Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies, Professor of History & Arts and Ideas in the Humanities Program, Professor in the Residental College
jonwells@umich.eduOffice Information:
4732 Haven Hall
phone: 734.763.8215
Afroamerican and African Studies; Faculty
About
Education
University of Michigan, M.A., Ph.D., American History, 1998
University of Florida, B.A., M.A., American History, 1991
Publications and Related Activities
Book Series
“Print Culture in the American South” University of Georgia Press, co-edited with Sarah Gardner. Several books published, including award-winning titles.
Books (in progress)
(author) African Americans and the Democratic Party: A History from the Civil War to Civil Rights
(author) The Body but not the Soul: Race, Class, and the American Civil War
Books (published):
(author) The New York Kidnapping Club: Wall Street and Slavery before the Civil War (Nation Books, 2020) Winner of the 2020-2021 New York Library Society Book Award; Winner of the Victorian Society Book Award
(author) Blind no More: African American Resistance, Free Soil Politics, and the Coming of the Civil War (University of Georgia Press, 2019)
(editor) The Routledge History of Nineteenth-Century America (2017)
(author) Women Writers and Journalists in the Nineteenth-Century South (Cambridge University Press 2011) Honorable Mention, Spruill Prize, Southern Association of Women Historians, 2012
(author) A House Divided: The Civil War and Nineteenth-Century America Routledge (2011) [second edition, 2017]
(co-editor) The Southern Middle Class in the Long Nineteenth Century (LSU Press 2011)
(co-editor) Entering the Fray: Gender, Culture, and Politics in the New South (University of Missouri Press, 2010)
(editor) Slavery and the New World (Pickering & Chatto Publishers, 2009)
(editor) The Southern Literary Messenger (University of South Carolina Press, 2007)
(author) The Origins of the Southern Middle Class, 1800-1861 (University of North Carolina Press, 2004)
(co-editor) The Literary and Historical Index to American Magazines (Praeger, 2004)
Selected Essays, Articles, and Reviews:
- “Standing High Among the Whites:” Race, Class, and Teaching in the New South," currently with readers for The Journal of African American History (forthcoming 2024)
- “African Americans and Partisanship in the late Nineteenth Century: From Re-enslavement to Political Independence,” The Journal of American History (favorable revise and resubmit as of September 1, 2024)
- “Race, Class, and the Professionalization of Medicine in the Nineteenth-Century South," The Bulletin of the History of Medicine (revise and resubmit as of September 2023)
- “Loyal Readers: Southern Newspapers under Union Occupation in the Civil War Era,” Journalism History (June 2024)
- “Print Culture in the Civil War Era,” co-edited special issue of Civil War History (June 2022)
- “Printed Communities: Race, Respectability, and African American Journalists in the Nineteenth-Century West,” Journal of the Civil War Era (March 2022)
- “The Invention of White Supremacy,” Civil War History (March 2022)
- “Race and Gender in the Making of the Library of Southern Literature,” in New Directions in Southern History (UNC Press, 2021)
- “Charles Dickens, the American South, and the Transatlantic Debate over Slavery,” Slavery & Abolition 35 (May 2015)
- “Writers, Editors, and Intellectual Exchange between the Antebellum North and South,” Alabama Review 67 (January 2014)
- Professionalization and the Southern Middle Class,” essay/chapter in, Louis M. Kyriakoudes, ed., The Transformation of Southern Society (University of Missouri Press, 2011)
- “Class and Slavery,” 35-page essay in Mark M. Smith, ed., The Oxford Handbook on Slavery (Oxford University Press, 2010)
- “A Voice in the Nation: Women and Journalism in the Antebellum South,” American Nineteenth-Century History (June 2008)
- “The Southern Middle Class,” invitation-only, state-of-the-field essay for the 75th anniversary issue of the Journal of Southern History (August 2009)
- “The Transformation of John Pendleton Kennedy: Maryland, the Republican Party, and the Civil War,” Maryland Historical Magazine, 95 (Fall 2000): 290-307.
