The American Philosophical Society Presents Somerset v. Steuart @ 250: A Virtual Roundtable Discussion. The Somerset v. Steuart trial of 1772 has emerged as an event of much discussion in the history of transatlantic antislavery. Scholars have debated the decision’s importance and centrality to the emancipatory impulses in the British Atlantic and weighed its possible role in the coming of the American Revolution.
Four leading scholars who have written on varied aspects of slavery, antislavery, and the American Revolution will discuss what these events of 1772 meant in history and what they have come to mean in the present.
The roundtable will be moderated by David Waldstreicher, Professor of History at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, who will be joined by Holly Brewer, Burke Professor of American History and Associate Professor at the University of Maryland; Christopher Brown, Professor of History at Columbia University; Manisha Sinha, Draper Chair of American History at University of Connecticut; and Alan Taylor, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor of History at the University of Virginia.
The event will take place on Wednesday, November 30 at 1:00 p.m. through Zoom Webinar. The event is free but registration is required. To register, click here.