In this episode, Luke talks with David Waldstreicher, the author of many books, including Slavery’s Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification. David discusses a range of topics, including the place of slavery in the lead-up to 1776, debates over slavery at the Constitutional Convention, and how the issue of slavery was never explicitly recognized in the text of the Constitution. He also examines the struggle for ratification in a climate in which “critics of the Constitution quickly perceived the compromises of 1787,” the extent to which the Constitution helps explain the Fugitive Slave Acts, the Dred Scott decision, and the Civil War, the staying power of the Constitution’s “hard-wired” provisions, and much more.

David’s book was mentioned by Van Gosse in his recent interview about the political activity of black Americans during the Antebellum period