Book manuscripts reviewed for Cambridge University Press, LSU Press, University of Kentucky Press, University of Illinois Press, University of Georgia Press, University of South Carolina Press, and others. Article manuscripts reviewed for The Journal of the Early Republic, Civil War History, Journal of Southern History, and The Journal of the Civil War Era.
Book reviews published in Journal of American History, American Historical Review, Civil War History, Journal of Southern History, Georgia Historical Quarterly, American Nineteenth-Century History, Southern Spaces, New Left History, Journal of the Civil War Era, H-SOUTH, H-SAWH, North Carolina Historical Review, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, and others.
Grants, Fellowships, and Awards
- New York Library Society Best Book Award, 2021
- Julia Spruill Book Prize, Honorable Mention, Southern Association for Women Historians 2012, for Women Writers and Journalists
- American Antiquarian Society, Visiting Scholar, 2011
- The Virginia Historical Society, Research Grant. 2008-2009
- Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society 2008
- Gilder Lehrman Institute Fellowship 2003
- Albert J. Beveridge Research Grant, American Historical Association
- Archie K. Davis Research Grant, North Caroliniana Society
- Mellon Dissertation Fellowship, University of Michigan 1996-1998
- Mellon Dissertation Research Fellowship, University of Michigan 1996
Selected Conferences and Invited Lectures
- “Slavery and the City,” Organization of American Historians, Philadelphia, 2019
- “The New York Kidnapping Club,” Organization of American Historians, Philadelphia, 2019
- “Slavery and Kidnapping in New York City,” British Association for Nineteenth-Century American History, Cambridge, 2018 Lamar Lectures, Mercer University, 2017
- African American Journalism in Civil War New Orleans, African American
- Intellectual History Association, Chapel Hill, NC, 2016 “Slavery, African Americans, and Civil War Causation,” University of Zurich, 2016
- “Southern Newspapers under Union Occupation,” British Association for Nineteenth-century American History, Cambridge, 2015
- “Blind No More: Self-Emancipation, Northern Politics, and the Sectional Crisis,” University of Hawaii, 2015
- “The Literary Culture of the Nineteenth-Century South,” Southern Intellectual History Circle, South Carolina, 2015
- “The Arc of Injustice: Class and Race in the Nineteenth-Century South,” Organization of American Historians, St. Louis, 2015
- “Charles Dickens, Race, and the American South,” Southern Intellectual History Circle, 2013
- “Class and the Coming of the Civil War,” British American Nineteenth-Century Association,” Liverpool, 2013
- Commentator, “Edward Pessen’s Riches, Class, and Power: A Retrospective,” Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, 2013
- Chair, “Abolition and the Civil War,” Pennsylvania Historical Assoc., 2013
- Commentator, “Entrepreneurial and Business Networks Between South and North,” Southern Historical Association, 2012
- Commentator, “Compromise and Crisis in the Politics of the 1850s,” Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, 2012
- Commentator, “Sectional Identity in the Civil War,” Society of Civil War Historians, 2012
- Commentator, “The American Civil War in Global Perspective,” Business History Conference, 2012
- Program Chair, Southern Industrialization Project Annual Meeting, 2011
- “’Our Dearest Rights and Liberties:’ The Fugitive Slave Law and the Coming of the Civil War,” SHEAR, 2011
- Commentator, “Race and Immigration in the New South,” After Slavery Conference, 2010
- Chair and Commentator, “Gender and Sectional Identity,” Southern Association for Women Historians, 2009
- “Gender and Journalism in the Nineteenth-Century South,” Symposium of the 19th-century Press, the Civil War, and Free Expression, 2008
- “Reconstructing the Southern Middle Class: Commercial and Professional Southerners after the Civil War,” American Historical Association, 2007
- Chair, “The Politics of Domestic Spaces: Gender, Class, and Race in the 19th-century South,” Southern Association for Women Historians, 2006
- “The Southern Middle Class in the Nineteenth Century,” invited lecture, St. George Tucker Society, 2006
- “The Transformation of the South, 1800-1865,” Southern Historical Association, 2005
- Commentator, “Women and Class in the Old South,” Southern Association of Women Historians Meeting, Richmond, VA, 2000
- “The Cultural Origins of the Southern Middle Class,” invited lecture, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 1998
- “Reason and Passion: The Intellectual Culture of the Old South,” Southern Historical Association Conference, 1997
