Peter Kolchin (1943–2025)

Peter Robert Kolchin, Henry Clay Reed Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Delaware, died at home of lymphoma on January 13, 2025, at the age of 81. A distinguished and award-winning historian, Kolchin specialized in American slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and comparative slavery. The author of five highly regarded books and many essays, he won awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships, a Bancroft Prize, and election to the Society of American Historians.

Peter Kolchin. Photo courtesy Anne M. Boylan

Kolchin was born in Washington, DC, on June 3, 1943. He grew up on the Upper West Side of New York City, attending the Walden School and Columbia University, where he majored in history. In 1970, he earned his PhD in American history from Johns Hopkins University, studying with David Herbert Donald. He was proud to have attended the 1963 March on Washington and to have suspended his graduate career in order to campaign for Eugene McCarthy in 1968, a move that cost him his graduate school fellowship for a time.

His second book, Unfree Labor: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom (Belknap Press, 1987), brought immense scholarly regard. Praised by one reviewer as a “massively erudite and elegantly crafted study,” it received the Bancroft Prize and merited a sequel, Emancipation: The Abolition and Aftermath of American Slavery and Russian Serfdom (Yale Univ. Press, 2024). His best-selling American Slavery, 1619–1877 (Hill and Wang, 2003) was judged by a fellow historian of the South to have achieved “the nearly impossible” by “synthesizing the voluminous, contentious, and often conflicting scholarship about slavery in the United States.” No surprise, because along with his flair for forceful argument, Kolchin enjoyed a well-deserved reputation for his mastery of that immense body of historical writing. His international reception was also extensive. His books were reviewed in the major Soviet and Russian journals, and Russianists considered his work groundbreaking in their own field.

Kolchin taught at the University of California at Davis, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the University of New Mexico, and Harvard University before coming to the University of Delaware in 1985. His engagement with students and colleagues shaped an esprit de corps that advanced the department’s aspiration for outstanding teaching and research. In 2002, the University of Delaware awarded him its highest faculty honor, the Alison Professorship, recognizing outstanding scholarship, teaching, and service. He supervised over a dozen doctoral students, who remember him as a brilliant mentor whose tireless support inspired them to superior work. Several of his former students honored him with New Directions in Slavery Studies, edited by Jeff Forret and Christine E. Sears (Louisiana State Univ. Press, 2015).

Colleagues remember Kolchin just as fondly. A model of collegiality, he helped new hires feel welcome the minute they arrived in Delaware. Many recalled the warmth with which he and his partner, Anne M. Boylan, welcomed them to dinners and gatherings at their home. In equal measure, colleagues remember Kolchin’s uncommon intelligence. “Any time he presented his research, it felt like watching a master class in how to handle historical evidence,” remarked the current chair. His wry humor, love of debate, and uncanny grasp of historiography shaped a vibrant department culture. His warm friendship, sense of community, and concern for the discipline of history will be greatly missed.

Kolchin served that discipline in many roles. He was elected president of the Southern Historical Association (2013–14) and to the executive council of the Organization of American Historians. He served on the editorial boards of the Journal of American History and Slavery and Abolition, and he further helped other learned societies award book prizes, grant fellowships, and set professional policies. He was an OAH Distinguished Lecturer and served on the AHA Nominating Committee.

He is survived by his wife of 49 years, Anne M. Boylan; their sons and daughters-in-law, Michael Boylan-Kolchin and Ann Fornof and David Boylan-Kolchin and Sara Handy; and four grandchildren. Also surviving are his sister and brother-in-law, Elly and Andrew Hardy.