Over the past few decades, the realities of slavery have become more central to the stories Americans are willing to tell themselves about the early history of their nation. The story of the Fugitive
Remember, when we talk about slavery in this nation, we need to center California as a major slave state. San Bernardino’s early success rested on a pair of seemingly incongruous forces: Mormonism a
On August 30, 1800, a man named Gabriel Prosser, a Virginia slave, intended to lead a slave rebellion into Richmond. This moment, coming shortly after the successful Haitian slave rebellion, which Gab
This is the slave graveyard at Montpelier, James Madison’s mansion. Ever since I visited Montpelier in June, I’ve been praising the amazing way that museum has redone its interpretation of
Lots of Americans have slaveholding ancestors. The question for the present is what do you do to make up for that fact. In the case of Mitch McConnell, you double down on your family past. Senate Majo
This is the grave of Jehudi Ashmun. Born in 1794 in Champlain, New York, Ashmun went to Middlebury College before transferring to the University of Vermont, where he graduated in 1816. He became a min
So last weekend I was in Washington, D.C. to give a talk at a union conference and then I spent a couple days traveling through Virginia. That part of the trip was funded by grave donations and I assu
The last ship participating in the trans-Atlantic slave trade to enter American waters has been found and the whole thing is highly fascinating. Last week, all such doubts evaporated. A team of resear