- “The Belle as Breadwinner: Women Editors in the Old South” Southern Association of Women Historians Meeting, 1997
- “Rethinking Gender in the Old South: Women and Southern Literary Magazines,” SHEAR, 1996
Media Interviews and Public Engagement
- Podcast interview, “Charles Dickens and His History with America, Virginia Center for the Humanities, June 19, 2020
- Interview, LitHub Radio SiriusXM, October 20, 2020
- Interview, The Karen Hunter Show, SiriusXM, October 21, 2020
- Interview, The Nomiki Show (youtube), October 29, 2020
- Interview, The Special Report with Areva Martin, November 30, 2020
- Interview, BYU Radio, November 12, 2020
- Book talk, Victorian Society of New York, November 16, 2020
- Radio New Zealand, December 3, 2020
- Podcast interview, The Curious Man’s Podcast, December 4, 2020
- Book talk in conversation with Dr. Rashauna Johnson, Brooklyn Public Library, December 7, 2020
- Interview, LAWCHA author’s webpage, December 21, 2020
- Podcast interview with Professor Hettie Williams, “This Week in Black History, Culture, and Society,” January 2021
- Book talk, History Camp, January 2021
- Book talk and interview, Wondros, January 2021
- Youtube interview, The Majority Report, January 2021
- Interview, Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC, January 2021
- Book talk, Norwich University, February 2021
- Book talk, Underground Railroad Conference, February 2021
- Interview, KPFA radio show, Berkeley, CA, February 2021
- Book talk, Boston area public libraries, February 2021
Professional Service
Co-editor, Nineteenth-Century American History, 2023-
Best Book in Southern Economic History Prize Committee, Southern Historical Association, 2018-2020
Best Book in the History of Journalism Prize Committee, Organization of American Historians, 2018-2020
President, Southern Industrialization Project, 2014-2016
Education Committee, American Journalism History Association, 2016-2019
Co-editor, Journal of the Early Republic, 2012-14
Co-editor, Book Review Section, Journal of the Early Republic, 2010-2011
Avery O. Craven Award Committee, Organization of American Historians, 2014-5
Board of Editors, Southern Historian, 2013-2016
Program Chair, Meeting of the Southern Industrial Project, 2011
Best Article Prize Committee, SAWH, 2009
Founder and Director, Center for the Study of the New South, UNC Charlotte, 2007
Academic Appointments
Visiting Scholar, 2019-2020, Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge
University of Michigan, Professor, 2014-
Temple University, Professor, 2012-2014
Temple University, Associate Professor, 2009-2012
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Associate Professor and Director of the Center for the Study of the New South, 2007-2009
Johnson & Wales University, 2004-2009, Associate Professor
Central Piedmont Community College, Program Chair, 1998-2004
Teaching Experience
Nominated for UM’s Golden Apple Award, the highest teaching award via student nomination, 2016
Courses taught:
- American History 1600-1865 and American History 1865-present
- African American History through Film and Literature
- The Fugitive Slave Crisis in Antebellum America
- Antebellum Culture and History
- American History through Fiction
- Civil War through Film and Literature
- African American Women Novelists in Southern History
- African Americans and Abolitionism in the 19th century
- The Novel in American History
- The Old South
- The American Civil War
- North Carolina History
- Jacksonian America
- English Composition
- Freshmen Seminar
- Radicals and Dissenters in the South
- Race and the Law in the New South
- US History Colloquium (graduate level)
- US History Seminar (graduate level)
- Social and Cultural History of Nineteenth-Century America (graduate level)
University Administrative Experience
- University of Michigan, Director of the Residential College, 2014-2019, 2023
- Temple University, History Department Chair, 2011-2014
- UNC Charlotte, Director of the Center for the Study of the New South, 2007-2009
- Johnson & Wales University, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, 2006-2007; Chair of Arts and Sciences, 2004-2007
Affiliations
- American Historical Association
- Organization of American Historians
- Southern Historical Association
- American Journalism History Association
- Society for Historians of the Early American Republic
- British American Nineteenth-Century History
About
Education
University of Michigan, M.A., Ph.D., American History, 1998
University of Florida, B.A., M.A., American History, 1991
Publications and Related Activities
Book Series
“Print Culture in the American South” University of Georgia Press, co-edited with Sarah Gardner. Several books published, including award-winning titles.
