| Colin A. Palmer | |
| Birth Name: | Colin Alphonsous Palmer |
| Birth Date: | 23 March 1944 |
| Birth Place: | Lambs River, Westmoreland, Jamaica |
| Death Place: | Kingston, Jamaica |
| Alma Mater: | University of Wisconsin |
| Genre: | Novels, autobiographies, articles |
| Subject: | African diaspora |
| Notableworks: | Freedom's Children, Human Cargoes |
Colin Alphonsous Palmer (March 23, 1944 − June 20, 2019)[1] was a Jamaican American historian. He was a Dodge Professor of History and African American studies at Princeton University.[2]
Palmer was an author of several monographs pertaining to the history of diasporic Africans. His work mainly focused on the effects of the enslavement and colonization of Africans. The effects that he discusses are known as the African Diaspora. Palmer attended the University of the West Indies for his bachelor's degree, followed by a masters and PH.D from the University of Wisconsin. He went on to teach at several institutions including Oakland University, the University of North Carolina, and the City University of New York. One of his most notable works, Freedom's Children, contains an in-depth overview of British colonialism in Jamaica one hundred years after the ending of slavery, and is centered upon the impact that the Labour Rebellions of 1938 had on the development of working-class consciousness and the collective disposition to act. It provides insight on Alexander Bustamante's association with the imperial regime, together with demonstrating the roles that Bustamante and, his cousin, Norman Manley played in the rise of trade unions and the beginning of party politics in Jamaica. These topics are thoroughly detailed in this work, bringing the harshness of the British regime to light.[3] Colin Palmer's works concerned the history of Blacks from several regions, including Jamaica, Mexico, America, and Africa. In addition to his books, Palmer also published academic articles in journals such as The Black Scholar. He later worked as a managing editor for the Blacks Studies Center and teaches at the University of Princeton.[2] Palmer died in Kingston, Jamaica on June 20, 2019.