The Life of John Peters with Cornelia Dayton
On this episode of Historians & Their Histories, we speak with Cornelia H. Dayton, Professor of History at the University of Connecticut. Prof. Dayton discusses her research into the life of John Peters, the husband of acclaimed poet Phillis Wheatley. We also learn about her path to becoming an historian, her early interest in constitutional law, and the challenges of researching subaltern subjects, such as Peters, who left few firsthand accounts.
Prof. Dayton is a 2024-2025 recipient of the MHS-NEH long-term fellowship.
To learn more about MHS fellowships and how to apply, please visit this page.
Episode Special Guest:
Cornelia H. Dayton is a Professor of History at the University of Connecticut specializing in colonial and early America. Her current project is a biography of John Peters, who lived in Boston in the late eighteenth century. In this work, she uses legal records to reconstruct Peters’ life and challenge the historically negative descriptions of him, providing a glimpse into the life of a free Black man navigating society during the revolutionary era.
This episode uses materials from:
Colocate by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported)
