Meyer Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and History<\/em><\/p>\n History is a story we tell ourselves about who we are. <\/em>I love this definition for two reasons. First, it emphasizes the story-telling\u00a0<\/em>inherent in all histories. That is, histories are invented and crafted to engage particular audiences. That doesn’t mean that they are entirely fictive — indeed, professional historians go to great length to argue and prove the truth of their stories — but at the heart of a good history are great characters and plot. Second, the emphasis on we<\/em> asks us about the boundaries of identity. Who are the “we” in our histories and who are the “they”? How do the stories that we tell implicate us in our relationships to humanity and the rest of the planet?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Historical research uses archival and published documents to recover the lives and perspectives of the past. My research traces the experience of people of color, often enslaved, as they navigated changing and contradictory French laws and from the Old Regime through the Revolution to general emancipation in 1848. I have explored France\u2019s Free Soil principle back to the sixteenth century and its gradual erosion in the eighteenth, thanks to pressure by colonial elites who sought to bring their enslaved domestic servants and family members to the metropole. My biography of Furcy Madeleine, translated into French, and brought to the Francophone public in debates, documentaries, museum exhibits, and media, shows the wide gulf between prescriptive law and lived practice, and the fragile nature of justice.<\/p>\n In 2025-2026, Dr. Peabody\u2019s sabbatical research has been awarded a Humboldt Research Award<\/a> in recognition of her academic achievements. She will spend two months at the Universit\u00e4t Bremen and four months in Berlin working with Prof. Dr. Rebekka von Mallinckrodt on the presence of enslaved and free people of color in early modern Europe. Additional research has been funded by the American Historical Association\u2019s Bernadotte Schmidt Prize, Yale University\u2019s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition, the American Philosophical Society, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Camargo Foundation; l\u2019Association historique internationale de l\u2019oc\u00e9an Indien (AHIOI), Centre de recherches sur les soci\u00e9t\u00e9s de l\u2019oc\u00e9an Indien (CRESOI), Le Morne Heritage Trust Fund, The Ministry of Arts and Culture Centre for Research on Slavery and Indenture, University of Mauritius; the Nelson Mandela Center for African Culture; l\u2019Institut des mondes africains; the University of Iowa, Washington State University, the Edward R. Meyer Professorship, as well as conferences sponsored by universities and organizations too numerous to list, have taken me to France, Brazil, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion, Mauritius, Canada, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Les enfants de Madeleine. Famille, libert\u00e9, secrets et mensonges dans les colonies fran\u00e7aises de l’oc\u00e9an indien<\/em><\/a>. Madeleine’s Children: Family, Freedom, Secrets, and Lies in France’s Indian Ocean Colonies<\/em>, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017)<\/a> Pierre H. Boulle and Sue Peabody, Le Droit des Noirs en France au temps de l’esclavage<\/em>, Autrement M\u00eames (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2014)<\/a><\/p>\n Free Soil in the Atlantic World,<\/em><\/a> edited by Sue Peabody and Keila Grinberg, (New York and Oxford: Routledge, 2014)<\/a><\/p>\n Slavery, Freedom and the Law in the Atlantic World: A Brief History with Documents<\/em>, with Keila Grinberg, Bedford Series in History and Culture (New York: Bedford Books, 2007)<\/a><\/p>\n The Color of Liberty: Histories of Race in France,<\/em> edited by Sue Peabody and Tyler Stovall (Durham: Duke UP, 2003)<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThere Are No Slaves in France\u201d: The Political Culture of Race and Slavery in the Ancient R\u00e9gime<\/em> (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).<\/a><\/p>\n Dr. Peabody appears in the documentary, Furcy : le proc\u00e8s de la libert\u00e9 (Cin\u00e9t\u00e9v\u00e9, 2021), which is accessible in French on youtube<\/a>, and to institutional subscriptions with French and English subtitles via the distributor, Docuseek<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dr. Peabody consulted on the exhibit, L’\u00e9trange histoire de Furcy Madeleine, 1786-1856<\/a>, and its illustrated catalogue<\/a>, organized by the Mus\u00e9e de Vill\u00e8le: Histoire de l\u2019habitation et de l\u2019esclavage, R\u00e9union Island, 10 December 2019 – 30 November 2020. An English-language traveling exhibit, \u201cThe Surprising Story of Furcy Madeleine,\u201d has appeared at the University of Arkansas Little Rock (2024), Duke University (2025), and the University of Virginia (2025).<\/p>\n See her interview, \u201cTranslating Slavery, Freedom, and Race for French and American Publics<\/a>,\u201d in Imaginaries:<\/em> Films, Fictions, and Other Representations of French-Speaking Worlds<\/em>, (H-France) 14, No. 2 (Summer 2024).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [\u201cPolitical and Legal Histories,\u201d in |]<\/span> Writing the History of Slavery<\/em>,\u00a0edited by David Doddington & Enrico Dal Lago. Bloomsbury \u201cWriting History\u201d Series. In press.<\/p>\n \u201cSlaves as Witnesses, Slaves as Evidence: French and British Prosecution of the Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean,\u201d in Voices in the Legal Archives in the French Colonial World: \u201cThe King Is Listening<\/em>,\u201d edited by Nancy Christie, Matthew Gerber, and Michael Gauvreau. Montreal: McGill-Queens Press, 2021, 281-303.<\/p>\n \u201cA Local View on Global Climate and Migration Patterns: The Impact of Cyclones and Drought on the Routier Family and their Slaves in Ile Bourbon (La R\u00e9union), 1770\u20131820.