Event Detail

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Edward Larson discusses liberty and slavery in a deeply researched account, from the first anti-British protests in the 1760s to the Revolutionary War, the Constitutional Convention, and through George Washington’s Presidency. Larson delivers a comprehensive account of Black participation in the founding, from protesters and soldiers to commentators, including Phillis Wheatley, Benjamin Banneker, Harry Washington, Ona Judge, and Daniel Payne, a Black man formerly enslaved by George Washington who watched from a departing British ship in the New York harbor as Washington and his forces were welcomed to the city as liberators.

This program is made possible in part by the National Archives Foundation.