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Introducing the Constitution: A Conversation with Michael Paulsen
This next edition of Liberty Law Talk is a discussion with Michael S. Paulsen, co-author with his son, Luke Paulsen, of their new book entitled The Constitution: An Introduction. The Paulsens’ book is...
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Up in Arms About a Coat of Arms
Harvard Law School, in abject surrender to student activists, is about to change its escutcheon because its design was derived from that of Isaac Royall, Jr., who endowed the first chair at the school....
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Capitalism and Forced Labor
For Baptist, “the commodification and suffering and forced labor of African Americans is what made the United States powerful and rich.”
View ArticleLaw and Tradition in America: Marc DeGirolami Replies
I am grateful for the learned responses of Professors Bernstein, Levinson, and Stoner to my Liberty Forum essay on law and tradition. Of course, it will not be possible to reply to each point. But it...
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Liberate the Captives
The Birth of a Nation has been called a classic revenge movie—Braveheart set in antebellum America—and it’s a largely accurate assessment. This is a biopic of Nat Turner, a slave who led a rebellion in...
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The Radical Jefferson: A Conversation with Kevin Gutzman
In this edition of Liberty Law Talk historian Kevin Gutzman discusses his latest book, Thomas Jefferson—Revolutionary. We focus on Jefferson's account of federalism, conscience rights, education, and...
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Making Jefferson Safe for the Historians
Washington, DC - Jefferson MemorialRice University’s John Boles was for many years (1983-2013) editor of The Journal of Southern History, which after The Journal of American History is the most-cited...
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J.Q. Adams, Diarist
He saw “the hideous reality of the slave ascendency in the Government of this Union" and set about resisting it.
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Three Fifths of All Other Persons
Newspaper engraving from 1864 (NYPL digital collections)J.Q. Adams decried the constitutional clause that enhanced the power of the slave masters.
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New Birth of Freedom Betrayed
Prisoners from the Front, Winslow Homer, 1866 (metmuseum.org)Calhounian constitutionalism worked toward overthrowing republicanism and establishing oligarchy as the new model of government in the...
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The Constitution: A Pro-Slavery or Anti-Slavery Document?
The U.S. Constitution (Derek Hatfield / Shutterstock.com)The most telling evidence in the debate over slavery in the Constitution is how the pro-slavery forces responded to Lincoln's election.
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John C. Calhoun, Madisonian Manqué
His institutional innovations were geared toward preserving slavery.
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Thomas Jefferson’s Legacy
Washington, DC - Jefferson MemorialIn Thomas Jefferson—Revolutionary: A Radical’s Struggle to Remake America historian Kevin Gutzman examines the legacy of Jefferson.
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The Reconstruction Republicans: Answering the Slaveocratic Revolution
Prisoners from the Front, Winslow Homer, 1866 (metmuseum.org)A timely reminder of the full range of anti-republican institutions that the Confederacy fought a war to try to perpetuate.
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Gordon Wood’s Reflections on the Constitution and Slavery
George Washington speaks at the Constitutional Convention (Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com).Many historians today tell a dismal tale of woe about our Founding, but Wood sees it whole with defects...
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In Empire’s Wake
British Lion in Trafalgar Square, London, UK (Marco Rubino / Shutterstock.com).We live in an age of politically shrill history: Imperial Legacies is a fine, subtle, and bracing attempt to counter this...
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Frederick Douglass’s “Plea for Freedom of Speech in Boston”
Frederick Douglass statue on January 6, 2013 in Harlem, New York. (photo by stockelements, shutterstock.com)A man’s right to speak does not depend upon where he was born or upon his color. The simple...
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An Invitation to the Land of Hope: A Conversation with Bill McClay
Bill McClay talks with Richard Reinsch about his new book, Land of Hope.
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The New York Times Resurrects the Positive Good Slavery Argument
Advertisement for "American slavery distinguished from the slavery of English theorists, and justified by the law of Nature" by Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D. The “1619 Project” can deliver on its...
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Reclaiming 1619
"Landing Negroes at Jamestown from Dutch man-of-war, 1619" an illustration in Harper's Monthly Magazine, v. 102, 1901 Jan., p. 172. Image: Everett Historical Photos / Library of Congress Prints and...
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