The Declaration of Independence and Slavery with Dr. David Gellman.

The bond between slavery and the Declaration of Independence is unbreakable. The gap between the founding document’s soaring glimpse into the contradictions that define the Declaration’s legacy. So too does the Continental Congress’s decision to delete Thomas Jefferson’s denunciation of the slave trade. Black and white proponents of emancipation insisted on applying “unalienable rights” to their cause. The great African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass used the Fourth of July as a touchstone. In his talk, David Gellman explores how this entangled history empowers us to see how a singular founding both impeded and inspired liberty. Dr. David N. Gellman is a professor of history at DePauw University, where he has taught since 1999. His 2022 book Liberty’s Chain: Slavery, Abolition, and the Jay Family of New York was honored with the Herbert H. Lehman Prize. Other books include Emancipating New Youk: The Politics of Slavery and Freedom, 1777-1827 and Jim Crow New York: A