Slavery and Liberty at America’s Founding

Historians Harold Holzer, author of several books on President Abraham Lincoln, including Lincoln: How Abraham Lincoln Ended Slavery in America; and Manisha Sinha, author of The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition; join Edward Larson for a conversation on Larson’s new book, American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795, to explore the paradox of liberty and slavery in Revolutionary America through the Civil War era. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.   

This program is made possible through the generous support of Citizens and presented in partnership with the Civil War Museum of Philadelphia. 

Participants

Harold Holzer is the Jonathan F. Fanton Director of The Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College. He is one of the country's leading authorities on Abraham Lincoln and the political culture of the Civil War era, and served six years as chairman of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation, and the previous 10 years as co-chair of the U.S. Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of 55 books and his latest book is The Presidents vs. the Press: The Endless Battle Between The White House and the Media—From the Founding Fathers to Fake News.

Edward Larson is University Professor of History and Hugh and Hazel Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University. A recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in History and numerous other awards for writing and teaching, he is the author or co-author of 18 books and over 100 published articles. His most recent book is American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795.

Manisha Sinha is the James L. and Shirley A. Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut. A leading authority on the history of slavery and abolition and the Civil War and Reconstruction, she is the author of The Counterrevolution of Slavery: Politics and Ideology in Antebellum South Carolina and the award-winning book, The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition. She has a forthcoming book entitled The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: A Long History of Reconstruction, 1860-1900.

Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.

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