\u201d In Bondage and the Environment in the Indian Ocean World<\/em>. Edited by Gwyn Campbell. Palgrave-Macmillan, 2018. 123-142.<\/p>\n \u201cPoursuivre en justice pour s\u2019affranchir: une forme de r\u00e9sistance? L’exemple de l’esclave Furcy\u201d in\u00a0 Special Issue: Les r\u00e9sistances \u00e0 l\u2019esclavage dans le monde atlantique fran\u00e7ais \u00e0 l\u00b9\u00e8re des R\u00e9volutions (1750-1850). Edited by Jean-Pierre Le Glaunec. Revue d’histoire de l’Am\u00e9rique fran\u00e7aise,<\/em> 71: 1-2 (Summer\/Autumn, 2017)\u00a0: 35-57. https:\/\/www.erudit.org\/fr\/revues\/haf\/2017-v71-n1-2-haf03346\/<\/a><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>S\u2019affranchir ou s\u2019enraciner ? Le droit fran\u00e7ais sur la migration des colonies \u00e0 la metropole \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9poque de l\u2019esclavage.<\/span>\u201d In Arch\u00e9ologie des migrations<\/i>, edited by Dominique Garcia Herv\u00e9 Le Bras, (Paris: La D\u00e9couverte, 2017), pp\/ 317-27.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLes enfants de Madeleine, esclaves \u00e0 l\u2019\u00eele Bourbon (XVIIIe-XIXe si\u00e8cle).\u201d Clio: Femmes, Genre, Histoire<\/i>. Special Issue: Le nom des femmes. Edited by Agn\u00e8s Fine et Christiane Klapisch-Zuber. 45 (Spring 2017): 171-84.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFrance\u2019s Two Emancipations in Comparative Context.\u201d In: Abolitions as a Global Experiment, <\/i>ed. Hideaki Suzuki, (Singapore: National University Press of Singapore, 2015)<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLa Race, l\u2019esclavage et `la francit\u00e9,\u2019: L\u2019affaire Furcy,\u201d in Fran\u00e7ais? La nation en d\u00e9bat entre colonies et m\u00e9tropole, XVIe-XIXe si\u00e8cle<\/i>, ed. C\u00e9cile Vidal, (Paris\u00a0: les Editions de l\u2019EHESS, 2014), 189-210.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMicrohistory, Biography, Fiction: The Politics of Narrating the Lives of People under Slavery,” Transatlantica,<\/i> (2012\/2): https:\/\/transatlantica.revues.org\/6184<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSlavery and the Law in the Early Modern Atlantic World.\u201d The Cambridge World History of Slavery. Volume 3: AD1420-AD1804.<\/i> Edited by David Eltis and Stanley Engerman. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFurcy, la question raciale et le \u00ab\u00a0sol libre de France\u00a0\u00bb\u00a0: une micro-histoire,\u201d Annales\u00a0: Histoire, Sciences Sociales<\/i> (Paris). 64:6 (Nov\/Dec 2009)\u00a0: 1305-1334.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWindow, Prism and Mirror: A Pedagogy of Historical Fiction in the Historical Classroom,\u201d in Approaches to Teaching Claire de Duras’s Ourika.<\/i> Edited by Mary Ellen Birkett and Chris Rivers. Approaches to Teaching Series. Joseph Gibaldi, series editor. (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2009), 122-28.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFree Upon Higher Ground: Saint-Domingue Slaves\u2019 Suits for Freedom in U.S. Courts, 1794-1827.\u201d The World of the Haitian Revolution. <\/i>Edited by David Geggus and Norman Fiering. (Indiana University Press, 2009), pp. 261-83.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIntroduction.\u201d La Salle: A Novel<\/i> by John Vernon. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006).<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cReading and Writing Historical Fiction,\u201d Iowa Journal of Literary Studies,<\/i> 10 (1989): 29-39. Reprinted by the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, 2003.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Meyer Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and History<\/em><\/p>\n Departments: Email:\u00a0speabody@wsu.edu<\/a><\/p>\n Phone: (360) 546-9647<\/p>\n Fax: (360) 546-9036<\/p>\n Located in Multimedia (VMMC) 202D<\/p>\n Support Staff: Jamie Anoai Shroyer<\/a> History is a story we tell ourselves about who we are. <\/em>I love this definition for two reasons. First, it emphasizes the story-telling\u00a0<\/em>inherent in all histories. That is, histories are invented and crafted to engage particular audiences. That doesn’t mean that they are entirely fictive — … » More …<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2131,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-builder.php","meta":{"_wsuwp_accessibility_report":[]},"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/sue-peabody\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/sue-peabody\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/sue-peabody\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/sue-peabody\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/sue-peabody\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/sue-peabody\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98,"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/sue-peabody\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/98"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/sue-peabody\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/sue-peabody\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=2"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/sue-peabody\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"avatar-sue\"](\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-vancouverlabs\/uploads\/sites\/1205\/2016\/02\/avatar-sue.png\"){kind=avatar}
<\/p>\nResearch<\/h2>\n
Books<\/h2>\n
\nTranslated and adapted by Pierre H. Boulle. Centre international des recherches sur les esclavages et post-esclavages (CIRESC). (Paris: Karthala, 2019).<\/p>\n
\nWinner of the Society for French Historical Studies\u2019 David Pinkney Prize<\/span><\/p>\nPublic History<\/h2>\n
Selected Articles<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
Arts and Sciences<\/a>
History<\/a>
Humanities<\/a>
Social Science<\/a><\/p>\n
Curriculum Vita<\/a><\/p>\n