Stephanie Jones-Rogers facts for kids

Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers is an American historian. She teaches history at the University of California, Berkeley. She wrote a book called They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South. She is an expert in African-American history. She also studies the history of slavery in America and the history of women.

Learning and Degrees

Stephanie Jones-Rogers went to Rutgers University. She earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology in 2003. She then got a master's degree in 2007. In 2012, she earned her PhD in History.

Her PhD research was about women who owned enslaved people. It was titled "Nobody couldn't sell'em but her slaveowning women, mastery, and the gendered politics of the antebellum slave market." In 2013, her research won the Lerner-Scott Prize. This award is given each year for the best PhD paper on U.S. women's history.

Her Work as a Historian

Jones-Rogers started her career at the University of Iowa. She was an assistant professor there. She also worked at Tulane University and the University of Texas-Austin. She has received special awards and funding from many groups. These include the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation.

Her first book, They Were Her Property, came out in 2019. It changed how people thought about white women in the American South before the Civil War. Many people believed these women were not very involved in slavery. But Jones-Rogers used old court records and stories from the past. She showed that white women were very active in owning and selling enslaved people. They did this for their own money. Her book showed that these women had a lot of power over enslaved people. They also had a strong financial interest in slavery.

You can find out more about her work on her personal website. She has also been on podcasts and radio shows.

What She Studies Now

As of 2025, Stephanie Jones-Rogers continues to study gender and American slavery. She also looks at legal and economic history from the 17th and 19th centuries. She focuses on women, systems of forced labor, and the slave trade.

She is currently working on two new books. One is called Women of the Trade. The other is Women, American Slavery, and the Law. She also leads a workshop for historians. This workshop helps scholars share their research. It also helps connect historians who study African and African-American history.

Topics She Explores

• History of African Americans
• Slavery and the Atlantic slave trade
• Slavery and the law
• History of women
• Women and early American law

Awards and Special Recognitions

Her book, They Were Her Property, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History in 2020. Stephanie Jones-Rogers was the first African American woman to win this award. She was also the third woman overall to receive it.

The book was also considered for the Lincoln Prize in 2020. It won the Merle Curti Award in 2020. This award is for the best book in American social history.

In 2013, she won the Lerner-Scott Dissertation Prize. This was for her excellent PhD research.

In February 2023, Jones-Rogers received the $300,000 Dan David Prize. This is one of the biggest awards for historians in the world.

Fellowships and Grants

Stephanie Jones-Rogers has received many important fellowships and grants. These awards help historians do their research.

• Harrington Faculty Fellow, University of Texas, Austin, 2018-2019
• National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 2017-2018
• Ford Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 2017-2018
• Woodrow Wilson Foundation Career Enhancement Fellowship, 2017
• Hellman Fellows Fund Award, 2016
• Regents' Junior Faculty Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley, 2015
• Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Small Summer Research Grant, Rutgers University, 2011
• Pre-Doctoral Leadership Development Institute Fellowship, Rutgers University, 2010-2011
• Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis Graduate Student Fellowship, Rutgers University, 2010-2011

Online Articles

Stephanie Jones-Rogers has written several articles that are available online:

• "Slavery's Abolition: Dark and Bittersweet," Abolition Democracy 13/13, November 8, 2020.
• "1662: Virginia's Act XII," in "21 Lessons From America's Worst Moments," Time.com, June 25, 2020.
• "White Women and the Economy of Slavery." Not Even Past, February 1, 2019.
• "Police shootings: How many more must perish before we see justice?" The Berkeley Blog, July 27, 2017.
• "Another Side to the Tubman Twenty," The Berkeley Blog, April 26, 2016.
• "A Thousand Words, Countless Silences and the Audacity of Black Love," The Berkeley Blog, March 31, 2016.
• "The Charleston Massacre: What is the Meaning of Black Life in America?" The Berkeley Blog, July 13, 2015.
• "Rachel Dolezal's 'Deception': What We Don't Want to Know about Racial Identity in America," The Berkeley Blog, June 29, 2015.