Benjamin Arthur Quarles

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Benjamin Arthur Quarles (January 23, 1904-November 16, 1996) was an American historian, administrator, scholar, educator, and writer. Throughout his leading works, Quarles focused on the contributions and achievements made to America by the black history, the role of Negroes, and the black participation in the abolitions movement.

Quarles was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was a subway porter. He married twice, first to Vera bullock Quarles who died in 1951, and then to Ruth Brett Quarles and had two daughters, Pamela and Roberta.

In his Twenties, Quarles enrolled at Shaw University and received his B.A. degree in 1931, M.A. degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1933, and Ph.D. in 1940. He worked as an instructor of history at Shaw University, Raleigh, North Carolina (1935-39), a professor and dean at Dillard University, New Orleans, Louisiana (1939-1953), and a professor of history and chair of department at Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland (1953-1974).

He was an active member of many political and historical organizations such as Project Advisory Committee on Black Congress Members, Department of the Army Historical Advisory Committee, and American Council of Learned Societies. He was one of the few men in the profession who openly supported the founding of the Association of Black Women Historians.

A prolific writer, Benjamin Quarles published ten books, twenty-three articles, and hundreds of shorter pieces of various sorts. In his writings, Quarles focused on giving detailed attention to the contributions made by the black soldiers and abolitions of the American Revolution and the Civil War. His writings include The Negro in the American Revolution (1961), Lincoln and the Negro (1962), The Negro in the Making of America (1964), Fredrick Douglass (1968), The Negro in the Civil War (1968), Black Abolitionists (1969), Allies for Freedom (1974), and Black Mosaic (1988).

Quarles died of a heart attack at age of 92.