Registration
Tuition for this course is $50. Members receive exclusive discounts on our programs and courses. Not a member? Learn more.
Please check your spam folder for your email confirmation. If you have questions, please call (215) 732-1600 or email rsvp@rosenbach.org.
This program is for those 18 and older.
Registration opens for Delancey Society members on Friday, March 14, for Rosenbach members on Friday, March 21, and for the general public on Friday, March 28. Registration opens at 12:00 p.m. ET.
Description
From 1800 until the aftermath of the Civil War, the United States Supreme Court heard approximately 100 cases involving slavery and enslaved people. Only two of these cases are well-known today: Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) and The Amistad case (1841). Many Constitutional provisions, such as the three-fifths clause, were created to protect slavery and some pro-slavery provisions, like the electoral college, still haunt us today. This engaging seminar, held in the Rosenbach’s historic house, will begin with a discussion of how slavery helped shape the Constitution, which ironically, was written in Pennsylvania–the first state in the nation and the first political jurisdiction in the Western World to take steps to end slavery. We will then turn our discussion to how the Supreme Court dealt with slavery. This will include a discussion of the second-most proslavery decision in the Court’s history, Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842), which held that Pennsylvania could not protect its own citizens from kidnapping. We will study, and even handle, rarely seen books and manuscripts from the Rosenbach collections that relate to slavery while also discussing some of these cases and the leading justices of the Court at the time.
Instructor
Paul Finkelman is the author of Supreme Injustice: Slavery in the Nation’s Highest Court, published by Harvard University Press. He received his PhD in American legal history from the University of Chicago and was later a fellow at Harvard Law School. He was a senior fellow in the University of Pennsylvania’s Program for Democracy, Citizenship, and the Constitution, a Scholar-in-Residence at the National Constitution Center, and a visiting scholar at the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello. He has held endowed chairs at Duke Law School, Albany Law School, the University of Miami, and the Fulbright Chair in Human Rights and Social Justice at the University of Ottawa. He is currently the Visting Professor of Law at the University of Toledo College of Law. The U.S. Supreme Court has cited his work in six decisions.
This program is part of “The People’s Friend: Civic Dialogues at the Rosenbach.”
As the United States reckons with challenging civic divisions, the Rosenbach is doing its part to create opportunities to learn, grow, and heal together, as one people. “The People’s Friend: Civic Dialogues at the Rosenbach” invites members of our community to learn about history and build a bright future together.