Books (in progress)
(author) African Americans and the Democratic Party: A History from the Civil War to Civil Rights
(author) The Body but not the Soul: Race, Class, and the American Civil War
Books (published):
(author) The New York Kidnapping Club: Wall Street and Slavery before the Civil War (Nation Books, 2020) Winner of the 2020-2021 New York Library Society Book Award; Winner of the Victorian Society Book Award
(author) Blind no More: African American Resistance, Free Soil Politics, and the Coming of the Civil War (University of Georgia Press, 2019)
(editor) The Routledge History of Nineteenth-Century America (2017)
(author) Women Writers and Journalists in the Nineteenth-Century South (Cambridge University Press 2011) Honorable Mention, Spruill Prize, Southern Association of Women Historians, 2012
(author) A House Divided: The Civil War and Nineteenth-Century America Routledge (2011) [second edition, 2017]
(co-editor) The Southern Middle Class in the Long Nineteenth Century (LSU Press 2011)
(co-editor) Entering the Fray: Gender, Culture, and Politics in the New South (University of Missouri Press, 2010)
(editor) Slavery and the New World (Pickering & Chatto Publishers, 2009)
(editor) The Southern Literary Messenger (University of South Carolina Press, 2007)
(author) The Origins of the Southern Middle Class, 1800-1861 (University of North Carolina Press, 2004)
(co-editor) The Literary and Historical Index to American Magazines (Praeger, 2004)
Selected Essays, Articles, and Reviews:
- “Standing High Among the Whites:” Race, Class, and Teaching in the New South," currently with readers for The Journal of African American History (forthcoming 2024)
- “African Americans and Partisanship in the late Nineteenth Century: From Re-enslavement to Political Independence,” The Journal of American History (favorable revise and resubmit as of September 1, 2024)
- “Race, Class, and the Professionalization of Medicine in the Nineteenth-Century South," The Bulletin of the History of Medicine (revise and resubmit as of September 2023)
- “Loyal Readers: Southern Newspapers under Union Occupation in the Civil War Era,” Journalism History (June 2024)
- “Print Culture in the Civil War Era,” co-edited special issue of Civil War History (June 2022)
- “Printed Communities: Race, Respectability, and African American Journalists in the Nineteenth-Century West,” Journal of the Civil War Era (March 2022)
- “The Invention of White Supremacy,” Civil War History (March 2022)
- “Race and Gender in the Making of the Library of Southern Literature,” in New Directions in Southern History (UNC Press, 2021)
- “Charles Dickens, the American South, and the Transatlantic Debate over Slavery,” Slavery & Abolition 35 (May 2015)
- “Writers, Editors, and Intellectual Exchange between the Antebellum North and South,” Alabama Review 67 (January 2014)
- Professionalization and the Southern Middle Class,” essay/chapter in, Louis M. Kyriakoudes, ed., The Transformation of Southern Society (University of Missouri Press, 2011)
- “Class and Slavery,” 35-page essay in Mark M. Smith, ed., The Oxford Handbook on Slavery (Oxford University Press, 2010)
- “A Voice in the Nation: Women and Journalism in the Antebellum South,” American Nineteenth-Century History (June 2008)
- “The Southern Middle Class,” invitation-only, state-of-the-field essay for the 75th anniversary issue of the Journal of Southern History (August 2009)
- “The Transformation of John Pendleton Kennedy: Maryland, the Republican Party, and the Civil War,” Maryland Historical Magazine, 95 (Fall 2000): 290-307.
Book manuscripts reviewed for Cambridge University Press, LSU Press, University of Kentucky Press, University of Illinois Press, University of Georgia Press, University of South Carolina Press, and others. Article manuscripts reviewed for The Journal of the Early Republic, Civil War History, Journal of Southern History, and The Journal of the Civil War Era.
