2026 Andrés Ramos Mattei-Neville Hall Article Prize 

has been awarded to Tessa Murphy of Syracuse University for her article “Centering Slavery in the Age of Abolition: Insights from the Saint Lucia Register of Plantation Slaves, 1815,” William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 81, no. 2 (April 2024), 359-394.

Murphy presents a masterful study of the use of a single archival source, the 1815 Register of Plantation Slaves, to unfold a plethora of valuable revelations about the lived experiences of the enslaved on a small island colony during the era of abolition. In addition to the data that Murphy carefully extracts from this sparse register, her analysis centers the experiences of those forced into bondage and reveals important details about family life on plantations during this period. Despite the clinically demographic nature of these records, her work is meticulous in its attention to the day-to-day realities at the same time that it sheds light on the nature of the forced transport of individuals to other Caribbean islands, also known as the Second Middle Passage. Countering a historiographical trend that focuses on the metropolitan moves to end slavery, Murphy’s work reminds us that the experience of the enslaved during these years did not improve correspondingly and, in some cases, worsened. Moreover, her work encourages the use of this material to uncover the nuances of life for the enslaved on the smaller, less studied island colonies of the British empire. In addition to these historical and historiographical interventions, Murphy’s work provides methodological insight as to how others might engage the data contained within the other 670 similar registers detailing more than 800,000 people enslaved in Great Britain’s colonies in the first decades of the 19th century. As these details and registers are contained in a freely accessible database Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade her work also reminds us of the power of these materials for both research and teaching. The committee commends Murphy’s historically rich and methodologically powerful interventions in this article and are pleased to honor the article with the 2026 Mattei-Hall prize.

Many thanks to Mattei-Hall committee members Richard Blackett (Chair), Nathalie Pierre, and Beth Manley.

The next call for the Mattei-Hall prize will be in July 2027.