Colonial Germans and Slavery on the Eve of the American Revolution: The Case of Ebenezer

James Van Horn Melton is Professor of History at Emory University and was president of the Central European History Society from 2012 to 2013. His research has focused on early modern German and Austrian as well as Enlightenment Europe and the Atlantic World. Most recently, he published Religion, Community, and Slavery on the Colonial Southern Frontier (2015), which was awarded the Austrian Studies Book Prize for the best book in the field. The book follows a group of German-speaking migrants who settled in the frontier community of Ebenezer in colonial Georgia after fleeing religious persecution in Salzburg, tracing both their transatlantic journey and their encounter with slavery in the borderlands of British North America.

The Gerald D. Feldman Memorial Lecture was established by the Friends of the German Historical Institute in 2010 to honor the legacy and achievements of Gerald D. Feldman (1937–2007). The lecture is generously supported by the many individual donations to the Friends of the German Historical Institute. 

The lecture will be preceded by a reception with refreshments from 6:00 to 6:30 pm.