuscripts. He also joined several writers in his work of editing and writing. He was a co-author with Mary F. Berry of Long Memory: The Black Experience in America (1982), and a co-editor with Louis Harlan of The Autobiographical Writings of Booker T. Washington (1972).

Blassingame died on February 13, 2000. According to his son, the cause of death was not known.

Works

New Perspectives on Black Studies, (1971) The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South (1972) Black New Orleans, 1860-1880 (1977) New Perspectives on Black Studies Long Memory: The Black Experience in America, (1981)