Charles Joyner
Born in Myrtle Beach in 1934, Charles W. Joyner established a long career as a scholar and teacher. An alumnus of Presbyterian College, he subsequently held two earned doctorates—a Ph.D. in History from the University of South Carolina and a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. He was also awarded a postdoctoral fellowship in Comparative Slave Societies at Harvard University.
Prior to assuming his final position as a Distinguished Professor of Southern History and Culture at Coastal Carolina University, Joyner taught at the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Mississippi, and the University of Alabama. He was an associate of the DuBois Center at Harvard University in 1989-90 and a visiting professor at the University of Sydney (Australia) in 1993.
Joyner’s best-known work Down by the Riverside: A South Carolina Slave Community (1984) won the National University Press Book Award. In addition to that trailblazing volume, which has been called “the finest work ever written on American slavery,” Joyner’s other significant volumes include Folk Song in South Carolina (1971), Remember Me: Slave Life in Coastal Georgia (1989), and Shared Traditions: Southern History and Folk Culture (1999).
His many honors include the South Carolina Governor’s Award in the Humanities, an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by Presbyterian College, induction in the South Carolina Academy of Authors in 2012, the “Ambassador of Peace” Award of the Louis G. Gregory Ba’hai Center, an Honorary Life Membership in BrANCH (British American Nineteenth-century Historians), and an honorary life membership in the American Civil War Roundtable of Australia for his contributions to the international understanding of Southern history and culture.
Before his death in 2016, Joyner was also active in the production of television and radio programs as well as films dealing with Southern history. With Vernon Burton, he co-edited Gale’s Slavery & Anti-Slavery Transnational Archive, an acclaimed four-part digital collection devoted to the scholarly study of slavery and hailed as an outstanding contribution to the topic.
Prior to assuming his final position as a Distinguished Professor of Southern History and Culture at Coastal Carolina University, Joyner taught at the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Mississippi, and the University of Alabama. He was an associate of the DuBois Center at Harvard University in 1989-90 and a visiting professor at the University of Sydney (Australia) in 1993.
Joyner’s best-known work Down by the Riverside: A South Carolina Slave Community (1984) won the National University Press Book Award. In addition to that trailblazing volume, which has been called “the finest work ever written on American slavery,” Joyner’s other significant volumes include Folk Song in South Carolina (1971), Remember Me: Slave Life in Coastal Georgia (1989), and Shared Traditions: Southern History and Folk Culture (1999).
His many honors include the South Carolina Governor’s Award in the Humanities, an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by Presbyterian College, induction in the South Carolina Academy of Authors in 2012, the “Ambassador of Peace” Award of the Louis G. Gregory Ba’hai Center, an Honorary Life Membership in BrANCH (British American Nineteenth-century Historians), and an honorary life membership in the American Civil War Roundtable of Australia for his contributions to the international understanding of Southern history and culture.
Before his death in 2016, Joyner was also active in the production of television and radio programs as well as films dealing with Southern history. With Vernon Burton, he co-edited Gale’s Slavery & Anti-Slavery Transnational Archive, an acclaimed four-part digital collection devoted to the scholarly study of slavery and hailed as an outstanding contribution to the topic.
