Scott Gac is a historian of the United States whose work examines how violence shaped freedom, race, and national belonging. He is Professor of History at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he directed the undergraduate and graduate programs in American Studies from 2013 to 2023.
His books include Born in Blood: Violence and the Making of America (Cambridge University Press, 2024) and Singing for Freedom: The Hutchinson Family Singers and the Nineteenth-Century Culture of Reform (Yale University Press, 2007). He is co-editor, with Caroline Light, of American Violence: Histories, Structures, and Legacies (Routledge, forthcoming 2027). His current research traces a Black civic and intellectual renaissance in Hartford and across New England during the era of gradual emancipation.
Gac is co-founder and co-director of the Primus Project, a research and public-history initiative investigating Trinity College’s historical ties to slavery and white supremacy. His teaching and mentorship bring students into archival research, historical interpretation, and public scholarship. He holds degrees from Columbia University, The Juilliard School, and The Graduate Center at CUNY.
The Hartford Renaissance
Scott Gac’s current book project recovers a Black civic and intellectual renaissance in Hartford and across New England during the era of gradual emancipation.
It traces how Black Hartford residents built and sustained institutions through which they challenged disenfranchisement, resisted colonization campaigns, and expanded the possibilities for Black education, expression, and political belonging.
Selected Interviews & Conversations
At the Mark Twain House
Read coverage of Scott Gac’s conversation with Vivian Martin · Hartford, January 19, 2024.
Keen On
Listen to Scott Gac and Andrew Keen discuss American violence.