Wesley-Logan Prize
The Wesley-Logan Prize in African diaspora history is jointly sponsored by the American Historical Association and the Association for the Study of African American Life & History. The prize is awarded annually for an outstanding book in African diaspora history. The AHA Committee on Minority Historians established the prize in 1992 in memory of two early pioneers in the field, Charles H. Wesley and Rayford W. Logan.
The prize is offered for a book on some aspect of the history of the dispersion, settlement and adjustment, and/or return of peoples originally from Africa. Eligible for consideration are books in any chronological period and any geographical location. The current prize amount is $1,000. See the list of past recipients.
The general rules for submission are:
- Only books of high scholarly and literary merit will be considered.
- Books with a copyright of 2022 are eligible for the 2023 award.
- Nomination submissions may be made by an author or by a publisher. Publishers may submit as many entries as they wish. Authors or publishers may submit the same book for multiple AHA prizes.
- Nominators must complete an online prize submission form for each book submitted.
- One copy of each entry must be sent to each committee member and clearly labeled “Wesley-Logan Prize Entry.” Print copies preferred unless otherwise indicated. If only e-copy is available, please contact review committee members beforehand to arrange submission format.
Please Note: Entries must be received by May 15, 2023, to be eligible for the 2023 competition. Entries will not be returned. Recipients will be announced on the AHA website in October 2023 and recognized during a ceremony at the January 2024 AHA annual meeting in San Francisco.
For questions, please contact the Prize Administrator.
2022 Wesley-Logan Prize
Yesenia Barragan, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Freedom's Captives: Slavery and Gradual Emancipation on the Colombian Black Pacific (Cambridge Univ. Press)
Freedom’s Captives presents a stunning narrative of gradual emancipation in the Colombian Black Pacific from 1821 to 1852. With gripping storytelling, Yesenia Barragan centers gender and reproduction in the paradox of liberal freedom. She illustrates Colombia’s significance in the history of “free womb” laws in the Americas and shows how free womb children and their kin used the law to maneuver freedom for themselves. This is a compelling book on an understudied area of the Spanish-speaking African diaspora.