Book reviews published in Journal of American History, American Historical Review, Civil War History, Journal of Southern History, Georgia Historical Quarterly, American Nineteenth-Century History, Southern Spaces, New Left History, Journal of the Civil War Era, H-SOUTH, H-SAWH, North Carolina Historical Review, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, and others.
Grants, Fellowships, and Awards
- New York Library Society Best Book Award, 2021
- Julia Spruill Book Prize, Honorable Mention, Southern Association for Women Historians 2012, for Women Writers and Journalists
- American Antiquarian Society, Visiting Scholar, 2011
- The Virginia Historical Society, Research Grant. 2008-2009
- Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society 2008
- Gilder Lehrman Institute Fellowship 2003
- Albert J. Beveridge Research Grant, American Historical Association
- Archie K. Davis Research Grant, North Caroliniana Society
- Mellon Dissertation Fellowship, University of Michigan 1996-1998
- Mellon Dissertation Research Fellowship, University of Michigan 1996
Selected Conferences and Invited Lectures
- “Slavery and the City,” Organization of American Historians, Philadelphia, 2019
- “The New York Kidnapping Club,” Organization of American Historians, Philadelphia, 2019
- “Slavery and Kidnapping in New York City,” British Association for Nineteenth-Century American History, Cambridge, 2018 Lamar Lectures, Mercer University, 2017
- African American Journalism in Civil War New Orleans, African American
- Intellectual History Association, Chapel Hill, NC, 2016 “Slavery, African Americans, and Civil War Causation,” University of Zurich, 2016
- “Southern Newspapers under Union Occupation,” British Association for Nineteenth-century American History, Cambridge, 2015
- “Blind No More: Self-Emancipation, Northern Politics, and the Sectional Crisis,” University of Hawaii, 2015
- “The Literary Culture of the Nineteenth-Century South,” Southern Intellectual History Circle, South Carolina, 2015
- “The Arc of Injustice: Class and Race in the Nineteenth-Century South,” Organization of American Historians, St. Louis, 2015
- “Charles Dickens, Race, and the American South,” Southern Intellectual History Circle, 2013
- “Class and the Coming of the Civil War,” British American Nineteenth-Century Association,” Liverpool, 2013
- Commentator, “Edward Pessen’s Riches, Class, and Power: A Retrospective,” Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, 2013
- Chair, “Abolition and the Civil War,” Pennsylvania Historical Assoc., 2013
- Commentator, “Entrepreneurial and Business Networks Between South and North,” Southern Historical Association, 2012
- Commentator, “Compromise and Crisis in the Politics of the 1850s,” Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, 2012
- Commentator, “Sectional Identity in the Civil War,” Society of Civil War Historians, 2012
- Commentator, “The American Civil War in Global Perspective,” Business History Conference, 2012
- Program Chair, Southern Industrialization Project Annual Meeting, 2011
- “’Our Dearest Rights and Liberties:’ The Fugitive Slave Law and the Coming of the Civil War,” SHEAR, 2011
- Commentator, “Race and Immigration in the New South,” After Slavery Conference, 2010
- Chair and Commentator, “Gender and Sectional Identity,” Southern Association for Women Historians, 2009
- “Gender and Journalism in the Nineteenth-Century South,” Symposium of the 19th-century Press, the Civil War, and Free Expression, 2008
- “Reconstructing the Southern Middle Class: Commercial and Professional Southerners after the Civil War,” American Historical Association, 2007
- Chair, “The Politics of Domestic Spaces: Gender, Class, and Race in the 19th-century South,” Southern Association for Women Historians, 2006
- “The Southern Middle Class in the Nineteenth Century,” invited lecture, St. George Tucker Society, 2006
- “The Transformation of the South, 1800-1865,” Southern Historical Association, 2005
- Commentator, “Women and Class in the Old South,” Southern Association of Women Historians Meeting, Richmond, VA, 2000
- “The Cultural Origins of the Southern Middle Class,” invited lecture, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 1998
- “Reason and Passion: The Intellectual Culture of the Old South,” Southern Historical Association Conference, 1997
