A Documentarian of Slavery
Gwendolyn Midlo Hall / 1929–2022
Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, professor of history at Rutgers University–New Brunswick for more than 20 years (1971–1993), was a scholar of Latin American and African American history. She developed innovative methods for studying historical archives, shedding light on the abuses and legacy of slavery. Hall died last August at the age of 93. Although she wrote widely and held several teaching posts, her most notable achievement may be a database compiled after her retirement that identified more than 100,000 Africans enslaved in Louisiana. This and other contributions have influenced scholarship in genealogy, the African diaspora, United States history, and tracing cultural roots.