Scott Spillman

I'm an American historian. My forthcoming book, Making Sense of Slavery: America’s Long Reckoning, from the Founding Era to Today (Basic Books, 2025), examines the history of the study of slavery in the US from the Revolution to the present. An adapted excerpt appeared in Liberties, and I talked about it at Yale while I was a fellow at the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. My essays have appeared in The Point, The New Republic, Los Angeles Review of Books, n+1, History of Education Quarterly, and North Carolina Historical Review.

I have a PhD in history from Stanford University, and before that I studied history, English, and political philosophy at the University of North Carolina (and Duke University) as a Robertson Scholar. Now I live in Denver with my partner, our twin daughters, and an old Italian greyhound named Devo. We also spend part of our time in Leadville, where I serve on the historic preservation commission.

When I'm not reading or writing, I enjoy running in the mountains. I have won the Leadville Trail Marathon, Leadville Silver Rush 50, and Moab Red Hot 33k, and have four top-ten finishes at the Pikes Peak Marathon. I also hold the fastest known times for running up and down Grays & Torreys Peaks from Stevens Gulch and from Bakerville. See Strava for my training and occasional photos from my runs.