By Nancy Spannaus
July 24, 2024—I want to invite all you history-lovers to take advantage of two significant opportunities to hear from me on topics vital to resolving our current national political crisis.
Book Talk on Defeating Slavery
The first opportunity is an event this coming Saturday, July 27, to be held from 11 AM to 1 PM at the Douglass Community Center, 407 East Market Street, Leesburg, Virginia. This is a free, in-person event.
This book talk is sponsored by the Loudoun Douglass Alumni Association and the Carver Alumni Association. Both the Douglass Center and the Carver Center were founded as centers for education of African American children in Loudoun County. The Douglass High School, named after famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, was built in 1941, and served the African American population until 1968. The George Washington Carver School opened in 1948, next to the historic gathering place for Black Americans who organized the Loudoun County Emancipation Association in the early 20th century. It served elementary school children of African descent until 1970. The Alumni associations were established in 1953 (Douglass) and 2008 (Carver).
I will be speaking on my 2023 book, Defeating Slavery : Hamilton’s American System Showed the Way, which reviews the early anti-slavery movement in the British American colonies and early republic, and the necessity for Alexander Hamilton’s industrialization program in order to fulfill its objectives. Audience participation will be encouraged, and books will be available for sale (at a discount).
Video Presentations on the American Revolution
The second opportunity appears on the You Tube channel of AmericanSystemNow, which you may not be aware of. Posted there recently are two approximately one-hour presentations which I gave on the causes and republican character of the American Revolution this last spring.
Get Class 1 by clicking here.
Class 1 addresses the causes, and debunks certain popular myths about the Revolution, while also locating it within the history of English republican thought. The latter subject includes a review of some of the most popular pamphlets which British American colonists were writing and reading in the period between 1761 and 1776, thus giving content to the common statement that our Revolution was a “revolution in ideas,” not simply a power struggle between different portions of the Empire.
Get Class 2 by clicking here.
Class 2 takes up the controversial question of “how revolutionary was the American Revolution.” I go through the counter-arguments often heard today, including the absurdity that the Revolution was fought to defend slavery, and show the progress made during the course of the Revolution and the creation of the Constitution toward ensconcing republican principles in our government. While this progress was painfully, even hideously, inadequate, and major advances were sabotaged time and time again, the American Revolution did indeed “turn the world upside down” by throwing off the yoke of the British Empire.
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Tags: American Revolution, Defeating Slavery: Hamilton's American System Showed the Way, Douglass High School, Nancy Spannaus