Samuel Slattery

Bio

Sam received his BA in History from Bates College in May 2014 and his MA in History from William & Mary in 2016. Sam studies connections between state power, violence, urban communities, surveillance, political participation, honor culture, warfare and maritime commerce in Early Modern British America. His dissertation "The Maritime Frontier: Fear and Fortifications in Early Modern Anglo-American Seaport Towns" analyzes the use of harbor forts to impose and contest sovereignty by both local and central governments in the British Atlantic World. Forts, usually thought of as purely military installations, could also territorialize space, police shipborne movement (impacting migration, disease and trade) and repress or support revolts and regimes of many kinds. Sam is also interested in the long history of democracy, especially with regard to civil-military relations. Sam has taught an original undergraduate class "Wars, Frontiers and Rebellions in British Colonial North America" and is currently a Halleran Fellow at the College of William & Mary.