Professor Joel Richard Paul joins guest host John McCaa to discuss orator, lawyer and politician Daniel Webster, who argued that binding the states together was the only way to end slavery.
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The trauma of slavery did not end with Emancipation
Kidada E. Williams, a history professor at Wayne State University, tells the stories of people trying to rebuild their lives after slavery, and how for many, life was still extremely difficult in the years that followed.
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How the Founding Fathers argued over slavery
Pepperdine University professor Edward Larson joins us to discuss strategies from the American and British sides to emancipate enslaved Black people against the backdrop of the American Revolution.
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How should we memorialize those who were enslaved?
Clint Smith, a staff writer at The Atlantic, discusses the shortcomings of America’s reckoning with its treatment of indigenous populations and enslaved peoples, and what should be done to address deeper questions of public memory.
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How Daniel Webster united the states
Professor Joel Richard Paul joins guest host John McCaa to discuss orator, lawyer and politician Daniel Webster, who argued that binding the states together was the only way to end slavery.
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In Mexico, some enslaved people found freedom
Alice L. Baumgartner joins guest host John McCaa to discuss the Civil War and how thousands of enslaved people found freedom in Mexico.
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The legendary hypocrisy of Thomas Jefferson
Prof. Thomas S. Kidd joins guest host John McCaa to discuss the ways Thomas Jefferson diverged from his own moral compass and the complicated portrait of the man we know from history books.
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How Lincoln calibrated his moral compass
Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham discusses his biography of the 16th president, from birth to assassination, and Lincoln’s conviction that slavery must be ended as a moral evil.
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How should we memorialize those who were enslaved?
Clint Smith, a staff writer at The Atlantic, discusses the shortcomings of America’s reckoning with its treatment of indigenous populations and enslaved peoples, and what should be done to address deeper questions of public memory.
Read more
The legendary hypocrisy of Thomas Jefferson
Prof. Thomas S. Kidd joins guest host John McCaa to discuss the ways Thomas Jefferson diverged from his own moral compass, from owning enslaved people to religion, and how it complicates the portrait of a man we know from history books.
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The amazing story of Juneteenth
Harvard historian Annette Gordon-Reed grew up in Texas, and she joins us to discuss the history of Texas exceptionalism, an economic model based on slavery and race, and the legacy that remains today.
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In Mexico, some enslaved people found freedom
Alice L. Baumgartner joins guest host John McCaa to discuss the Civil War and how thousands of enslaved people found freedom in Mexico.
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