- “The Belle as Breadwinner: Women Editors in the Old South” Southern Association of Women Historians Meeting, 1997
- “Rethinking Gender in the Old South: Women and Southern Literary Magazines,” SHEAR, 1996
Media Interviews and Public Engagement
- Podcast interview, “Charles Dickens and His History with America, Virginia Center for the Humanities, June 19, 2020
- Interview, LitHub Radio SiriusXM, October 20, 2020
- Interview, The Karen Hunter Show, SiriusXM, October 21, 2020
- Interview, The Nomiki Show (youtube), October 29, 2020
- Interview, The Special Report with Areva Martin, November 30, 2020
- Interview, BYU Radio, November 12, 2020
- Book talk, Victorian Society of New York, November 16, 2020
- Radio New Zealand, December 3, 2020
- Podcast interview, The Curious Man’s Podcast, December 4, 2020
- Book talk in conversation with Dr. Rashauna Johnson, Brooklyn Public Library, December 7, 2020
- Interview, LAWCHA author’s webpage, December 21, 2020
- Podcast interview with Professor Hettie Williams, “This Week in Black History, Culture, and Society,” January 2021
- Book talk, History Camp, January 2021
- Book talk and interview, Wondros, January 2021
- Youtube interview, The Majority Report, January 2021
- Interview, Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC, January 2021
- Book talk, Norwich University, February 2021
- Book talk, Underground Railroad Conference, February 2021
- Interview, KPFA radio show, Berkeley, CA, February 2021
- Book talk, Boston area public libraries, February 2021
Professional Service
Co-editor, Nineteenth-Century American History, 2023-
Best Book in Southern Economic History Prize Committee, Southern Historical Association, 2018-2020
Best Book in the History of Journalism Prize Committee, Organization of American Historians, 2018-2020
President, Southern Industrialization Project, 2014-2016
Education Committee, American Journalism History Association, 2016-2019
Co-editor, Journal of the Early Republic, 2012-14
Co-editor, Book Review Section, Journal of the Early Republic, 2010-2011
Avery O. Craven Award Committee, Organization of American Historians, 2014-5
Board of Editors, Southern Historian, 2013-2016
Program Chair, Meeting of the Southern Industrial Project, 2011
Best Article Prize Committee, SAWH, 2009
Founder and Director, Center for the Study of the New South, UNC Charlotte, 2007
Academic Appointments
Visiting Scholar, 2019-2020, Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge
University of Michigan, Professor, 2014-
Temple University, Professor, 2012-2014
Temple University, Associate Professor, 2009-2012
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Associate Professor and Director of the Center for the Study of the New South, 2007-2009
Johnson & Wales University, 2004-2009, Associate Professor
Central Piedmont Community College, Program Chair, 1998-2004
Teaching Experience
Nominated for UM’s Golden Apple Award, the highest teaching award via student nomination, 2016
Courses taught:
- American History 1600-1865 and American History 1865-present
- African American History through Film and Literature
- The Fugitive Slave Crisis in Antebellum America
- Antebellum Culture and History
- American History through Fiction
- Civil War through Film and Literature
- African American Women Novelists in Southern History
- African Americans and Abolitionism in the 19th century
- The Novel in American History
- The Old South
- The American Civil War
- North Carolina History
- Jacksonian America
- English Composition
- Freshmen Seminar
- Radicals and Dissenters in the South
- Race and the Law in the New South
- US History Colloquium (graduate level)
- US History Seminar (graduate level)
- Social and Cultural History of Nineteenth-Century America (graduate level)
University Administrative Experience
- University of Michigan, Director of the Residential College, 2014-2019, 2023
- Temple University, History Department Chair, 2011-2014
- UNC Charlotte, Director of the Center for the Study of the New South, 2007-2009
- Johnson & Wales University, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, 2006-2007; Chair of Arts and Sciences, 2004-2007
Affiliations
- American Historical Association
- Organization of American Historians
- Southern Historical Association
- American Journalism History Association
- Society for Historians of the Early American Republic
- British American Nineteenth-Century History
