I became fascinated by the American Civil War during Ms (now Dr) Anne Stanyon's Year 9 classes on the topic. I specialised in that period of U.S. History from the final year of my undergraduate course at Oxford, and stayed at Oxford for doctoral and post-doctoral study.

My research became the book Black Resettlement and the American Civil War (Cambridge University Press, 2021).

Book description

www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/history/american-history-1861-1900/black-resettlement-and-american-civil-war

Based on sweeping research in six languages, Black Resettlement and the American Civil War offers the first comprehensive, comparative account of nineteenth-century America's greatest road not taken: the mass resettlement of African Americans outside the United States. Building on resurgent scholarly interest in the so-called 'colonization' movement, the book goes beyond tired debates about colonization's place in the contest over slavery, and beyond the familiar black destinations of Liberia, Canada, and Haiti. Striding effortlessly from Pittsburgh to Panama, Toronto to Trinidad, and Lagos to Louisiana, it synthesizes a wealth of individual, state-level, and national considerations to reorient the field and set a new standard for Atlantic history. Along the way, it shows that what haunted politicians from Thomas Jefferson to Abraham Lincoln was not whether it was right to abolish slavery, but whether it was safe to do so unless the races were separated.

Prize description

scwh.memberclicks.net/tom-watson-brown-book-award

The Society of Civil War Historians gives an annual Tom Watson Brown Book Award for the best book published on the causes, conduct, and effects, broadly defined, of the Civil War. This includes, but is not exclusive to, monographs, synthetic works presenting original interpretations, and biographies. Works of fiction, poetry, anthologies, and textbooks are not considered. Jurors consider nominated works' scholarly and literary merit as well as the extent to which they make original contributions to our understanding of the period.

The prize is presented at the SCWH banquet at the Southern Historical Association annual meeting, where the winner delivers a formal address that will be published in a subsequent issue of the Journal of the Civil War Era.

The Society of Civil War Historians and the Watson-Brown Foundation is proud to announce that Sebastian Page is the recipient of the Tom Watson Brown Book Award. Page, of the University of Oxford, earned the award for Black Resettlement and the American Civil War which was published in 2021 by Cambridge University Press. The $50,000 award is funded by the Watson-Brown Foundation in honor of Tom Watson Brown, a dedicated student of the Civil War.

In making its selection, the prize committee indicated:

"Sebastian Page's Black Resettlement and the American Civil War places the hitherto underexamined issue of colonization and emigration throughout the western hemisphere at the center of Republican policies and makes a convincing case that both are vital to an appreciation of the complex nature of the country's approach to emancipation, the war, and post-emancipation. Separation, not integration, he shows, was more characteristic of the country's policy. Black resettlement outside of the United States is also crucial to our understanding of competing empires and colonial policies in the final decades of the nineteenth century. Page writes beautifully applying deft, and sometimes humorous touches to his discussion of complex political and social issues."

The Watson Brown Book Award jury consisted of Richard Blackett (chair), Andrew Jackson Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, Barbara Gannon, Associate Professor of History at the University of Central Florida, Wayne Hsieh, Associate Professor of History at the U.S. Naval Academy, and Tad Brown, President of the Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc.