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Ernest Freeberg

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Field Specialties

American cultural, social and religious history, with an emphasis on the 19th and early 20th century.

Dr. Freeberg’s teaching and research interests center on conflicts over free speech and religious liberty, with particular interest in the role of the First Amendment in American history.  In Spring 2008 Dr. Freeberg published Democracy’s Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, The Great War, and the Right to Dissent (Harvard University Press). The book explores the trial and imprisonment of the socialist leader, who was given a ten year sentence for making an anti-war speech, and the role this controversy played in promoting a civil liberties movement in post-WWI America.

Dr. Freeberg's first book, The Education of Laura Bridgman, explores the philosophical and religious controversies raised in antebellum America by the education of the first deaf-blind person to learn language. The book won the American Historical Association's Dunning Prize for 2002. He continues research work in this field, looking at 19th century reform movements, with particular interest in the experiences of blind men and women in antebellum America.

He offers graduate and undergraduate courses on American religion, antebellum reform and abolitionism, historical methods, and the history of the First Amendment.

Freeberg is a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians, has served on the editorial board of the History of Education Quarterly, and has produced a number of public radio documentaries on historical themes. His research has been supported by grants from the Newberry Library, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the Spencer Foundation, Emory University’s  Center for Humanistic Inquiry, and others. He is an examination leader for the College Board’s Advanced Placement US History test, and serves on its test development committee.

Education

  • Ph. D., Emory University, 1992
  • BA, Middlebury College, 1980

Selected Publications

  • Democracy’s Prisoner: Eugene Debs, the Great War, and the Right to Dissent (Harvard, 2008)

  •  The Education of Laura Bridgman, First Deaf and Blind Person to Learn Language (Harvard, 2001)

  • "The Meanings of Blindness in 19th Century America," Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, Fall 2002.
Ernest Freeberg

Contact Information

Ernest Freeberg
Associate Professor of History
915 Volunteer Boulevard
6th Floor, Dunford Hall
Knoxville, TN 37996-4065

Office: (865) 974-7090
Fax: (865) 974-3915
Email: efreeber@utk.edu