Amanda Gibson

Amanda Gibson's picture
Postdoctoral Associate

Amanda White Gibson holds a PhD in history from the College of William & Mary. Her research uncovers the credit market experiences of those most vulnerable to the externalities associated with the slavery-based antebellum American economy. It describes enslaved and free African Americans’ use of credit from the American Revolution to the Civil War; how enslaved individuals borrowed to free themselves, what happened when they did not pay debts imposed on them by the jail system, and free and enslaved African Americans’ employment of credit at stores and banks. It also attempts to describe how African Americans in Virginia conceived of debt in their own lives, for example using debt, with varying degrees of success, as a tool to distance themselves from slavery and racial oppression.

Gilder Lehrman Center
Acad Year (Current): 
2022-23
Program: 
Gilder Lehrman Center