The University of Georgia Press and the Library Company of Philadelphia have formed a partnership to support Race in the Atlantic World, 1700-1900, a series of books focused on racial aspects of transatlantic history.
Founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin, the Library Company was America’s first successful lending library and is its oldest cultural institution. It is now a repository of rare books and graphics specializing in American history and culture from the 17th through 19th centuries.
The Library Company’s Program in African-American History, directed by Erica Armstrong Dunbar of the University of Delaware, will work directly with the series.
The Race in the Atlantic World, 1700-1900 series was created by the UGA Press in 2006 and is edited by Richard Newman, Patrick Rael and Manisha Sinha. Nine books already have been published in the series, including work by established authors such as Philip Morgan, Marcus Wood, Afua Cooper and Vincent Carretta.
The first book under the new partnership will be Eva Sheppard Wolf’s Almost Free: A Story about Family and Race in Antebellum Virginia, to be published in spring 2012. All books in the co-published series will receive a subsidy from the Library Company to help fund publishing and printing costs.
