Sponsored jointly by the Library of Congress and the American Historical Association, the J. Franklin Jameson Fellowship in American History is offered each year to support significant scholarly research in the collections of the Library of Congress by scholars at an early stage in their careers in history. The Jameson Fellowship review committee recently selected M. Scott Heerman, the Patrick Henry Scholar in the Department of History at Johns Hopkins University, as the recipient of the 2014-15 fellowship for his project, “Deep River: Slavery, Empire, and Emancipation in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1730-1860.”

Heerman completed his PhD in 2013 under the direction of Ira Berlin at the University of Maryland. He has received grants and fellowships from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, CLIR/Mellon Foundation, Filson Historical Society, Newberry Library, and William L. Clements Library. His “Deep River” project looks at the making, remaking, and unmaking of slave economies in the Illinois country. Historians have long written about slavery’s expansion from the eastern seaboard into the heart of North America. Deep River turns that analysis inside out. It establishes slavery’s deep roots in the Upper Mississippi Valley and traces its connections out to shape the contours of slavery and freedom in US history.

Congratulations to Dr. Heerman for receiving the 2014-15 Jameson Fellowship!

This post first appeared on AHA Today.